Configuration Profile - Dock Applications

Good question!

Thanks for the post. I hadn't noticed the Apple applications list since updating and would be interested to know if it is possible to add non-apple applications to that list as well.

Right now we configure a dock to our liking, grab the com.apple.dock.plist, and upload it to the Custom Settings of a Configuration Profile. You may need to convert the plist to xml (plutil -convert xml1 /path/to/plist).

Don't think you can. The issue it seems, is that the configuration profile you're creating can only assume the default applications that ship with the OS. I don't know that they have the ability, currently, to see anything installed on your Mac to add in, which is rather unfortunate, and I might add, shortsighted on Apple's part.
Most likely the only way to do it is to make a payload under the Custom Settings section and add the dock.plist settings for what you want, which is really what we were doing back when it was just MCX, so I often wonder what the point of Config Profiles are.

I may be in the minority, but I feel Configuration Profiles are just too immature for serious use. They may be easier to set up than MCX because of their nice GUI, but they're so much more limited.

It can be done but you need to modify the following file on the JSS server:

/Library/JSS/Tomcat/Webapps/Root/WEB-INF/xml/ConfigurationProfileDockItemApps.xml

I added our common non-Apple apps and removed stuff we'll never use (Grapher anybody?) I always restart Tomcat after modifying the file.

johnnasset - Good find.

Question - What are populating the appID key with ?

Does the ConfigurationProfileDockItemApps.xml file get overwritten when an upgrade to JSS is done?

Hello JAMF Nation. Here is a follow up to johnnasset's post about editing this file:

/Library/JSS/Tomcat/Webapps/Root/WEB-INF/xml/ConfigurationProfileDockItemApps.xml

In that .xml file you can add non-apple apps by adding the below modification to the .xml.

<dict> <key>mcx_typehint</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>tile-data</key> <dict> <key>file-data</key> <dict> <key>_CFURLString</key> <string>/Applications/Firefox.app</string> <key>_CFURLStringType</key> <integer>0</integer> </dict> <key>file-label</key> <string>Firefox</string> </dict> <key>tile-type</key> <string>file-tile</string> </dict>

The above example is to add Firefox to the list of applications in OSX configuration payloads. Copying from the <dict> to the </dict> above you can place it in the .xml after the following line:

<key>static-apps</key> <array>

You can see in the .xml file that all of the native Apple apps are included between a <dict> and </dict>. We are simply adding non-apple apps in the same format.

If you want to add any non-apple apps simply modify the above to change the Firefox lines:

<string>/Applications/ANYNAME.app</string>

and

<string>ANYNAME</string>

Hopefully this helps.

Oh Follow up. RESTART TOMCAT after the edit. And this change will be over-written during upgrades, so prior to upgrading save a copy of the .xml file to your desktop, and then re-copy it into place after the upgrade.

We are running our casper app on a linux box. I made the changes above to the Tomcat/Webapps/Root/WEB-INF/xml/ConfigurationProfileDockItemApps.xml file, stopped and
started tomcat and don't see the changes show up. Should I have seen this. I added this code:

<dict> <key>mcx_typehint</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>tile-data</key> <dict> <key>file-data</key> <dict> <key>_CFURLString</key> <string>/Applications/Firefox.app</string> <key>_CFURLStringType</key> <integer>0</integer> </dict> <key>file-label</key> <string>Firefox</string> </dict> <key>tile-type</key> <string>file-tile</string> </dict>

Ok, so I followed the steps above to add non-apple apps to the ConfigurationProfileSystemApps.xml file. Something happened when I saved the file and now that file is not being recognized. I thought I had copied a BU of the file before making edits but….not the case.

How do I go about getting a copy of that file that has not been edited? I'm on JSS 9.32

Thanks, holding my head in shame.

In case anyone else stops by:

I had trouble when I copied over the modified xml file via scp. It looks like if I stopped tomcat, rm'd the existing file, scp'd the modified file and then restarted Tomcat, the JSS saw the updates.