SOTI Surf
Use this dialog box to configure settings for the SOTI Surf app when:
The SOTI Surf app shuts down (according to the delay set in Delay Application Update) and relaunches each time you update and assign the SOTI Surf profile configuration.
General
Home Screen
Add home screen catalog entries, a home screen website, or corporate bookmarks for the SOTI Surf app.
With website filtering enabled on the profile configuration, websites configured as the home screen or as part of the home screen catalog are automatically added to the "allow" list.
- If a device has more than one home screen website enabled, the profile assigned first supersedes all others.
- If a device has more than one home screen catalog enabled, SOTI Surf adds all websites from all profiles to the catalog on the device.
- If a device has a website and a catalog enabled, the home screen website supersedes the catalog.
- If a device has a profile with the home screen enabled and another with it disabled, the profile with the enabled home screen supersedes.
- Corporate bookmarks from more than one profile become "unionised."
Turn on the Enable Home Screen toggle to control how the home screen of the SOTI Surf app appears to device users. Next, choose one of the following options:
- Catalog: Provides a set of websites as links on the home screen of the app. You can also group links into folders.
- Website: The home screen of the app is a single website.
| Websites | Add websites to appear as links on the SOTI Surf home page. Select New in the Websites table to add a new catalog entry. To delete a website, hover over its row and select Delete. Use the arrows to arrange the order websites appear on the SOTI Surf home screen. |
| Add Folders | Group websites into different folders. If you have multiple
websites, you can simplify the app home screen by placing
website links into folders. Select New in the Add Folders table to create a new folder. On the Add Folders screen, enter a name for the folder and select New to add websites to the folder. Select OK once you've finished adding websites. You can add many folders and then arrange their order of appearance on the device screen. |
| Show Websites Before Folders in Catalog | Show website links before folders on the home screen of the app. |
| Home Screen URL | Enter the URL of the website that you want as the SOTI Surf home page. |
| Configure Corporate Bookmarks | Add websites as bookmarks to SOTI Surf. Select
New in the Configured Corporate
Bookmarks table to create a new row. Enter a
display name and the website's URL. Listed websites appear as
corporate bookmarks. To delete a bookmark, hover over its row and select Delete. Use the arrows to arrange the order websites appear on the SOTI Surf bookmarks menu. |
Settings
| Full Screen Mode | When enabled, SOTI Surf remains in full-screen mode. |
| Restore Tabs on Startup | When enabled, tabs from an earlier session are automatically loaded the next time you launch the SOTI Surf app. |
| Open Links in New Tab | When enabled, links open in a new tab instead of the current tab. |
| Open Files Automatically after Downloading | When enabled, files downloaded by the device user are automatically opened by the applicable app. |
| URL Suggestion | When enabled, SOTI Surf suggests websites as the device user types in the address bar. |
| Download Location | The device location where SOTI Surf
saves files downloaded from the internet. This option only applies
to files downloaded from sites that are not routed through ERG.
Downloads from sites routed through ERG get saved in an application
sandbox. The download location must be a location in the
device's internal storage, for example,
%sdcard% or a defined directory path.
Directory paths can not begin or end with Note: To save
downloads to the root level, leave the download location field
blank. If a device has many profiles with conflicting download location settings, it uses settings from the profile created first. |
| Hide Reset Settings | When enabled, device users can not see or access the Reset Settings option in the SOTI Surf app. |
| Browsing on Cellular | When enabled, the SOTI Surf app can use cellular networks. |
| Browsing on LAN | When enabled, the SOTI Surf app can use local area networks. |
| Browsing on WiFi | When enabled, the SOTI Surf app can use Wi-Fi networks. |
| Enable Certificate Authentication | Option to map the certificate to a domain for automatic authentication in the SOTI Surf application. |
| Delay Application Update | Specify the time (in minutes) between when a configuration change
gets pushed to the device and when the app must shut down and apply
the update. If this happens, device users must log in again. The
device automatically relaunches after the update finishes. If a device gets assigned many SOTI Surf configurations with conflicting app shutdown times, the first configuration created applies. |
| Open New Tab in Background | When enabled, when a device user selects a link to open it in a
new tab, the new tab always opens in the background. Note: If a device has many assigned profiles but
has conflicting tab opening settings, the setting of the profile
created first applies. |
| Allow Zoom | When enabled, device users can use gestures to zoom in and out in web pages. |
| Set Browser Zoom Level | Set the default magnification for all websites displayed in the SOTI Surf browser. You can set the zoom level to be between 50 and 500 percent. 100 percent is the standard zoom level. |
| Allow Media Auto-play | Disabling this feature prevents videos and audio clips from automatically starting playback. Muted videos are still auto played. |
| Hide Address Bar | Enabling this option hides the address bar in the SOTI Surf browser. This prevents device users from manually entering or editing website URLs, restricting user access to websites in the Home screen catalog. |
| Auto-Refresh | Enabling this option refreshes the web page automatically according to the defined frequency. |
| Refresh Interval | Define the auto refresh interval for web pages. |
| Search Engine |
Select a default search engine for SOTI Surf to run any searches from the address bar. If a device assigned to more than one profile has conflicting settings, the search engine from the first assigned profile applies. |
| Allow Debugging | When enabled, users can debug web pages displayed in SOTI Surf. For more information on this process,
see Debugging web sites and web apps in SOTI Surf on Android Devices. If you assign more than one profile to a device, each having a different allow debugging setting, SOTI Surf uses the profile with the earliest creation date. For example, profile A, created first, has allow debugging enabled. Profile B has allow debugging disabled. The device allow debugging as profile A is the earliest. |
Privacy
The privacy settings section for the SOTI Surf profile configuration enables you to dictate the browsing capabilities of your device users.
