Managed Google Play iframe

With the managed Google Play iframe, you can embed managed Google Play directly in your EMM console to offer customers a unified mobility management experience.

The iframe contains a title bar and an expandable side menu. From the menu, users can navigate to different pages:

• Search apps : Allows IT admins to search for and browse Google Play apps, view app details, and select apps.
• Private apps : Allows IT admins to publish and manage private apps for their enterprise.
• Web apps : Allows IT admins to publish and distribute website shortcuts as apps.
• Organize apps : Allows IT admins to configure how apps are organized in the Play Store app on their user's devices.

All pages are enabled in the iframe by default, but can be disabled individually (see Add the iframe to your console ).

Features

This section describes the features available in the managed Google Play iframe. For information on how to embed the iframe and implement these features, see Add the iframe to your console .

Private apps

The Private apps page allows IT admins to publish and manage private apps directly from your EMM console. To streamline private app publishing for IT admins, the page:

• Silently creates a Play Console account on behalf of the enterprise and grants admin access to IT admins.
• Waives the $25 USD Play Console registration fee previously required to publish apps.
• Requires only an app's AAB or APK and title.
• Publishes apps in as little as 10 minutes (compared to 2 hours in the Play Console).
  Note: apps published from the Private apps page can never be made public.

The first time an IT admin publishes an app in the iframe, the iframe silently creates a Play Console account on behalf of the enterprise. If they make advanced edits , they're prompted to sign in with a Google Account—this can be any Google Account (e.g. Gmail, Cloud Identity). This Google Account is added as an admin of the enterprise's Play Console account. Afterwards, an IT admin can use their Google Account to sign into the Play Console directly, where they can:

• Add and manage admin accounts .
• Add advanced app details, including descriptions, screenshots, and more.
• Unpublish apps.

Instructions for IT admins on how to use the Private apps page is available in the managed Google Play Help Center.

Select button

After an app is published, an IT admin can edit its title and APK in the app details page. The app details page also displays a SELECT button (see Figure 2 ). You need to specify the action that takes place when the IT admin clicks this button (see onproductselect in Step 3. Handle iframe events ).

Web apps

The Web apps page lets IT admins publish website shortcuts as private apps to managed Google Play. Web apps are identifiable by their package name ( productId ) and typically take 10 minutes to publish. After publishing, they're automatically approved for their enterprise can be distributed to users just like any other approved app. Web apps are compatible with other managed Play iframe features: they're searchable in the Play Search page and can be added to collections.

The web app creation form requires a title, HTTPS or HTTP URL, and icon image (512 x 512 JPG or 32-bit PNG). Additionally, IT admins can choose from the three display options:

• Full screen: The app opens in full screen mode, hiding the device's status bar and navigation bar.
• Standalone (default): The app shows the device's status bar and navigation bar.
• Minimal UI: The app shows the device's status bar and navigation bar, the app's URL, and a refresh option. For HTTP URLs, this is the only available option.

The Web apps page also lets IT admins edit and delete web apps. Deleting a web app removes it from a user's managed Google Play store, but the user may still have access to it if the app is already installed on their device. To delete a web app from a user's device, see delete apps . Instructions for users on how to create and edit web apps are available in the managed Google Play Help Center .

Select button

After a web app is published, its details page includes a SELECT button. You need to specify the action (for example, distribute the app) that takes place when the IT admin clicks on this button (see onproductselect in Step 3. Handle iframe events ).

Organize apps

The Organize apps page lets IT admins organize apps into collections (also called clusters ). For example, an IT admin can create an Essentials collection for frequently used apps or an Expenses collection for apps related to tracking expenses, logging travel, etc. Collections are displayed in the Play Store homepage on user's devices.

EMM's must utilize the SELECT mode in the iframe URL's parameters to allow searching and adding of apps to collections.

On user's devices, the Play Store app only displays apps from a collection that are available for the user (or device). If a collection doesn't include any apps that are available to the user (or device), the collection won't appear in the Play Store.

IT admins can also edit, delete, and copy existing collections in the organize apps page. User instructions for how to perform these tasks are available in the Managed Google Play Help Center .

Add the iframe to your console

Step 1. Generate a web token

To generate a web token that identifies the enterprise, call Enterprises.createWebToken . The following example shows how to retrieve the token using the Google Play EMM API Client Library for Java .

All pages in the iframe are enabled by default. When generating a web token, you can specify which page(s) to disable. The example below disables Private apps, Web apps, and Organize apps.

 public 
  
 AdministratorWebToken 
  
 getAdministratorWebToken 
 ( 
  
 String 
  
 enterpriseId 
 ) 
  
 throws 
  
 IOException 
  
 { 
  
 AdministratorWebTokenSpec 
  
 tokenSpec 
  
 = 
  
 new 
  
 AdministratorWebTokenSpec() 
 ; 
  
 tokenSpec.setParent(" 
 https 
 : 
 // 
 my-emm-console 
 . 
 com 
 " 
 ); 
  
 tokenSpec.setPlaySearch(new 
  
 AdministratorWebTokenSpecPlaySearch()) 
 ; 
  
 tokenSpec.setPrivateApps(new 
  
 AdministratorWebTokenSpecPrivateApps().setEnabled(false)) 
 ; 
  
 tokenSpec.setWebApps(new 
  
 AdministratorWebTokenSpecWebApps().setEnabled(false)) 
 ; 
  
 tokenSpec.setStoreBuilder(new 
  
 AdministratorWebTokenSpecStoreBuilder().setEnabled(false)) 
 ; 
  
 return 
  
 androidEnterprise 
  
 .enterprise() 
  
 .createWebToken(enterpriseId, 
  
 tokenSpec) 
  
 .execute() 
 ; 
 } 

You need to include the returned token, along with other parameters, when rendering the iframe in your console.

Step 2. Render the iframe

Here's an example of how to render the managed Play iframe:

 <script src="https://apis.google.com/js/api.js"></script>
<div id="container"></div>
<script>
  gapi.load('gapi.iframes', function() {
    var options = {
      'url': 'https://play.google.com/work/embedded/search?token=web_token & 
mode=SELECT',
      'where': document.getElementById('container'),
      'attributes': { style: 'width: 600px; height:1000px', scrolling: 'yes'}
    }

    var iframe = gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild(options);
  });
</script> 

This code generates an iframe inside the container div . Attributes to be applied to the iframe tag can be set with the 'attributes' option, as above.

URL parameters

The table below lists all the available parameters for the iframe that can be added to the URL as URL parameters, e.g:

'url': 'https://play.google.com/work/embedded/search?token=web_token&mode=SELECT&showsearchbox=TRUE',

Step 3. Handle iframe events

You should also handle the following events as part of your integration.

{
    "packageName": The package name of the app, e.g. "com.google.android.gm",
    "productId": The product ID of the app, e.g. "app:com.google.android.gm",
    "action": The type of action performed on the document. Possible values are:
    "approved", "unapproved" or "selected." If you implement the iframe in SELECT 
mode, the only possible value is "selected".
}

 iframe 
 . 
 register 
 (' 
 onproductselect 
 ', 
  
 function 
 ( 
 event 
 ) 
  
 { 
  
 console 
 . 
 log 
 ( 
 event 
 ); 
 }, 
  
 gapi 
 . 
 iframes 
 . 
 CROSS_ORIGIN_IFRAMES_FILTER 
 );