A little context on why this matters
If you’ve ever needed to customize a Maximo Mobile app add a field to the Technician app, reorder sections on the Work Order page, hide something your techs never use you know the old drill. Install Docker Desktop. Pull the MAF container image from IBM. Figure out the right port. Create an API key. Log in with that key. Hope the container starts cleanly. Then, finally, open the configurator in your browser.
That process worked. But it was a barrier. It required a local machine with Docker, a developer who knew what they were doing, and enough patience to debug container startup errors before you could change a single field label. Most teams either worked around it, called in a specialist, or just lived with the out-of-box layout.
MAS 9.1 changes this. Application Configuration is now a native browser application inside MAS. It lives in the suite navigation, uses your existing permissions, and requires zero Docker setup. Any admin with the right role can open it and start configuring.
That’s not a small change. It’s the difference between mobile app customization being a specialist task and being a routine admin task. This post walks through what’s new, what you can actually do with it, and a practical walkthrough of modifying the Technician app — the one your field techs use every day.
What changed: Docker out, browser in
The old way:
In MAS 8.x through MAS 9.0, the Application Configuration tool (the MAF Configurator) was a containerized desktop application.
The workflow looked like this:
- Install Docker Desktop (or Podman) on your local machine
- Pull the MAF configurator image from IBM’s container registry
- Start the container with the right port mapping and environment variables
- Generate an API key inside MAS Manage for authentication
- Open localhost:3000 (or whatever port you chose) in your browser
- Log in using the MAS instance URL and that API key
- Make your changes, publish, and hope the container didn’t crash overnight
It was a perfectly functional approach for a developer environment. But it meant customizations lived on someone’s laptop, only one person could work in the tool at a time, and the institutional knowledge of “how to set up the Docker container” became tribal knowledge that left with people.
The new way in MAS 9.1
In MAS 9.1, Application Configuration is a first-class suite application. It lives inside MAS the same way Work Order Tracking, Assets, or any other application does. No container. No API key gymnastics. No local install required. Just need to create a new persistent volume for the application configuration and you can install it in Suite Configuration.
You’ll find it under:
Navigation path:
Access is controlled through standard MAS suite permissions. If you have the Application Configuration role assigned, you can open it. If you don’t, you can’t. Clean and simple.
Because it’s now server-side, it requires persistent storage on your OpenShift cluster — specifically a ReadWriteMany (RWX)-capable storage class. This is the one infrastructure note worth checking with your OpenShift admin before you start using it. If your cluster only has ReadWriteOnce (RWO) storage, you may hit issues when multiple pods try to access the workspace simultaneously.
Check your OpenShift storage class before your first use. Run oc get storageclass in your cluster and confirm you have an RWX capable class available. Most production MAS clusters already have this but it’s worth verifying before you discover it mid-config.
Side-by-side: before and after
| Area | Before MAS 9.1 (Docker/Podman) | MAS 9.1 (Browser-based) |
| How you launch it | docker run … pull image, set port | Suite nav → Application Configuration |
| Who can use it | Whoever ran Docker on their machine | Any user with the right suite permission |
| Storage | Local Docker volume on your laptop | Persistent volume (RWX) on OpenShift |
| Concurrent access | One person at a time (local tool) | Multiple admins simultaneously |
| Works with MAF Graphite apps | Limited | Yes — full support for Graphite RBAs |
| Preview mobile app | Built-in (mostly reliable) | Available, some known quirks in 9.1 early releases |
| Skill required | Docker install + API key + port setup | Browser + suite admin permission only |
What you can configure and what you can’t
Before you get too excited and start reconfiguring everything, it’s worth being clear about the scope. Application Configuration is a UI layout tool. It is not a replacement for Application Designer, and it’s not a full development environment. Here’s an honest breakdown:
| ✔ What Application Configuration can do | ✘ What it can’t do (yet) |
| Add, remove, and reorder fields on a page | Add fields that don’t exist in the object structure |
| Drag sections up/down to restructure a page layout | Create complex multi-step workflows or conditional logic |
| Clone an out-of-box app and modify the copy safely | Modify JavaScript business logic files (.js) |
| Change field labels and section titles | Build net-new full-stack applications from scratch |
| Show/hide fields conditionally (basic conditions) | Full Application Designer-style tab/section control on classic apps |
| Publish changes directly to mobile and browser apps | Deep UI customization requiring custom components |
| Preview changes before publishing | Access or edit XML or JS directly inside the tool |
The short version: if you need to rearrange, rename, show, or hide things on a MAF application page, Application Configuration is the right tool and it works well. If you need to change business logic, add computed fields, or build something net-new from the ground up, you’re still in XML and Automation script territory.
