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Automate your ClaroRead Cloud Login For iOS Using MDM

If you have a ClaroRead Pro or app-specific licence key in your ClaroRead Cloud account, you can login in our iOS apps and activate or unlock the app. You can login by tapping the login button and entering your ClaroRead Cloud username and password.

Similarly, if you are using a licensed domain, you can also use this to log in and unlock our apps.

This login procedure can also be automated, which is useful for organisations that distribute their apps using Mobile Device Management (MDM) systems. This is simple to configure and all that is required, is to configure a settings file and push that out to all devices.

This guide assumes you are already with familiar with setting up an MDM and distributing apps.

Configuring the settings file

The settings file that our iOS apps look for, are standard .plist files, which are basically XML files. To configure your settings file, create a template plist file. You can create an empty text file and then copy and paste this code into it:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”>
<plist version=”1.0″>
<dict>
<key>username</key>
<string>USERNAME_HERE</string>
<key>password</key>
<string>PASSWORD_HERE</string>
</dict>
</plist>

You can save this file with the .plist extension and use it as a template file.

To configure the settings file, simple replace “USERNAME_HERE” with your ClaroRead Cloud username and replace “PASSWORD_HERE” with your ClaroRead Cloud password.

If you want to log in using your domain instead, then use this template instead:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”>
<plist version=”1.0″>
<dict>
<key>domain</key>
<string>DOMAIN_HERE</string>
</dict>
</plist>

And replace “DOMAIN_HERE” with your licensed domain.

Distributing the settings file as a custom payload in a configuration file

Depending on which MDM you are using, the UI might be slightly different, but settings files are generally distributed uniformly using the “App Configuration” setting of the configurable settings. This uses a custom payload that includes the settings .plist file you created earlier with your username and password in. 

You’ll want to enter the bundle ID of the app you are configuring. The bundle IDs for our apps are:

  • Claro ScanPen Premium
    • clarosoftware.ClaroPenFree.engb
  • ClaroPDF
    • clarosoftware.ClaroPDFLite.engb
  • ClaroSpeak
    • clarosoftware.ClaroSpeak-Lite

Once you’ve entered the correct bundle ID, you’ll want to upload the settings .plist file you created earlier, by selecting it in the configuration upload option. If you’re able to configure the location or reference of the settings .plist file inside the app, the standard reference is to use the key:

com.apple.configuration.managed and store the file in NSUserDefaults.

Save the App Configuration and push your new settings to your desired devices.

Distributing the settings file via the apps Documents directory

Your MDM may not support custom payloads, so an alternative distribution method that you can use is to push the plist file to the apps Documents directory.  To do this, ensure that the configured plist file has the exact name com.apple.configuration.managed and has the file extension .plist.

Then in your MDM, (Apple Configuration is shown here), select the device(s) you wish to configure, and choose to add new documents to the device.

Then select the app you wish to configure.

And the finally, choose the configured plist file with the exact name com.apple.configuration.managed.plist:

Logging in

Once the new settings have been pushed to the app, the user can login automatically. Inside the iOS app, there’ll be a menu button called “Login”. Tap “Login” and then you’ll see a popup menu with the option to login automatically or manually. Tap automatically and the app will login automatically with the credentials you provided in the settings .plist. file.


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