If you assign more than one profile with differing SOTI Surf configurations to the same device, the most restrictive version of the setting applies. In general, settings enabled in the Privacy section are more restrictive with some noted exceptions.
| Allow Copy from Browser | When enabled, device users can copy content from within a browser
- both to other web pages and to apps outside of the browser. Note: Enabling this option also enables
Allow Screen Capture when Browsing
and Allow Sharing of Downloaded Files.
Both options can be enabled without also disabling
Allow Copy from
Browser. |
| Allow Screen Capture when Browsing | When enabled, device users can take screenshots of their device screen while SOTI Surf is the active app. |
| Allow Downloading of Files | When enabled, device users can download any files from within the
SOTI Surf app. Note: Enabling this option also enables the
Allow Sharing of Downloaded Files
setting. However, you can deselect this option independently of
Allow Downloading of
Files. |
| Restrict File Types | Enter file extensions for the file types that you want to block
device users from downloading. Separate file extensions with a
comma. For example: |
| Allow Printing | When enabled, device users can print any content from within the
browser. Note: Allow Printing does not
allow cloud printing on sites such as Gmail, where printing
options are available. |
| Allow JavaScript | When disabled, JavaScript does not run on any web pages. Note: Device users may experience significant
limitations when navigating the internet due to the prevalence
of JavaScript. |
| Allow Popups | When disabled, SOTI Surf prevents websites from opening any popup windows. Websites permit the use of alerts or confirmation boxes but block other websites from calling new web pages. |
| Clear Cookies on Launch |
When enabled, when a browser relaunches, SOTI Surf clears cookies from the earlier browser session. Note: You can enable Clear Cookies
on Launch independently of Allow
Cookies.
|
| Allow Website Cache | When disabled, the browser does not cache website data when the app closes or the user navigates away from a web page. |
| Allow Auto Fill | When disabled, web pages with forms or fillable fields no longer retain any previously entered information. |
| Allow Safe Search | When disabled, SOTI Surf turns off the
safe search filter (that is normally active on SOTI Surf) to block inappropriate/explicit
images and videos. Device users can access all web content - if it
is not blocked by other web filtering settings. Allow Safe Search
applies to search results only. Note: When
checked, Allow Safe Search is more restrictive. |
| Allow Access to Websites with Invalid SSL Certificate | When disabled, device users cannot access websites with SSL security certificate errors. |
| Allow Invalid SSL Certificate Warnings | When disabled, warnings about invalid SSL certificates are not
shown to device users. Warning: This may lead to data security issues. You cannot use this option if you turned off Allow Access to Websites with invalid SSL certificate. |
| Clear History on Launch | When enabled, SOTI Surf clears browsing
history from earlier sessions when you launch the SOTI Surf app. Note: If a
device has more than one profile with conflicting Clear History
on Launch settings, the profile with the setting enabled takes
precedence. |
| Allow Bookmarks | When disabled, device users cannot save webpages as new bookmarks
or edit existing bookmarks in the SOTI Surf
app. Note: If a device has more than one
profile with conflicting Allow Bookmarks settings, the profile
with the setting disabled takes precedence. |
Filtering
Website Restrictions
You can block users from accessing websites based on specific URLs or by website content. You can create a blocklist, an allowlist, or block websites based on content type.
When you apply a blocklist, any site on the blocklist redirects the device user to the default URL of blocked websites or a blank page, depending on your settings.
An allowlist is more restrictive than a blocklist. The device user can only access the sites specified on the allowlist. When the device user accesses any non-allow listed sites, SOTI Surf redirects the device user to the default URL or a blank page, depending on your settings. Redirect URLs are automatically allow listed.
You can not apply both a blocklist and an allowlist within the same profile configuration. If a device receives a blocklist and an allowlist from two different profiles, the allowlist overrides the blocklist. If a device receives more than one blocklist or more than one allowlists from different profiles, then SOTI Surf combines all the websites (and the exceptions) from the profiles.
Turn on Enable Website Restrictions and select a type: Blocklist or Allowlist.
To specify which websites you want to filter, select Add in the Websites table to add a new row.
To delete an entry, hover over its row and select Delete.
In the Redirection URL for Blocked Websites/Categories, enter a website URL. When device users try to access an unauthorized website, they are automatically redirected to the entered URL.
Turn on Exclude websites from the filter and select Add in the Websites table to add a new website exception to your blocklist or allowlist.
Use the Website Categories to Block section to block websites based on their content. Select any categories you want to block SOTI Surf from accessing or use Select All to block all the content categories.
Choosing Select All severely limits the functionality of the SOTI Surf browser.
You can add an exception to web content categories by adding the website to the exception list of an Allowlist web filter.
Devices with blocked categories from many profiles receive all the categories from all applied profiles.
Kiosk Mode
Kiosk mode limits SOTI Surf functionality, reducing device users' access to websites and SOTI Surf app settings. This mode disables the address bar, and users can only navigate forward through hyperlinks and backward using the back button. The long-press context menu is also disabled.
If you assign more than one kiosk mode setting to a device, the most restrictive one applies.
Turn on Enable Kiosk Mode to start.
| Hide App Top Bar | When enabled, device users cannot access the top bar of the
SOTI Surf app. The top bar includes the
forward and backward navigation buttons, plus the home and the app
menu icons. Selecting this option causes the Hide App Menu and Clear Cookies with Home options to become automatically selected. |
| Hide App Menu | When enabled, device users cannot access the app menu. |
| Clear Cookies with Home | When enabled, whenever the device user navigates to the home
screen, SOTI Surf clears browser
cookies. Note: This option is redundant if
you select Allow Cookies in the
Configure Privacy Settings
section. |
| Allow Multiple Tabs |
When enabled, the device user can access more than one tab in kiosk mode. |