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I am distributing locked down tablets to my employees, ~40.

Right now, one application opens a PDF and the user is presented with multiple PDF readers to choose from. This could cause confusion (I know.. I know..).

The two solutions I have come up with are:

  1. Write a script that assigns a default PDF reader for the user
  2. Uninstall all of the other PDF readers (Both AT&T and T-Mobile have their own PDF readers and we may add other carriers with however many PDF readers.) (Could I write a script to uninstall the other PDF readers?)

Are these solutions viable with Android? If so, I would love to here solutions!

Thanks

Note:
I am not using the devices and I do not have physical access to them. The users of this device boot into a locked down home page with an Icon for 'manual' that opens a PDF. The users cannot change anything about the device. They can't open settings, Can't open a browser, etc. Nothing.

Right now, the users in the field are being presented with the option to use 2 or 3 separate PDF readers. I want all of my users using the same reader so that I can test the usability of the PDF.

Because I cannot personally access all of the devices ( we push updates through Soti Mobile), I want to deploy a script that forces the device to use Adboe reader

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FYI: holding down the menu button while booting starts the device in safe mode where the user can access anything. Just like without a lock. – Richard Borcsik Mar 28 '12 at 19:09
Hmmmmm well Soti should be forcing the device into a locked down state. I'll have to test this. – eric f Mar 28 '12 at 19:34
Development questions are off-topic here. Ask at Stack Overflow. – Sachin Shekhar Mar 28 '12 at 19:54
Hahaha! I have been told otherwise at SO: stackoverflow.com/questions/9913465/… – eric f Mar 28 '12 at 20:07
:D Really laughing situation. Actually, they are wrong. The script needs to interact with API of Android. – Sachin Shekhar Mar 28 '12 at 20:11
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closed as off topic by Matthew Read♦ Mar 28 '12 at 21:17

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2 Answers

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There is a deprecated api which allows to set preferred activities for specific intents. So you could for example set the adobe reader as the preferred activity to start when "open pdf" intent is sent

However as it states this api is deprecated so it could be removed in future versions of android

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/pm/PackageManager.html#addPreferredActivity(android.content.IntentFilter, int, android.content.ComponentName[], android.content.ComponentName)

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up vote 0 down vote

You don't need any type of script.
When user is presented with multiple PDF readers to choose from, one can found a checkbox Use by default for this action at bottom. Check it & tap Adobe Reader. Done!

PDF Readers

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That's the thing. I don't want the user to be presented with a default app selection. I want to choose for them. This is for a locked down device, ~40 tablets within my company. – eric f Mar 28 '12 at 19:01
@ericf What do you mean by locked down device? If you can bother running a script in all devices, you can do this too. Its not a 10-step solution. – Sachin Shekhar Mar 28 '12 at 19:06
Tick the use by default box like Sachin said. – Richard Borcsik Mar 28 '12 at 19:10
I am not using the device. The users of this device boot into a locked down home page with an Icon for 'manual' that opens a PDF. The users cannot change anything about the device. They can't open settings, etc. Nothing. Right now, the users in the field are being presented with the option to use 2 or 3 separate PDF readers. I want all of my users using the same reader so that I can test the usability of the PDF. Because I cannot personally access all of the devices ( we push updates through Soti Mobile), I want to deploy a script that forces the device to use Adboe reader. – eric f Mar 28 '12 at 19:20
I am sorry to say, such things are off-topic on this site. – Sachin Shekhar Mar 28 '12 at 19:50
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