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Device Control Update (DCU) Feature

Note

This is a new feature added in UF Android Service v2.0.0.

The DCU feature introduces a novel update mechanism that enables Update Factory to perform "Device Control" tasks on Android. The tasks are implemented as Android applications, which are installed on the device by UF Android Service and subsequently removed when execution is complete.

The Android DCU applications (dcu-service-app) implement the DCU APIs provided by the dcu-api library. The dcu-service-app uses the APIs to communicate status updates and the update result to UF Android Service, which in turn forwards the messages to the Update Factory server.

The lifecycle of a DCU update is as follows:

  1. UF Android Service downloads and installs the dcu-service application.
  2. UF Android Service launches the dcu-service-app and awaits the completion of the dcu-service task.
  3. On task completion or when a timeout expires, UF Android Service uninstalls the application.

Each step of the process is reported to the Update Factory server, with the task result (success or failure) closing the update flow on the server.

Example DCU Use Cases

DCU can be used, for example, to perform the following tasks at scale:

  1. Connecting to a specific Wi-Fi access point.
  2. Changing the system configuration.
  3. Wiping the cache or data of a specific application.
  4. Rebooting the device.
  5. Factory resetting the device.

API and Reference Implementation

Please contact us to get access to:

  1. The UF Android Service APK with the DCU feature.
  2. The dcu-api AAR library.
  3. Documentation for the DCU application API.
  4. The source code of the reference DCU application implementation.