Programmatic access to "System Bar" in Android?

Question

I'm developing a tablet app on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Android 3.2). The tablet will be dedicated to running this app, which is used in an industrial environment. Our app will "own" the tablet and users can only access device features via our software. We already have a successful app like this running on phone-sized devices running Gingerbread.

On the bottom of the tablet screen Samsung has placed a "System Bar" (N.B.- NOT the Action Bar) and all kinds of other apps and widgets can be accessed from this bar. Is there any way to programmatically access this System Bar, to either modify (depopulate it of all its apps and clutter and just keep the Home and Back buttons), or to hide it altogether?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can hide the bar programmatically, but it requires root access to do so. This guy wrote an app to do it, and published the source code.

It is possible to remove the mini-apps, but it requires root - remove the APKs that the "mini apps" refer to, and they will disappear from the bar. There is no way to easily or programmatically do this, and your best option is to write a custom ROM with those apps removed. It's a giant pain in the ass.

If you don't need anything specifically from 3.2, then you should be able to track down a stock android 3.1 image that shipped on the galaxy Tab before touchwiz was ready. This will not have the "mini apps" or the screenshot button on the system bar. If you flash that, you won't need to root, as it's a signed image.