Safe Doc Configuration

This article is written for G Suite for Education (GSFE) Admins. Note Safe Doc configuration is not supported for personal gmail accounts.

At out of the box, Safe Doc eliminates these kids-inappropriate features in GSFE,

• the image searching feature
• the video searching feature
• the Explore feature
• the Dictionary feature
• the link preview feature
• the middle finger emoji
• games in google search, e.g. Snake
• the Poop sticker in Hangouts

But every chef has their own taste. With that in mind, Safe Doc supports policy configurations to customize which G Suite features to block. To get a better understanding how policy works, take a look at Google's article Chrome Policy Management.

Policy Configuration Format

This article focuses on the Chrome profile based policy configuration via Google Admin Console. This policy management approach supports all managed Chrome browsers on Chrome OS / Windows / Mac / Linux.

In a nutshell, the policy configuration is a human-readable JSON file. The JSON includes a group of policies. A sample policy for Safe Doc is like

{
  "SafeDocLicenseKey": {
    "Value": "12345678-9012-3456-7890-1234567890"
  },
  "EnableExplore": {
    "Value": true
  },
  "EnableDictionary": {
    "Value": false
  },
  "EnableVideoSearch": {
    "Value": true
  },
  "EnableImageSearch": {
    "Value": false
  },
  "BlockAddVideo": {
    "Value": false
  },
  "BlockEmojis": {
    "Value": ["🖕"]
  },
  "BlockDocLinkPreview": {
    "Value": true
  },
  "BlockDriveSharedLinks": {
    "Value": {
      "Blacklist": [
        "1TTdYiQ_TgOlpNr-zyT8OpFLbwPmz0-g9XymYql5l1ZA",
        "*@*",
        "/*/*"
      ],
      "BlacklistExceptions": [
        "114xLJiJZ8OwXJ41sYyKdycT8Hy0ccbIgPVPG-n_6tew",
        "*@school.us"
      ],
      "DelegateAdminEmail": "d.admin@test.xfanatical.com"
    }
  },
  "BlockWebPublish": {
    "Value": true
  },
  "BlockGoogleSearchGames": {
    "Value": true
  }
}

Each policy comes with a format of "PolicyName": { "Value": <the value> }. The "Value" property is a must. Missing it would invalidate the entire configuration and students' Chrome browsers will reject your updates in Admin Console.

The policy value depends on its data type.

• If it's a Boolean, the value is either true or false.
• If it's a String, the value is a text like "this is a text".
• If it's a Number, type a number.
• If it's an Array (or List), then the value is like ["a", "b", "c"].
• If it's an Object (or Group), then enclose policy elements with a pair of braces { part1: true, part2: false }. An Object is like a folder in your computer containing more files.

The definition of each policy can be found in Safe Doc Policy List below. Most Safe Doc policies are of Boolean type.

Be ware of typos. A redundant comma or missing curly bracket will break the policy configuration.

Edit Policy Configuration

First of all, We recommend you test your policy configuration in an isolated Organizational Unit (OU) to find a sweet spot of your blocking strategy. When you're ready, you can copy and paste the policy configuration to the production student OU(s).

To edit the policy configuration for an OU, follow these steps.

1. Log into Admin Console.
2. Go to Devices > Chrome management > Apps & extensions.
3. Select the OU with Safe Doc installed.
4. Click the Safe Doc app.
5. In the Policy for extensions of right panel, edit your policy configuration JSON.
6. If everything is correct, click Save to take effect. Then the Safe Doc extension in your test student accounts under this selected OU will be automatically receive the changes and block features as you configured.

Best Practices on Configuring Safe Doc Policies

1. Only enable the policies you needed. If you don't need to block the features in G Suite for Education, it's recommended to explicitly turn off the policy. Enabling too many policies may impact your students' Google apps performance and experiences.
2. Watch out for the default values when the policies are unset. For example, the EnableImageSearch with default value of false, that means the image searching feature is blocked if this policy does not appear in your policy configuration.
   Side note: we're designing the naming convention towards Block<GSFE-feature> with the default value of false to make configuration more consistent.

Safe Doc Policy List

SafeDocLicenseKey

Description	The license key used to activate Safe Doc. With a valid license key, the Safe Doc extension will display the icon in . Otherwise, it's displayed as . If not set or incorrect, the extension does not function.
Data type	String
Support since	Version 1.1.0

EnableExplore

EnableDictionary

EnableVideoSearch

EnableImageSearch

BlockAddVideo

BlockEmojis

BlockDocLinkPreview

BlockDriveSharedLinks

          
{
  "Blacklist": [],
  "BlacklistExceptions": [],
  "DelegateAdminEmail": ""
}
          
        

          
{
  "Blacklist": [
    "1TTdYiJ_TgOlpNr-zYT8OpELbwPmz0-g1XymYql5l1ZA",
    "*@*",
    "/Students/Element School/Grade 4",
    "/Students/Element School/Grade 5",
    "/Staff/*"
  ],
  "BlacklistExceptions": [
    "*@your.district.k12.us",
    "*@brother.district.k12.us",
    "*@nonprofit.org",
    "the.science.guy@gmail.com",
    "/Staff/Teachers"
  ],
  "DelegateAdminEmail": "d.admin@your.district.k12.us"
}
          
        

BlockWebPublish

BlockGoogleSearchGames

BlockClassroomUnenroll

BlockStickers

BlockMeetCaptions

NewTabPageUrl

BlockMeetRecord

BlockMeetPresent

BlockMeetAddPeople

BlockComment

BlockInFileChat

BlockMeetChat

BlockSendFeedback

BlockClassroomPeopleInfo

BlockAddImageByUrl

BlockEmailAsAttachment

BlockMeetJoinOrStartButton

Description	This policy removes the Join or start a meeting or Use a meeting code button in Google Meet home page. It forces students joins internal meetings. The blocking is ON if this policy is set to true.
Data type	Boolean
Default	false
Support since	Version 1.14.4

ScheduleRefreshChromeTabs

BlockGmailChat

BlockEditorTemplates

BlockDriveShare

EnableMeetMuteAll

BlockSendForms

BlockSheetFunctions

BlockDriveGridView

Description	Remove the Grid View and file previews in Google Drive This policy is intended to block file preview thumbnails in Google Drive as bad file preview thumbnails are visible enough to disturb students. This policy has 3 functions, 1. Enforce List view. Google Drive will be always in List view. 2. Grid View button removed. 3. Remove those large preview thumbnails. A typical place is the My Drive > Quick Access. This feature is OFF by default.
Data type	Boolean
Default	false
Support since	Version 1.19.5

EnableMeetChatOffCommand

OptOutAnonymousErrorReporting

BlockMeetPhoneInfo

BlockDocsSpellCheck

BlockMeetStudentInfo

BlockMeetChangeBackground

BlockEmailCollaborators

BlockClassroomUnsubmitAssignment

BlockClassroomResubmitAssignment

BlockUnnicknamedMeeting

BlockUnnicknamedMeetingWaitTime

Takeaway

Configuration is an important characteristic of software. Luckily Google provided this option to remote configure the behavior of Safe Doc. If you encountered issues with the configurations, please leave a comment, email us at support@xfanatical.com or ask on Safe Doc community.