Hi Randy

Give the mas command a try:

https://github.com/argon/mas

This will make you very happy. Something like this works fine:

#!/bin/sh

# 20160628 - 05:52 - tobiaslinder



# Apple Store Credentials

id=yourAppleID

psswd=yourAppleIDPassword



############################ NO CHANGES AFTER THIS LINE ############################

# Signout Apple ID

/usr/local/mas/mas signout



sleep 5



# Signin Apple ID

/usr/local/mas/mas signin $id $psswd



sleep 5



# Install GarageBand

/usr/local/mas/mas install 682658836



sleep 5



# Install iMovie

/usr/local/mas/mas install 408981434



sleep 5



# Signout Apple ID

/usr/local/mas/mas signout



exit 0

I second looking at deploying and using the mas command line tool. Its quite cool and may allow you to do exactly what you;re looking for. Just so you know, typically App Store apps can't be updated or installed without entering your password. Hence why @tobiaslinder's script above needs to log out of MAS, and then back in. It kind of gets around the issue. You might want to consider storing the account and password details in script parameters rather than hardcoded into the script though.

Hi @mm2270
Good point to put the login info into the parameters. Thanks!

Very cool! Thanks for this.

I am not certain I really want Brew on my image, Can I just use something like Composer and drop the binary in /usr/local/mas/ capture it and push?

Thanks again!

/randy

Can I just use something like Composer and drop the binary in /usr/local/mas/ capture it and push?

Totally! I didn't use brew to install it. The github page has precompiled binaries. Just download, add into a usual location like /usr/local/, package up and deploy away!

Mind blown....I cant wait to use this.

@boberito same here! We would really love to use VPP device based assignment but as long as this works so unreliable on OSX the mas command is really a lifesaver when you have to update Pages, Keynote, Numbers etc.

Followup: My script and policy are firing off perfectly. On certain machines, it completes but when I look at "Show" I see it actually is failing with:

Script result: The operation couldn’t be completed. (MASErrorDomain error 6.)

Any ideas why?

/randy

Hi @Randydid
I see the same error with two clients and will the others not. This is so weird. Can't tell you at the moment what is going wrong here.

With best regards, Tobias Linder

This is working very well for me. I have just one final question: Where/how do you find the Application number shown in the script above?

TIA,

/randy

@Randydid the number appears in the link to the application in the App Store. If you click the disclosure triangle next to Install in the App Store, it will allow you to Copy Link. If you paste that link you will see the number. For instance, the link for GarageBand is https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/garageband/id682658836?mt=12 and the 682658836 is the numerical ID for GarageBand. There is probably other ways to get the ID that's just the one I typically use.

@mpermann Thanks!

/randy

This solution has been working for some time however, it appears to be hanging more often lately. Is it possible something has changed on the Apple Side?

/randy