Device Management Enhancements

This section describes the enhancements introduced in 2021 R1 for managing devices.

Site Name Now Editable After Device Creation

The Site Name property for a standalone or server device enables the user to identify a sub-section of a company account, such as the location to which a device is delegated. Previously, this field was available when creating the device. However, once the device was created, users could no longer edit this value.

In this release, the Site Name field is now editable after a device is created in either the Producer Portal or the End-User Portal. To allow editing of this field in the End-User Portal, the system administrator must select the new configuration setting, Allow site name editing, under System > Configure > End-User Portal Setup > Devices Page.

This setting is processed only when the Display Site Name in device pages is also selected.

Package Downloads Now Enabled from the “Device Details” Page for Standalone Devices

The Device Details page for a standalone device, which currently shows tabs for the Overview and Updates information relating to the device, has been enhanced to add a third tab, Downloads, for displaying the downloads available to the device. This new tab enables Producers and Customers to determine in a single view what software downloads in Electronic Software Delivery can be installed on the device and to navigate to any of the Download Package details pages in order to download specific files.

Optionally, a button can be displayed on the Downloads tab that allows all files for selected download packages to be downloaded in a single archive directly from the tab.

The new Downloads tab is not visible by default, but is enabled by means of a new system configuration setting, System > Configure > End-User Portal Setup > Devices Page > Show Downloads Tab.

Similarly, the button to download all files for selected packages directly from the Downloads tab is enabled by a separate system configuration setting, System > Configure > End-User Portal Setup > General Options > Show Download Button. This setting is applied only if the previously described Show Downloads Tab setting is enabled.

Ability to Remove Accounts from a Device

You can now disassociate an account from a device so that the device can be assigned to another account. Previously, you could not obsolete or reset a device because you could not remove its account.

Customer Account Now Optional for Devices

Previously, associating a standalone device with a customer account was required when creating (that is, registering) the device in the Devices UI in the Producer Portal. In this release, customers now have the option to create a standalone device without associating it with an account. This type of device is known as an anonymous device (a term used to describe this kind of device type but not actually used in the UI).

Note:Associating a device with a customer account has always been optional in SOAP Web Services. However, anonymous devices cannot be created in nor are visible in the End-User Portal.