How to put iPad in Single App Mode a Safari and Limit Safari to only open a Google Form Page

[Fred0522]

Hi everyone, 

My ultimate goal is to set up an iPad that only opens Safari, and only allows Safari to open a link to a Google Form. 

I've tried following the instructions in this write-up but with no success in limiting Safari to only open a specific webpage. 

This is the Write-up/Article I'm referring to:

Locking down an iOS device to a static webpage 

I am able to set my iPad to only have Safari open, but I'm having trouble limiting Safari to open specific websites only. 

The staff members of my school district want to have parents fill out a Google form with an iPad,

but don't want anyone to use the iPad to browse the internet. 

In the response section of the above article,  @MCrowther  suggested creating 2 profiles. 

Both profiles with the same tag, one profile with the Single Mode Setting, and the second profile with the Manage App Config & Web Content Filter setting. 

For simple testing purposes, I'm only limiting Safari to allow access to www.yahoo.com

and this is what I have set up in the 2nd profile...

Managed App Config

Web Content Filter

What am I doing wrong? 

Thank you all in advance 

[MCrowther]

Your settings will only allow yahoo page specifically. 

For the example I talked about, we had to supply a bunch of different pages that were all part of making a survey function correctly.

For example, it had the survey address, then the address and /index.html, then the address and /young-person/sign-in/ etc in the web content filter.

The managed app config supplies the initial main page link. The web content filter 'allows' only those extra addresses needed to make the page work.

I suspect it would be worth you testing the google form and seeing what addresses it uses when you're filling out content on it. That should give you all the addresses you need to be able to put in the web content filter section, which should then allow it to work. 

[Fred0522]

At first, I was using an iPad Air as a test mule and it's not working. 
Now, I use an 8th gen iPad everything is WORKING !!!! 

Only Safari opens, and I see Yahoo! in the Favorites. 

Can't go on any other website, not even Google.com 

Now I can move on and try a Google form link and see if that works. 

Thank you for your response 

[Fred0522]

I was able to restricted to a specific Google Form and everything was working fine with an 8th gen iPad. 

but now I switch to a iPad Air 3rd gen, and sadly it's not working right again...

[PaulF]

Can you go to:

Settings > General > VPN & device Management > Meraki Systems Manager on your iOS device

Do you see the managed app config being applied?

[Fred0522]

Hey, 

Sorry, I don't know if I misunderstood you but I can't go to Setting when I have Single App Mode applied to the iPad. 

[PaulF]

And, again, Managed app config with Safari is best effort

[Fred0522]

Hi again, 

Yea, I do have Managed App Config with Safari. 

[PaulF]

Managed app config is undocumented and I'm surprised that it's still working. This could be the reason that you are having mixed results. If you've found how to configure safari on apple.com please provide the link.

[Fred0522]

Right now, seems to me the iOS has to be iOS15 or higher for it to work. 

And right now, iPad 8th gen is the easiest. Where I only "Whitelisted" the URL to my Google Form Prefill link and nothing else. 

But on iPad Air 3rd gen with iOS 16 or 17.1, I have to have doc.google.com whitelisted as well.

iPad Air 2 with iOS 15.8 with ONLY Whitelist of the URL of Google Form.

it makes zero sense to me. 

And all I did was follow this from @MCrowther 

[BlakeRichardson]

You will probably find that Google forms use a ton of random domains. Often when signing into Google you might even notice you are redirected via Youtube. 

You might find using something like Jotform might be easier to work with. 

[Fred0522]

I tried Jotform, but for some reason, it will not show my Google form correctly. 

I'm guessing it might be a user error on my part. 

But, I just used an 8th-generation iPad as a test mule and now everything is functioning correctly! 
well, I have not tried to set the website restriction to an actual Google form yet. 

To be simple, I just restricted to only allow Yahoo! 

Thank you for your kind response 

[PaulF]

The ability to Manage Safari through managed app config hasn't worked properly in years. If you do get it working, well done!

In fact, it's so broken, the use case of putting a device in to Single App Mode / Kiosk Mode has created a small industry of companies that provide manageable web browsers (based on web kit)

A web search of "kiosk web browser iOS" will bring back a whole host of companies that can provide this (with a suitable fee, of course)

However, if you're so inclined, creating your own web browser app on iOS with Xcode should take you no more than an hour, two hours if you wish to include managed app config

[vassallon]

Honestly, it'd be easier just to utilize Screen Time and set up restrictions that way.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208982

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201304