Automation

It’s helpful to understand several terms related to automation:

• Rule: A set of one or more conditions to check, plus a set of one or more Workflows to run.

  • Give your rules meaningful descriptive names, like "Erase patient iPads."

  • Switch the rule ON or OFF by clicking the Enable Rule toggle.

• Trigger: Determines what event triggers the rule to run.

  For example, a rule can run when a device is attached, or it can run if a device is disconnected from the Launchpad.

• Condition: A single comparison that evaluates to true or false.

  For example, Device Name starts with "Nursing iPad".

• Built-in Attribute: Details for a device or launchpad that are maintained by Mobile Access Management.

  For example: Device Serial, Device Erase State, Launchpad Name.

• Custom Attribute: These are attributes you may create and maintain yourself. See Attributes.

• Comparison: A way of comparing one value to another, for example Is, Is Not, Starts With, Contains.

1. Click the Automation tab, then New Rule.

2. Enter a meaningful descriptive name for the rule in the Rule Name box.

3. (Optional). Enter additional notes or descriptions in the box.

4. To specify when the rule should run, select a trigger from the list.

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5. Click Add an optional condition to select from the lists of built-in attributes and custom attributes.

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6. Add a Comparison to the attribute, and fill in the right-hand side of the comparison when needed.

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7. If desired, add additional conditions.

   IMPORTANT:

   When you add multiple conditions, all must be true for the Workflow to run.

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8. Click Choose Workflow and select a Workflow to run when all conditions are true.

   NOTE: Each rule must have at least one Workflow.

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9. Add additional Workflows, if needed. Unlike conditions, the order of Workflows are important. You may arrange the Workflows to run in the desired order by dragging the three-lined menu icon.

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10. To remove conditions and Workflows, click Remove.

11. Click Save.

Rules are turned off by default. You can enable them by switching the setting to ON. This works in both the rule list and the rule editor.

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There are well-defined behaviors for handling multiple rules, conditions and Workflows. Mobile Access Management administrators should be familiar with the following behaviors.

Multiple Rules

• Rules are grouped based on triggers.

• Rules are examined one at a time, from top to bottom. Rules at the top of the list have a higher priority than rules at the bottom of the list.

• Since the order of rules is important, you can rearrange rules by dragging the menu icon within each group of triggers.

• If a rule does not match, Mobile Access Management evaluates the next rule down the list.

• Mobile Access Management never runs more than one rule for a single device. If a rule at the top of the list matches all conditions, then Mobile Access Management stops evaluating.

• The special rule All Other Devices is run only if no other rules match.

• If All Other Devices is disabled, and no rules match a device, Mobile Access Management performs no action.

Multiple Conditions

• When a rule has multiple conditions, all conditions must evaluate true for the rule to match. There is an implicit AND between each rule.

• New MAM users often wish for a way to specify OR.

  For example, you may want both the Launchpad “Unit 1234” and the Launchpad “Unit 3456” as conditions.

  Below is an example of an incorrect way to set up multiple conditions:

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This scenario would never work because there’s no such thing as OR. Mobile Access Management adds the word AND to these conditions. Mobile Access Management interprets this as “Launchpad name is Unit 1234 AND Unit 3456″. Of course Launchpads can’t have two names.

As an alternative, you can create two rules. Better yet, use a custom attribute to tag these Launchpads.

Multiple Workflows

• In general, multiple Workflows are not necessary. Keep all the actions in a single Workflow, and Mobile Access Management will run them in the best order for dependable device operation.

• Multiple Workflows may be required when you wish to override the Mobile Access Management default behavior.

• If you use multiple Workflows, the order of Workflows are important. Mobile Access Management will run the listed Workflows in order.

  You may arrange the Workflows to run in the desired order by dragging on the three-lined menu icon.

• If the first Workflow fails, Mobile Access Management will halt and not run other Workflows in the rule.

Mobile Access Management typically evaluates rules when devices are plugged into a running Launchpad. But there are a few exceptions to this.

Most conditions accept free text in the right-hand side of the comparison. For advanced applications, it is also possible to use an attribute in that field. This is similar to how attributes can be used in Workflows.

This technique is useful when tracking devices that may wander from one Launchpad to another, for example.

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Keep some limits in mind when using attributes in this way:

• Only Launchpad attributes may be used on the right side.

• Enclose the attribute name within [square brackets].

• The names are case sensitive.

You can also schedule Automation Rules.