Dock items in User Applications folder (~/Applications)

[alex_at_work]

Is it possible to deploy a dock item for something in the User applications folder aka ~/Applications? Inserting the ~ or using $USERNAME in the path results in a broken dock item. 

[sdagley]

@alex_at_work I don't think you can deploy a Dock item via Jamf Pro to an app in ~/Applications, but dockutil might although I've never tried.

I would ask however if you really need to be installing applications in that folder? Over the years I've run into apps that wouldn't update themselves unless located in the global /Applications folder, so my recommendation would be to not install apps in the user specific folder.

[alex_at_work]

@sdagley Yeah it's really just one app. Installing Slack there so non-admin users can manage the automatic updates. We had previously deployed it through self service from the app store with "keep apps up to date" box checked, however there is an apparent product issue when deploying apps from the app store and deploying a config profile with the "require an admin password to install or update apps" payload configured. 

[sdagley]

@alex_at_work I'd think your best bet is to use dockutil to write the path file:///Users/UserName/Applications/Slack.app/ into /Users/UserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist