In order to have an inventory system at Clinton Public Schools we deiced to invest in FileMaker Pro (2014), we first used it as a way to keep track of asset tags / serial numbers for all of our Mac & iOS devices but after a few years of tinkering around it became much more.
In the screenshot above you can see the iPhone layout of our instance and how it was used by our technicians on a daily basis.
I created specific workflows for assigning a device to a student or staff member, removing and readding restrictions to a device, performing a remote wipe on a device, removing a passcode, and removing an assigned user from the device returning it back to an unassigned state. Below I will share a couple videos of these workflows.
Assigning a Student an iPad (Automation)
During the 2017-18 school year we prepared all of our iOS devices in configurator to have a temporary user assigned to them in jamf along with the settings and configuration they needed just to get started. This configuration only showed the settings app on the dock and had a wallpaper of “Please connect to wifi” on the screen. When a user was assigned a device a technician would choose the script to assign a device > scan the asset on the back of the iPad > then scan the students schedule or student assigned number > this would make an API call to jamf to assign that user to that specific iPad. Once the student signed into wifi the iPad would then get the configuration for that student and get all the specified apps for that students grade level and restrictions that applied as well.
Removing/Re-Adding Restrictions (Automation)
This could be used in an instance that a technician needed to change or check a setting on a device that the student was unable to change due to restrictions. this happened a lot when students would sign in to an Apple ID before the restriction took place or if we needed to remove apps from the Home Screen without wiping the device. (This was before the ability to remove apps was added to the mdm protocol)
Components Used:
- FileMaker Pro Script
- FileMaker Server Automated Scripts
- Bash Script and SSH to Remove server
- Integration with CSV exports from PowerSchool SIS
- Jamf Pro API