Need help to set up dock items

Hey @jonna1006, can you share more about your flow/needs for updating dock items? What are you trying to accomplish and when? I use dockutil and a script at enrollment to remove most of the default Apple stuff and add apps if they were installed during enrollment (our enrollment flow includes choosing optional installations). The trick with something like dockutil is making sure the commands are run as the current logged-in user otherwise the results are inconsistent (or simply won't work because the script will run as root). 

We use dockutil with Outset so the script runs under the User.

Just a warning, DockUtil is a Python2 application and will stop working when macOS 12.3 is released. The author says he will have a new version (assumably Python3)  very soon. However, you may need to install a version of python3. I highly recommend macadmins/python: Framework files for use with popular python macadmin toolsets (github.com)

If you know Python, you can also use Docklib module for Python3. MacAdmins python includes it, at least in it's recommended version. 

Thanks for the heads up! I will put it on my list to update.

I have Policies in place that place specific apps in the Dock and also removes some of the 20+ default icons. This is mainly scoped to lab computers or loaner MacBooks so we can guarantee the user sees Chrome, Self Service, Microsoft Word, Safari, etc.

Computers → Policies → then create a Policy with the Dock Items payload and you can add/remove apps from there. The other half is setting custom Dock Items in Settings → Computer Management → Dock Items. There you can Click New and then add the app name, path, etc. and then those things will show as available options in your Dock Items Policy.

We also do this. We have a once per user per computer policy that builds our default dock, and most policies that add or remove an application include a dock policy to add/remove the dock item. It's been working pretty well. I tend to use Jamf Admin to add dock icons just out of habit, but I've also done it right through Jamf like @jordan_m1 said above.

I have found the following syntax to work using Self Service as an example:

file://localhost/Applications/Self Service.app/

Exactly. I have all of mine like this, for example: file:///Applications/Self Service.app/

And the Policy runs once per user per computer.

Dock master is the best solution for beginning so far, as I have tried others as well, and it is simple and easy. Thank you so much for your help!!😁

We're using a flow similar to what @emily describes with dockutil. I create a LaunchAgent and script along with pushing dockutil. The script runs at login to set the Dock up. I set a flag in the user profile after successful run to indicate that that user's dock has been set up, so it won't run again. In this way, any new accounts that come along get the Dock set up with default icons.

Thanks @Tribruin for mentioning about python2 and dockutil. I'll need to make sure we test and start deploying the new version once it's out.

Replying to my own thread. A new version of Dockutil has been posted. It has been ported to Swift to avoid any python dependency. 

kcrawford/dockutil: command line tool for managing dock items (github.com)

Click on "Releases" and download Dockutil 3.0.0 beta. I haven't tested it yet, but will be soon.

Thanks again @Tribruin 

It looks like he rewrote it in Swift. So, no need for python 3 I suppose? If so that would be great. Trying not to install any versions of Python on our Macs if I can avoid it, since it tends to pop up on our Qualys vulnerability scans.

Edit: Good grief. I clearly didn't read your post past the first sentence since you said it was written in Swift to avoid Python dependency. Anyway, thanks again for the heads up and posting the link. I'll be testing this version out asap.

@mm2270 / @Tribruin yeah I just saw the announcement for dockutil 3 built with swift, I'm setting aside time today to poke at it with a stick.