Managing BlackBerry Configuration Settings Remotely - Putting it all Together

Now that we know how to update the device settings, let's see how it works in a real world scenario. I have just nuked, reloaded, and reactivated my test 8700g with 4.2 OS - here is the before shot of the relevant configuration screens:


Now let's push down some common changes to our device settings:

1. [Messages Options / General Options] Hide Filed Messages = Yes (default = No)
2. [Messages Options / General Options] Hide Sent Messages = Yes (default = No)
3. [Messages Options / General Options] Keep Messages = Forever (default = 30 Days)
4. [Messages Options / Email Reconciliation] Delete On = Mailbox & Handheld (default = Handheld)
5. [Calendar Options] Initial View = Week (default = Day)
6. [Calendar Options] Keep Appointments = Forever (default = 60 Days)
7. [Address Book Options] Sort By = Last Name (default = First Name)
8. [Options / Date/Time] Time Zone = Central Time (-6) (default = Casablanca (GMT))
9. [Options / Screen/Keyboard] Backlight Timeout = 2 Min. (default = 30 Sec.)

These modifications will require the following sequence of SQL updates (you will need to replace the '15' UserConfigID with your target account's UserConfigID in your SQL DB) :

use BESConfig
UPDATE SyncBackupRestore SET Data = 0x550000010101000001010101000301010800014465736B746F70000A000
2543336323538313330000100030101000A00020005FFFF01000601020008
01000100090102000B000002000C000002000D000001000E00000000
WHERE UserConfigID = 15 AND DatabaseName = 'Message List Options'
UPDATE SyncBackupRestore SET Data = 0x270000000000001C02FC0300000000010000000F0000000101000500000
00100FFFF0000000F00000001 WHERE UserConfigID = 15 AND DatabaseName = 'Calendar Options'
UPDATE SyncBackupRestore SET Data = 0x0A000001010100000000000100 WHERE UserConfigID = 15 AND DatabaseName = 'Address Book Options'
UPDATE SyncBackupRestore SET Data = 0x040001000000000400021400000001000302 WHERE UserConfigID = 15 AND DatabaseName = 'Options' AND UID = -447168820
UPDATE SyncBackupRestore SET Data = 0x1000019A71C67ACBC67AB400000002000000000E00018131D8CDC28BB8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WHERE UserConfigID = 15 AND DatabaseName = 'Options' AND UID = -1321243196
UPDATE SyncConfig set SyncType=1 WHERE UserConfigId=15 AND SyncDataSourceId=11109
go

This will kick off a one way sync from the server to the device, pushing all the configuration databases managed by the Backup component. It will take less than a minute for the SYNC process to pick up on this change, and about another 30 seconds or so to re-sync all the settings. [sleep 120] Now back to our handheld... it appears that all changes (in green boxes) have been picked up:


Now we must be sure to run the following command to restore the device to server synchronization:

UPDATE SyncConfig set SyncType=3 WHERE UserConfigId=15 AND SyncDataSourceId=11109

If we didn't do this, then any configuration updates from the handheld would not be backed up to the server. Actually, this might be an interesting option to employ for some firms who want total control over the handheld... one could schedule a daily push to refresh settings to the organizational standard settings to discourage end-user customization.

All of these commands could be easily scripted by putting them in a text file such as 'PushSettings.sql' and using the OSQL command's -i switch, i.e.:

osql -S sqlservername.company.com -U sqlaccountname -P sqlpassword -i PushSettings.sql

So that's it... We've gone down the rabbit hole into the depths of the BES SQL DB in order to discover some of it's secrets, and we came away with a method of pushing normally hidden device configuration settings over the air. Have fun, but remember to backup your SQL database regularly and TEST TEST TEST your scripts outside of production first!