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Alloy Navigator mobile app configuration

Introduced in 2021.2

Alloy Navigator Mobile App 2.2

Alloy Navigator is our native app that gives technicians mobile access to Alloy Navigator Express. This page describes how to integrate Alloy Navigator mobile app with Alloy Navigator Express, what its mobile configuration includes, and how you can customize it in the Settings App, i.e. how to change views and forms that the mobile app uses or disable some objects and hide their links from the mobile app's home screen.

The Alloy Navigator mobile app is available for iOS and Android mobile devices on App Store and Google Play. For instructions on how to use it, see Mobile App User's Guide.

NOTE: For the list of supported clients, see Installation Guide: Mobile clients.

API backend

The mobile application integrates with Alloy Navigator Express using native API integration. Native API integration requires the API module to be installed and configured for the Access Token user authentication. For instructions, see Installation Guide: Installing the API Module.

When users are signing in to Alloy Navigator Express in their mobile app, they specify the API's web address (API URL) along with their Alloy Navigator Express credentials.

TIP: To view the API URL, start the Web Configuration on the web server and navigate to the API module using the sidebar. The URL is shown in the main pane on the right hand side, among other configuration information.

Alloy Navigator configuration

The default configuration for Alloy Navigator Mobile App contains ready-to-use settings for all supported object classes (Tickets, Service Requests, etc). The configuration is stored in the Alloy Navigator Express database, and you can access and manage it from the Settings App.

Configuration settings include:

To manage the Alloy Navigator mobile app configuration:

  1. Go to Services > Mobile Applications and double-click NavigatorMobile. The Mobile Application [NavigatorMobile] dialog box opens.

  2. The configuration is available in the Configuration field. It is an XML document, where all configuration entries are wrapped inside the <Data> and </Data> tag pair. For details, see the table below.

    IMPORTANT: Any changes made to the mobile app configuration become immediately active. We recommend that you export the default configuration to an external XML file before making any changes. A backup would help revert your changes and reset all settings to defaults.

    Section Elements and attributes Description

    Views 

    <Object Name="Object">
    	<View Name="View Name">
    		<Fields>
    			<Field Name="Field_Name"/>
    			...
    		</Fields>
    		<Sorting>
    			<SortBy FieldName="Field_Name"/>
    			...
    		</Sorting>
    		<Filter>
    			<SQL WHERE clause>
    		</Filter>
    	</View>
    	...
    </Object>

    The section defines views for displaying lists of objects. Views are grouped by the objects they apply to.

    • Object Name - the object class name (Incident, Change Request, etc.)

    • View Name - the name of the view, as it appears in the Alloy Navigator mobile app.

    • Fields - the list of object fields the view shows (as columns). You can add new fields, change their display order, and remove unwanted fields from the view.

      TIP: For correct field names, go to General > Fields > [Object Class] in the Settings App and double-click the desired field. The physical field name is in the Field Name field on the General tab.

    • Sorting - the list of object fields by whose values to sort the view. By default, field values are sorted in the descending order, from largest (latest) to smallest (earliest). To sort in the accenting order, add Reverse="1" after the field name; for example:
      <SortBy FieldName="Due_Date" Reverse="1"/>.

    • Filter - the filtering expression, specified as a valid SQL WHERE clause (without the word WHERE) that the Alloy Navigator mobile app uses to select records to display.
    Forms 
    <Objects>
    	<Object Name="Object">
    		<Fields>
    			<Field Name="Field_Name"/>
    			...
    		</Fields>
    	</Object>
    	...
    </Objects>

    The section defines forms for displaying object details (field values). Every object has a single view form.

    • Object Name - the object class name (Incident, Change Request, etc.)

    • Fields - the list of object fields the form shows (as values). You can add new fields, change their display order, and remove unwanted fields from the form.

    DisabledObjects 

    <Object Name="Object"/>

    Available attributes:

    • Announcement
    • Ticket
    • Change Request
    • Approval Request

    The section contains disabled object classes, i.e., the objects that are hidden from Mobile App users. When an object class is disabled, its link disappears from the home screen.

    By default, the DisabledObjects section is missing. To hide unwanted objects from Mobile App users, add a <DisabledObjects> and </DisabledObjects> tag pair and specify the objects to hide inside the tag pair.

    TIP: You may want to adjust the workflow not to send push notifications on changes to disabled objects. Otherwise, Mobile App users would receive push notifications with links to objects they cannot access.

  3. In most cases, leave the URL Mask field blank. This field stores the API URL associated with the Alloy Navigator Mobile App. When you have a single API backend associated with this mobile app, there is no need to specify the URL here.

    However, if you need to have different configurations for different API endpoints, you can explicitly specify the API endpoint URL or its significant part in the URL Mask field. This requires you to have more than one API modules configured.

  4. Click OK to close the window and save your changes, if any. Alloy Navigator Express will check the syntax of the XML configuration file before saving.

The difference between disabled objects and unsupported objects

Every new version of Alloy Navigator Mobile App adds new features, including support for new Alloy Navigator Express object classes. The latest version (2.2) provides mobile access to these objects:

  • Announcements
  • Tickets
  • Change Requests
  • Approval Requests

Mobile App users access Alloy Navigator Express objects by tapping their links on the home screen. If you want to block mobile access to some functionality, you can disable unwanted object classes by adding them to the DisabledObjects section in the mobile configuration. Links to disabled objects will disappear from the Alloy Navigator mobile app home screen.

The home screen displays links to all mobile-accessible non-disabled objects, even when your current version of Alloy Navigator Express API or the mobile configuration does not provide support for some of them. Such unsupported objects would display a red "Do not enter" icon next to their links.

If there are any unsupported objects, the Alloy Navigator mobile app will inform about them. See the table below for different situations that may occur on the home screen and how to resolve them.

Situation Description Solution

A red icon appears next to the link. Attempts to open the link throw this error message:

The Alloy Navigator server needs to be upgraded to version 8.7.2 or later to support these objects.

 Your version of Alloy Navigator Express API is earlier than expected. The expected version is 8.7.2 or later. Upgrade your Alloy Navigator Express to the latest version.

A red icon appears next to the link. Attempts to open the link throw this error message:

The Alloy Navigator server is not configured to support these objects. Contact your administrator to request a configuration update.

 The API has the expected version (i.e., 8.7.2 or later), but the mobile configuration lacks settings for the objects. Contact our Support Team to get the latest mobile configuration and import it to Alloy Navigator Express.There is n
There is no link to objects on the home screen. The object class is disabled. If you do not want those objects disabled, remove them from the DisabledObjects section in the mobile configuration.

Related Information:

Mobile App User's Guide: Home Screen

Mobile App user's Guide: Understanding Views

Customizing style sheets

Web Configuration

Workflow management

Alloy Navigator Express API User's Guide

Alloy Navigator Express Mobile App User's Guide