Managed Configurations: defining an array of strings

Question

According to the restriction entry types, for defining a list of objects we should use the bundle_array type, and an example follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<restrictions xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >

  <restriction
    android:key="vpn_configuration_list"
    android:restrictionType="bundle_array">
    <restriction
      android:key="vpn_configuration"
      android:restrictionType="bundle">
      <restriction
        android:key="vpn_server"
        android:restrictionType="string"/>
      <restriction
        android:key="vpn_username"
        android:restrictionType="string"/>
      <restriction
        android:key="vpn_password"
        android:restrictionType="string"/>
    </restriction>
  </restriction>

</restrictions>

In code that would be similar to a List<VpnConfiguration>, and VpnConfiguration would be a pojo with the three fields vpn_server, vpn_username, and vpn_password.

So far so good, now imagine that a simpler data structure is needed, like a String[]. According to Test DPC this should be possible, because there's an option to insert an array of strings:

Once you select it, then you are prompted to enter the list of values. However, the documentation does not have a string_array type, it has only the bundle_array.

With bundle_array you can define a List<String> instead of String[], but that is overkill:

<restriction
    android:key="mylist"
    android:restrictionType="bundle_array">

    <restriction
        android:key="item"
        android:restrictionType="bundle">

        <restriction
            android:key="name"
            android:restrictionType="string" />

    </restriction>
</restriction>

So, is there a simpler way one can define a string array?

Answer 1

The String[] value type is only returned for the multi-select restriction type, for which the EMM returns a set of entries chosen among the ones you define in android:entryValues.

If you want to allow enterprise admin to enter a list of free-form strings then you should indeed define a bundle_array that contains a string restriction.

Edit: Note that bundle_array is only available on Android 6.0+, and there is no standard way to pass a list of free-form strings on Android 5.0/5.1. You could imagine passing a JSON within a string but you would need to agree with the EMM on the format of this JSON, so it wouldn't be automatically available with all EMMs.