Defining approved applications for Android devices

You can define which applications are approved to exchange file data on Android devices.

IBM Verse for Android devices require that Approved Applications be defined in order to view attachment data. Currently, there are no viewer controls built into the Android OS or IBM Traveler. If attachment security settings are enabled, then you must define the approved applications in order to access any of the attachment data on mobile devices. Approved Applications have been "approved" by the administrator for attachment handling. This generally implies that the administrator has done some amount of testing with the application and is familiar enough with it to know it will not leak attachment data outside itself. The IBM Traveler attachment security settings only allow the sharing of attachment data contained within the IBM Traveler mail account or To Do application with applications in the approved list. Once the attachment data is consumed by another application, IBM Traveler can no longer control what happens to it.

The IBM Traveler administrator should perform the following procedure to define an Approved Application:
  1. Test the application you want to approve for compatibility on an Android device. Ensure that it can be used by employees to handle file attachments coming from IBM Traveler.
  2. Ensure you have access to an Android device where both IBM Verse and the application in question are installed.
  3. Open the IBM Verse application on the Android device and select Menu > Tools > Send Inventory.

    This action causes IBM Traveler to gather a list of all applications installed on the device and send them to the IBM Traveler server. A new file will be generated in the directory <Domino data directory>\IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT\traveler\logs\tprs. The naming convention used for the file is username_Android_inventory_datestamp.zip.

  4. Inside the zip is an XML data file called ApplicationInventory.xml. Extract this file to a temporary directory.
  5. Using a web browser supported by the IBM Traveler administration web client, open the IBM Traveler administration application (LotusTraveler.nsf).
  6. Navigate to the Approved Applications view and click Import. Select the local file ApplicationInventory.xml that was previously extracted. Every application that was on the Android device displays in the import list. Select one or more applications you would like to approve and click Continue to add these applications to the IBM Traveler approved application lists.

Approved applications then show up in the Approved Applications view, and are automatically pushed to the IBM Verse for Android clients connected to the IBM Traveler server.

This process can be repeated for multiple applications. Approved applications then show up in the Approved Application view, and are automatically pushed to the IBM Traveler Android clients connected to the IBM Traveler server.

The following data fields are collected for each application:
Application Name
Signifies the friendly name of the application and is the recommended field for approved applications. No special characters are allowed and the maximum length is 255 characters.
Application Identifier
Unique application identifier. Typically, this is a package name such as com.acme.myapp. This identifier should be retrieved from the ApplicationInventory.xml file that is submitted from the IBM Traveler Android client using the Send Inventory action. The maximum length for an Application ID is 255 characters.
For Android devices, two additional data fields are collected that are not for Apple iOS applications:
Version
This is the application version string. By default, the application version is not considered for an approved application. However, if you want to require that only a specific version of an application is considered as approved, then edit the Approved Application definition and check the field Only allow specified versions. Note that more than one version can be listed, each on a new line. The maximum combined length for the version string is 1024 characters.
Signature
This is a hashed digital signature of the application that is used to further validate the application identity. There must be at least one signature hash present. The maximum combined length for a Signature is 2024 characters.