Show of your self service

Hey @jacob_salmela - see you've got caches in there. Do you have users rebooting afterwards and if so, are you using the built-in option for that?

I do not have a reboot attached to it.

The usage of those two jobs are pretty low, so I mostly have it there in case I am on a support call; I can have them run that and then reboot if necessary.

Hi Jacob,

Can you provide info on how you have "Install all updates" configured?

I'm looking at that option for our users for system and firmware updates.

Thanks!

Corbin

i would thing run the command

softwareupdate -i -a

Any one else what to show off there self service?

Any one else what to show off there self service?

"i would thing run the command

softwareupdate -i -a"

I assume this will not work for a non-admin user to install.

Actually, that's the beauty of Self Service. Since Casper runs as the root user, when you use a policy that runs "softwareupdate -ia" it is running as root. so it will work.

You can use Smart Groups and scripts to only have that option show up when there are updates to install on the machine, which is how we do it here.

Thanks, I'll give it a test with for our Mavericks deployment

There are quite a few scripts floating around here to gracefully (or not) close out of open apps - anyone have anything they particularly like? I've had mixed results and need to re-visit the subject as I gear up for Mavs..

@pete_c][/url][/url
Are you asking for something that kills all open running apps, or more for something that quits them gracefully, allowing users to save open work?

There are solutions for both, but they offer different experiences of course.

For the former, killing all visible running applications, you could try this-

#!/bin/sh

RunningApps=$(/usr/bin/osascript << EOF
tell application "System Events"
    set process_list to the name of every process whose visible is true and name is not "Finder"
end tell
EOF)

AppsList=$(echo "$RunningApps" | sed 's/, /_/g' | tr '_' '
')

echo "$AppsList" | while read app; do
    killall "$app"
done

For the latter, I think I may also have something I've used, but its slightly harder only because you need to use some Applescript (osascript) stuff, and at times, getting that to run properly with all the additional sandboxing in OS X makes it a little more difficult. Pure shell commands are often easier, but sometimes you can't avoid using Applescript.

Late to the party but, we've just revamped it...

external image link

The scripts are either JSS policies at exist already, or are on my blog: [macmule.com](macmule.com)

@rlandgraf: very creative icon'ing. Hopefully you do not upset any Bruce's in your workplace!

@rlandgraf I exhaled sharply thorough my nose when I saw the icon for Send Log Files...

One good turn deserves another ...

external image link

I'm particularly proud of the rename computer icon ...

@franton... lol nice.. are the plugins links that open in Safari? I tried to add a site that uses a java plugin & no-luck :(

They originally all opened in Safari ... now they just open in the Self Service window by request.

@franton, so the Citrix one uses the Citrix Receiver plugin?

(Must retry..)

@bentoms][/url We just install Citrix Receiver 11. The address links to our citrix access website and it works from there. No special configuration needed. It's just an https address!

@bentoms You're actually not too far from me. One of my housemates works at Pentland. I'd be happy to discuss in person if you prefer?

Sounds awesome.. pop in?

If your on Twitter... DM me @macmuleblog

This is great! I see there are many things I could be doing to improve Self Service for our users and Helpdesk!

Thanks!

Disclaimer: I work for an arts and design university.

I would suggest using png files at 256x256 resolution for your self service icons. Find or make these files with alpha channels enabled and a transparent background. They'll look more polished if done right.

My fav trick is doing a Cmd + I on an app bundle, select then copy the icon into preview, resize and save as a png. Looks great and no hunting on google image search!