Adding application dock item appears with ?

We will need a few more details. Can you share some screenshots of the policy / dock paths you are trying to set? Also take a look at Docutil. It is my go-to application for managing the dock on macOS - https://github.com/kcrawford/dockutil

@danny_hanes i don't like dock util. Seems to lock users from manipulating their own dock and I don't want to do that.

file:///applications/wondershare%20pdfelement.app/

No different than any other dock items i see in the list, so i can't see how the path can be the problem

@tcandela So docutil does not lock their dock unless you want it to. We simply use it to add and remove dock icons whenever we install an application.

That being said, I just installed the application on my mac and it looks like the path should be file:///Applications/PDFelement.app/

Edit: If you right click on the application and expand "name and extension" you can see the filename. I know it says "Wondershare PDFelement" in the Applications folder, but that's not actually the file name.

@danny_hanes yep, i did all that earlier just like you did with righ click to find the information, and when the policy installed the dock item it gave an error something like no such application. I have both those dock items added.

I will try it again.

@tcandela Also, have you tried adding the dock icon using Jamf Admin?

@danny_hanes yes, i added the dock icon via JAMF admin. It gave that path to the icon

Another thing to keep in mind when you add something to the dock is you should reset the dock at the same time. sleep 5 : killall dock under files and processes.

When in doubt on the correct path/naming, drag the icon into an open terminal window for the full output path. I'm on prem, so my workflow may be slightly different.

@tcandela Is file:///applications/wondershare%20pdfelement.app/ actually what you have for the path in your Dock item? If so it's not going to work because Mac paths are case sensitive and you can't use applications (plus I suspect the application isn't named in all lower case)

@sdagley i just wrote the path in my response in lowercase but its correct in the JAMF dock icons.

@larry_barrett even though the dock item looks to get added before 'files and processes' would run, you think it would make a difference?
sleep 5 : killall dock

@tcandela We use Ryan Ball's DockBuilder. Works amazing!
Allows Dock manipulation after installation/deployment.

I downloaded, installed and tested this. I'm OnPrem on Catalina 10.15.6

I'm just going to share screenshots for brevity sake.

First, setup in Settings -> Computer Management -> Dock items (note, I could not make it work without the full path including the harddrive name, your harddrive name may be different).

Next, make a policy. You should have General (to set frequency), Dock Items (to add the dock item itself) and Files and processes (to sleep and kill the dock)

General tab:

Dock Items tab:

And finally the Files and Processes tab:

Recurring check in isn't ideal. The way I'd finalize this is to make a Smartgroup with the Criteria, Application title IS PDFelement.app. Then scope the policy to the Smartgroup. This should avoid the ? of death.

@larry_barrett I added the execute command to the policy and will test it out. I usually have the drive named Macintosh SSD, some might still be Macintosh HD. I'll test again without adding the drive to the dock item path, but with the execute command in place with sleep 5; killall Dock

isn't it supposed to be a capital D for Dock?

Strange how the application is listed on the mac as /Applications/Wondershare PDFelement.app/
but in the computers JAMF information for applications its /Applications/PDFelement.app (ive noticed this before creating this discussion and tried the dock item both ways)

This is a Self Service policy that i have configured for the installation of PDFelement

if you're in terminal I think it has to be Dock, but the Jamf command doesn't care.

Since I'm on Prem my workflow is going to be slightly different, but I think you're close. Sometimes on that file path its a trial and error type of deal. You can do it!

@larry_barrett the policy works great installing the application, it's just the stupid applications dock item icon.

i tested from terminal with Dock and it worked, while dock (lowercase) said no matching processes. If it doesn't matter with jamf i'll just leave it D

@larry_barrett i edited the dock entry to what you mentioned

from file:///Applications/Wondershare%20PDFelement.app/
to
file:///Macintosh SSD/Applications/PDFelement.app

i'll let you know how it goes

@larry_barrett do you think that instead of using the drives name, you can use what i put below? I'm testing it out. I see some dock items here that have file://localhost/*

file://localhost/Applications/PDFelement.app

Here's a full list of my dock items:

Wish I could be of more help.

Maybe that helps:
Under Big Sur this works (at the moment)
file:///System/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/