Accessing SAP Mobile Services Settings

The SAP Build Work Zone, standard edition subscription includes an SAP Mobile Services instance that is used by the SAP Mobile Start app as an https endpoint for authentication and routing. It provides an Admin Cockpit that allows administrators to access logs and configure specific settings for the app.

In this lesson, you will learn:

• How to access the SAP Mobile Services Admin Cockpit
• The most important settings related to app security (for example, Passcode Policy) and features (for example, widgets)

As seen during the first onboarding to SAP Mobile Start, it is required to create a passcode for additional security. By default, this passcode should have a minimum length of 8 digits/characters and it is possible to allow biometric authentication (for example, face ID, fingerprint) upon successful passcode creation.

As an admin, it is possible to adjust this policy within SAP Mobile Services. It can either be fully disabled or the properties can be edited. For example, you can define the required length, expiration time frame, or whether biometric authentication should be allowed.

Watch the following video to learn how to adjust passcode policy settings:

You can find more information about the different settings on this help page.

Different feature flags, which allow the administrators to enable or disable certain app features, are available.

You can find the feature flags in the same page (SAP Mobile Services → Mobile Settings Exchange → Client Configuration) as the passcode policy. Scroll down to the Feature Flag section. It should look like the following screenshot:

This section shows the feature flags that are available for SAP Mobile Start. (In case there are more available in your landscape you can identify them by their ID, which starts with com.sap.mobile.start. ​Via the toggle on the right side (the Active Column), you can decide whether to enable or disable them. Let’s have a look what they do.

• SAPMobileStartBrowserIOS

  SAP Mobile Start version 1.6 for iOS introduced a new and improved in-app browser experience for UI5 and web apps. It comes with a cleaned up look and optional additional security features that can be enabled via other feature flags. For landscape created after iOS 1.6 release this is enabled by default; in pre-existing landscapes it needs to be enabled manually using this feature flag. 

  Note

  The new in-app browser experience is based on the WKWebView Component, adding to the previously available SafariViewController. WKWebView does not support some specific integrations like for example the use of device certificates for authentication. In these cases a switch back to the Safari Browser might be necessary. Note that some of the other feature flags might overwrite the browser setting by enabling the new browser experience. Please refer to the documentation.

  After changing between browsers, the end users will be asked to sign in to the SAP Mobile Start app again. 

• ShareAndExternalBrowser

  This option decides whether the end users are allowed to share and open links in external browsers.

  Note

  Setting this feature flag to Off automatically enables the new browser experience on all iOS devices and in-app browser on all Android devices (replacing Chrome custom tabs).
• Allow Up-/Downloads

  This set of feature flags allows or prohibits end-users from Up- or Downloading any form of content (e.g. Attachments) within the web context of SAP Mobile Start.

  Note

  Setting this feature flag to Off automatically enabled the new browser experience on all iOS devices and in-app browser on all Android devices (replacing Chrome Custom Tabs).
• GlobalWidgets

  Currently, there are two different widget types available: the Business Info Widget and the News Widget. This flag decides whether the end users are allowed to make use of these widgets on their mobile device home screen.

  Note

  You can learn how to add widgets to the device home screen in this blog post.

• Smartwatch

  SAP Mobile Start version 1.6 introduced the support for smartwatches. It shows the latest to-dos and monitoring information. It is also possible to filter the different to-do types, drill into details, and take actions directly from the smartwatch. You can enable or disable the use of the watch app completely with this feature flag.

  Additionally the SmartwatchPasscodeRequired feature flag can be used as an additional security requirement. If enabled, users are required to passcode-protect their watches before using SAP Mobile Start on their smartwatch.

The list of feature flags might change in future as new app features are introduced. You can find information on all available SAP Mobile Start feature flags in this documentation.