Composer Packaged using Composer?

[WindowsWarrior]

Hi All,

Just wondering if it's possible to package the Composer App using Composer?

I want this to be available to the other admins without having to bounce the download link and install?

Would they have to install the Jamf Pro package? Or can they only have access to the Composer app?

Any / All help & advice would be greatly appreciated.
(I'm new to this and learning as I go!)

[mm2270 · Accepted solution]

Yeah, of course.

Just open Composer, and if you get a prompt to choose a package type, just click Cancel to get to the main window. You're not going to use any of the standard snapshot methods for this.

On your same Mac, open the Finder to Applications and drag the Composer.app into the sidebar of Composer itself. When you do this, like all other packaging methods, it copies the app or files into /Library/Application\ Support/JAMF/Composer/Sources/ including any supporting folders, so it will make a copy of itself into that directory. Name the resulting new source in the Composer sidebar if you need to, and then build it into a package.

But double check the owner/group and permissions on it before doing that. Sometimes they come in with a specific owner assigned and you want to correct it so it matches permissions for apps in the main Applications folder, like root/wheel for example.  But it should be as simple as that.

[WindowsWarrior]

Thanks for the quick overview of how to do so!

I've attempted this, set the user to root(0) & wheel(0) and having uploaded the image from my Mac to Jamf Pro > Computer Management > Packages, it seems to upload fine.

However, I have noticed that the application (pre-packaging) is ~14mb, however after I create the package it becomes ~5mb. What would I be doing wrong here?

Also, once uploading the package and adding it via policies, it seems to have not show up in Self-Service for users.

[Rebry]

Make sure that you've scoped the application correct to show up for the self-service users. (look at the policy overview and verify that the trigger is "self-service" and the correct scope is set.) 

its a quick mistake to tap self-service and forget a scope, thinking its out for everyone ;D

[WindowsWarrior]

i've got this set to "all managed clients", so that's anyone in the company that owns/uses a mac...

I've added it to Featured Items, it's showing as "Run" rather than install?

I've made sure to delete it out of my Applications folder & Recycle Bin however....

Any ideas?

[Rebry]

So you do want to set it as ongoing so you'll be able to run it more than once, if thats an effect you want.

If you go to the "self service" tab on the policy itself, you'll be able to change what the button text should be. 

regarding the pre/post packaging, its probably compression
You can fetch an application called suspicious package from mothersruin to inspect it after you've made it. (and other applications if you want to know what they actually do install on your device)

[WindowsWarrior]

that's just it, it won't install even it won't show up, but it's stating Run instead of Install (this is the option i've actually set "Install"). It's set for re-occurring check-in so it's making sure it's there, and if not, it'll show up in the self-service "store". 

I'll check the application recommended. ( thank you for this! )

[Rebry]

if you try to install it locally, does it work?  

[Rebry]

And dont do recurring checkin, ongoing :p 

it will install on all clients every checkin. 

Only do self-service as a trigger ;)

[mm2270]

You don't necessarily want the Recurring Check-in trigger checked IF you want it to be something users install on demand from Self Service. Leave all other triggers unchecked, because Self Service IS the trigger for the install.

As @Rebry already stated, you likely did not do anything wrong with packaging it, as all pkgs get some level of compression, so it will be smaller than the resulting uncompressed app once it's installed.

As for the button saying "Run" rather than install, you're talking about how it shows up in Self Service? Because if so, that's an option you can set when you enable a policy for Self Service. As mentioned, there are button label fields. It's usually set to "Install" by default, but perhaps you overwrote the button label somehow?

If this "Run" is showing up somewhere else other than Self Service, then where are you seeing that?

[WindowsWarrior]

huh....

I re-created the app package & Policy... and it seems to be working now, the only bit I (believe I) changed was the re-occurring check-in! 

Seems like this was causing me some sorts of issue.

I created the package, tested the package, pushed to Jamf Cloud & deployed to users.

Now it seems to work!

Big thank you to everyone for being around to help (and being patient with myself!)