Best way to install apps for non-admin users?

[michael_madsen]

I'm trying to figure out how to install apps for users that are not local admins. Of course they can install from Self Service just fine, which puts the application into /Applications.

The problem is that many apps (Chrome, Firefox, Signal, etc.) will periodically try to update themselves, but the user does not have permissions to /Applications, so the app can't update itself.

I was considering installing apps to ~/Applications instead

Maybe something like:

Package action=cache

then a script that will run
installer -pkg /Library/Application Support/JAMF/Downloads/application.pkg -target ~/Applications

But I wanted to ask community first. Is there a "best practise" for installing apps so that non-admin users can update them?

[KrisMallory · Accepted solution]

Check out Installomator, maybe?

If you only had one app with 'a latest version is always best' policy, it probably would be easier to set up an autoupdate workflow for just that specific app. Each app is a little different to configure and future release may break the update function again. With that said, since you've got a few titles you want manage that way, using one tool may the better option.

Haven't switched over to it myself yet, but I've heard nothing but good things. Wiki and a pretty good write up about it below. Hope it helps.

 https://github.com/scriptingosx/Installomator#readme

https://scriptingosx.com/2020/06/using-installomator-with-jamf-pro/

[michael_madsen]

I should probably have been more specific. I'm actually not so much interested in how to install the apps. We use Jamf Self Service where users can install as they wish.

What I am interested in is how to install or tweak something, so that the users can (after install) update the app when it asks to.

[YanW]

Installomator can install and "update" apps.

How about Patch Reporting in Smart Group to update apps using Jamf App Catalog or Installomator? 

[michael_madsen]

Well, I really like the idea of the Self Service kiosk. I don't want to dictate what apps our users install. I think they should be free to install whatever they want (from Self Service).

As far as I can tell, with Jamf App Catalog you select certain apps that some group of users get and then that is how it is.

What I'm looking for is a way to keep using Self Service but then in a way that allows for the user to update the app when it asks to do so (or to auto-update it, if possible).

I am not a fan of any auto-update that tells the user that "Now we will shut down Excel to update it". It should be on the users initiative.

[YanW]

I said Jamf App Catalog OR Installomator 😑. You should give Installomator a try. Take Excel for example, you can use com.microsoft.autoupdate2 or JSON to control update. We try to avoid using pkg as much as we can. 

For apps that needs to quit in order to update. We use script to check to see if the app is running, either get JamfHelper pop-up to have the user to quit the app or quit it automatically and use custom trigger to the app policy for update in the back or you can choose to open Self Service, however you like. 

[michael_madsen]

Ok, I will give Installomator a try 😀

[michael_madsen]

As it turned out, Installomator works pretty good. There were some things I needed to edit in the script, to adjust it to my liking. Thank you KrisMallory and YanW 🙂

Things I have changed in Installomator script (that isn't part of setup variables):

- Change default button to "Not Now" rather then "Quit and Install"

- Replaced notification via Jamf with custom notification app.