Using Managed App Config to add a custom user-agent to a web browser on iPad

[jv-UBM]

I have been using ProSurf Kiosk Browser on a few iPads to provide employees with self-service stations to access our payroll vendor's site, and recently it was updated to support a custom user-agent that mimics Safari for improved website optimization - however, this feature looks to only be configurable through Scalefusion's MDM, not within the app itself. Currently, the login page for the site detects that a mobile browser is being used and does a redirect to a version of the page that has a banner for downloading the mobile app. This redirect results in a longer than expected loading time, and my hope is that enabling the custom agent will improve this load time, or even bypass the banner being loaded in the first place by using a non-mobile agent. 

Has anyone had success with doing similar on other browsers, and if so how did you go about it? I'm hopeful but unsure about whether or not their support can/will provide the relevant key names since my initial interaction ended with T1 chat effectively telling me to pound sand, but I am currently in email contact with what appears to be T2. 

[PhilipDAth]

I don't know the answer.  Have you considered single app mode, and making Safari the single app?

https://documentation.meraki.com/SM/Profiles_and_Settings/iOS_Single_App_Mode_in_Systems_Manager

[jv-UBM]

Yeah I utilize single app mode for several devices, including the kiosk browser mentioned in the OP. Problem is that I haven't been able to find any documentation on tuning Safari to behave similarly to the kiosk browser (retaining no autofill data, history, wipe & reset after a period of inactivity), and iOS's Guided Access wasn't quite what I was looking for either. 

Shortly after making the post I did start experimenting with Chrome's enterprise policies, which could prove to be an alternative if I can get it to work properly. First attempt uses a combination of several Idle Timeout actions to clear data & close all tabs after a minute of inactivity, but one or more of those data clearing options looks to softlock the browser - once I determine which one is the cause, I could try to add a separate config that prevents that data from being retained in the first place. 

That said, I haven't found anything for spoofing the user agent yet, which was the main goal of the post anyway.