We have been put in touch with the Adobe Acrobat team dev group. Hoping they can at least provide a proper incremental version key in Info.plist so administrators can scope policies without having to jump through hoops.

I'll also ask why this article gives two paths for Continuous vs Classic, but the actual install path is right smack at the top of /Applications.

Adobe reached out, they want to have a call to review how software is scoped for deployment.

I hope Adobe's DC team gets it and makes the necessary changes to give us proper version strings.

All the work Jody/Karl did for Creative Suite and Creative Cloud has made deployment a snap.

Now we need the Adobe DC team to get up to speed. Hopefully they'll listen. Or we'll escalate.

Just got off the phone with the Acrobat dev team at Adobe.

They acknowledged their KB has bad paths, which don't match what is installed for Classic vs Continuous. They plan to fix in the coming days.

They also suggested coming up with two phased logic.

1. Determine track (Classic vs Continuous) using install path.


2. Now numerical string can be treated as a version for proper scoping.

I requested adding a "Track" key in Info.plist, to identify Classic vs Continuous. They are going to see if that is possible.

I'll post their email once it comes in.

Thanks,
Don

Just got off a conference call with the Adobe team responsible for the Acrobat and Acrobat Reader products. They really like @sean's script. Here is their summary email. I would post the text, but it has formatting that needs to be preserved.

Kudos to Adobe's dev/engineer team, JoydeepM, AnuragG, and PravalJ, for reaching out!

@donmontalvo amazing work. another win for engaging vendors and vendors actually being receptive and responsive!

@donmontalvo

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you !!!! Great job making everyone's job easier !!!!

C

@sean gets the green for the solution that caught Adobe engineer's eye. I just made noise. :)

@mm2270 wrote:

Ah, but removing periods and doing a straight integer comparison is a bad way to do it.

During our call, the Adobe engineers explained, we just need to first identify Track ID (Classic vs Continuous), then yes we can treat the XX.XXX.XXXXX string as a number. Seems reliable, if not a bit convoluted.

I pressed for a "TrackID" key in Info.plist, seems that's the simplest way to put this all to rest.

Thanks,
Don

Thanks, but I didn't offer up the python method, @owen did.

I still don't have a clue what the "Tracks" are.

I mean i've read that whatsnewdc.html page a dozen times but for some reason it just isn't clicking for me. I could swear Adobe spends more time and money on confusing the hell out of users than they spend on making products that just work.

I still don't even know what Adobe Reader DC is compared to Adobe Reader 11. I have not found ANYTHING to explain that one.

It's kinda explained in the link already posted above:

Adobe Document Cloud

@AVmcclint wrote:

I still don't have a clue what the "Tracks" are.

Continuous Track = Firefox (lots of changes, hard to keep up and manage...and cloud services)
Classic Track = Firefox ESR (fewer radical changes; easier to manage...and no cloud services)

Their article is very detailed, but a high(er) level, distilled down, article would be helpful.

Don

@sean wrote:

Thanks, but I didn't offer up the python method, @owen did.

Woops...thanks @owen!

Thanks @donmontalvo but I think/agree that @sean's method is better in some ways - my script is contingent on the application path of the two different tracks being static and predictable (which, it may be.. usually). Sean's script accounts for the way Adobe does versioning internally.

The bash and python script I posted may unintentionally work out for the two different tracks due to the way Adobe versions the tracks and the dumb pure integer comparison, haven't thought it about it much yet.

Hey @donmontalvo, have you seen this?

@mscottblake wow, totally missed your post! Nice article, but doesn't seem to give granular version information. The goal of the above is to enable a team of people (who are at varying degrees of capability) the ability to ensure proper scope for a given update release.

OK, circling back with fresh eyes, we found a much more manageable/sustainable way to build logic into Smart Computer Groups to compensate for Adobe's incredibly convoluted versioning string for DC products.

Since we know:

xx.xxx.20xxx = Continuous Track
xx.xxx.30xxx = Classic Track

...and since Adobe to their credit #CoughCough keeps historical version information on their FTP server:

URL: [ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/acrobat/mac/AcrobatDC](ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/acrobat/mac/AcrobatDC)

ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/acrobat/mac/AcrobatDC/misc/AdobeCustomizationWizard1500720033_DC.dmg
ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/acrobat/mac/AcrobatDC/1500820082
ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/acrobat/mac/AcrobatDC/1500920069
ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/acrobat/mac/AcrobatDC/1500920077
ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/acrobat/mac/AcrobatDC/1501020056
ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/acrobat/mac/AcrobatDC/1501020059
ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/acrobat/mac/AcrobatDC/1501020060
ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/acrobat/mac/AcrobatDC/1501620039
ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/acrobat/mac/AcrobatDC/1501620041
ftp://ftp.adobe.com//pub/adobe/acrobat/mac/AcrobatDC/1501620045

...we should only need to use their released versions for logic:

15.007.20033
15.008.20082
15.009.20069
15.009.20077
15.010.20056
15.010.20059
15.010.20060
15.016.20039
15.016.20041
15.016.20045

So, if we are pushing 15.010.20056, this is the simplest, and most manageable/sustainable, way to avoid rollback, is to exclude:

Version is 15.010.20056
(or) Version is 15.010.20059
(or) Version is 15.010.20060
(or) Version is 15.016.20039
(or) Version is 15.016.20041
(or) Version is 15.016.20045

Thank goodness I'm hypoglycemic, or Adobe would have drove me to drinking by now. :)

PS, Adobe should still fire their dev team, or at least have them all report under @kagibson. ;)

HTH,
Don

Is there a way to suppress the welcome screen and make Adobe Reader the default viewer? I found the plist but it's rather long and Im having trouble finding the key for the welcome screen. I don't want to replace the entire plist file, just that particular key.

@msnowdon take a look at Adobe's KB article.

PS, maybe post defaults read /path/to/relevant.plist so we can have a look?

Don