Application Configuration works on MAF-based applications (Maximo Mobile, Role Based Applications, the new Work Orders app, etc.). It does not affect classic Manage applications like the traditional Work Order Tracking, Assets, or Purchase Orders — those still use Application Designer.
Walkthrough: modifying the Technician mobile app
Let’s make this concrete. Here’s a scenario that comes up constantly: your field technicians complain that the Work Order detail page shows fields they never use, and they have to scroll past three sections to get to the failure reporting fields they need most. Let’s fix that.
We’ll clone the Technician app, reorder the sections on the Work Order detail page, and publish the change. Start to finish, this takes about 15 minutes once you know where things are.
Step 1 Open Application Configuration
Navigate to Suite navigation → Application Administration → Application Configuration. You’ll land on a list of all available MAF applications. You’ll see Technician, Inspections, Service Requests, Assets, and any others that are deployed in your environment.
Step 2 Clone the Technician app before touching anything
This is the single most important habit to build. Never modify the out-of-box application directly. Instead, select the Technician app and choose the Clone action. Give your clone a clear name — something like Technician-Custom or Technician-[YourOrg]. All your changes go here. The original stays clean and you can always reference it.
Step 3 Open the cloned app and navigate to the Work Order detail page
Open your cloned app. You’ll see its page structure on the left — a list of pages that make up the application. Find the Work Order detail page (typically named something like wodetail or work-order-details depending on your MAS version). Click it to open the page editor.
Step 4 Drag sections to the order your techs actually need
You’ll see the page rendered as a visual layout with sections you can drag up and down. In the standard Technician app, Failure Reporting is buried below Work Details, Schedule, and Assets. Grab it and drag it up — put it right below the header section so it’s the first thing techs see when they open a WO. You can also drag fields within a section to reorder them.
Step 5 Hide fields your team doesn’t use
Find fields on the page that your technicians never interact with — common culprits include certain classification fields, internal account codes, or legacy status fields that your process doesn’t use. Click the field and toggle its visibility off. The field still exists in the data — it just won’t render on the mobile screen.
Step 6 Preview the result
Use the Preview button to see how the page renders. The preview shows you a simulated mobile view. Note: in some early MAS 9.1 patch levels there are known preview display issues (more on this in the gotchas section below). If the preview is blank or doesn’t load, don’t panic — the actual published app will work correctly.
Step 7 Publish and assign the app to your user group
When you’re happy with the layout, hit Publish. This pushes the configuration to your MAS environment. Then go to Mobile Configuration (also under Application Administration) and assign your cloned Technician app to the appropriate user group. The next time those techs log into the Maximo Mobile app, they’ll get your customized layout.
Once published, your field techs get the updated layout the next time they open the Maximo Mobile app and sync. No app store update required. No re-download. The layout change flows down automatically.
The bottom line
Removing Docker from the equation isn’t just a convenience improvement — it changes who can do mobile app configuration. Before MAS 9.1, customizing a mobile app was something that required a developer with a local environment. Now it’s something a system administrator can do from any browser with the right permissions.
That’s a meaningful shift for teams that want to iterate quickly on their mobile experience without spinning up a development pipeline every time a field tech asks to move a section. For a lot of organizations, the Technician app walkthrough above is a 15-minute job, not a two-day project.
It’s not Application Designer. It doesn’t do everything. But for what it does — layout, field order, section visibility, cloning and publishing it’s genuinely good, and it’s genuinely accessible in a way the Docker-based tool never was.
Want to get more out of MAS 9.1?
Application Configuration opens the door — but getting your mobile apps dialed in for your team takes the right expertise. A3J Group has helped organizations across industries do exactly that.
About
A3J Group is a leading solutions and consulting firm based in Tampa, Florida, specializing in Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) with a focus on fully developed Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) solutions like IBM Maximo.
In addition to our suite of proprietary products—including MxMobile, our powerful mobile solution for Maximo—we provide traditional consulting services that help organizations plan, implement, optimize, and support their EAM strategies. Whether clients need hands-on configuration, strategic guidance, or ongoing system support, our team delivers the expertise to drive long-term success.
With over 50 years of combined experience, our specialized team is dedicated to our core mission: to serve as excellent stewards of our clients’ trust and investments, while driving measurable results through tailored, high-impact solutions and intelligent consulting.
Visit us at www.a3jgroup.com. Or drop us a line at info@a3jgroup.com.
