Wednesday, April 07, 2021

loading software on a few hundred tablets

There was some discussion about loading software on some Android devices which were to be shipped to schools. 

Initial thought was to create ids like
OurPrefix.TAB.2021.01@gmail.com
to log on to the play store for the tablet which has asset id OurPrefix-TAB-01 etc.

We could then print out the password and put it in the box for the teachers to change if necessary.

This is required, since this is not a factory install, and factory install process is very different from manual install :) For a manual install, we have to log on to the play store with a particular account, etc etc. 

If we are to not create such ids, installing and then logging out of the account used to install can work for our free apps, but with the drawback that the apps will not update. For updates, the users would have to uninstall and reinstall. 

The next idea was to install all these apps using pre-downloaded APK files, so that the internet connection would not be a bottleneck in the prep process which was planned to be done on a single day for several hundred devices - taking the help of a score or more of volunteers. This too had the drawback of the apps not updating automatically from the Play store. 

Finally the idea of links to the Play store was mooted. 

  • Connect via USB cable to the computer, Choose the "File transfer' USB usage preference, copy the tabletslinks.txt file to the Download directory on the tablet. 
  • Navigate to the txt file using Google Files on the tablet, click on it and choose to open with Chrome. 
  • Copy each line (each link), open a new tab in Chrome, paste in Chrome, hit Enter (while offline)
  • Click the three vertical dots on the right hand side of the Chrome address bar, choose "Add to Home Screen"
  • Write an appropriate short link title like Pdf for the adobe pdf reader link, Office for the office link, Teams/Meet/Zoom for the respective links.
  • Drag and drop the link to the home screen.
The whole process was timed at less than 5 minutes from the time the tablet was booted up. And this was the final solution chosen.


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