Extension Attribute for Acrobat Version

llitz123
Contributor III

I searched and couldn't find an answer.
I'm looking for an extension attribute to find the version of Acrobat on all our clients so that I can start the process of standardizing on a version.
We have versions as old as Reader and Pro 9 up to Reader and Pro DC.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

stevewood
Honored Contributor II
Honored Contributor II

@llitz123 forgot to mention that you can also use Smart Groups to scope updates to a specific version level. For example, to get my machines up to 11.0.10 on Acrobat, I used the following SG:

http://cl.ly/0y0y3M2Y2i2b/Screen%20Shot%202015-12-09%20at%209.34.38%20AM.png

I can then use that to scope my policy to upgrade Acrobat.

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12 REPLIES 12

mm2270
Legendary Contributor III

Any particular reason it needs to be an Extension Attribute? Reader and Acrobat are standard applications that would have their version info captured natively by Casper.

llitz123
Contributor III

My concern is the results of searches for now.
When I do a search it will show the computers that meet criteria Application Title and Application Version, yet the only way to see the version would be to view each computer without an extension attribute populating version in the results, or am I missing something easy?
And actually when answering your question, I believe I can get what I need using the extension attribute I found below. I'll just have to do multiple searches and edits for every version of Acrobat we have on the network...

#!/bin/sh

#
# by emily k @ volusion 2014-06-10
# checks for Adobe Reader version
#

if [ -f "/Applications/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/Info.plist" ] ; then
    VERSION=$( defaults read "/Applications/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/Info.plist" CFBundleVersion )
else
    VERSION="Not installed."
fi

echo "<result>$VERSION</result>"

stevewood
Honored Contributor II
Honored Contributor II

@llitz123 you can do an Application Search in the JSS to get a listing of all versions, and the qty of machines with that version installed. A simple "Acrobat" search would bring up something like this:

http://cl.ly/3s353a3x1r2E/Screen%20Shot%202015-12-09%20at%209.33.04%20AM.png

http://cl.ly/2k2z2N0B0b1v/Screen%20Shot%202015-12-09%20at%209.31.57%20AM.png

stevewood
Honored Contributor II
Honored Contributor II

@llitz123 forgot to mention that you can also use Smart Groups to scope updates to a specific version level. For example, to get my machines up to 11.0.10 on Acrobat, I used the following SG:

http://cl.ly/0y0y3M2Y2i2b/Screen%20Shot%202015-12-09%20at%209.34.38%20AM.png

I can then use that to scope my policy to upgrade Acrobat.

llitz123
Contributor III

I didnt even think about an application search. That was easy. I can combine this with extension attributes to get what I need.
Thanks.

llitz123
Contributor III

I like to do a search before the smart group to get an overall picture, yet I will be using smart group to do the updates. Thanks.

bpavlov
Honored Contributor

@llitz123 No need to make things complicated. You can search for just an Application Title or both Application Title and Version. An extension attribute is not needed for what you're doing.

llitz123
Contributor III

It's just preference really. I like to be able to list user, OS, app version and computer id all in the same search and the only way I think I can do that is with an extension attribute. The extra information will be worth it as it will help me work through 5 different versions of Acrobat Reader/Pro. Thanks for the help!

Look
Valued Contributor III

For whats it's worth you can actually read the version using the value CFBundleShortVersionString in /Applications/Adobe Acrobat XI Pro/Adobe Acrobat Pro.app/Contents/Info.plist This is what I am using in my overly complex homegrown update client.

EDIT: Or I could read the posts and see someone already posted it...

llitz123
Contributor III

Actually these are the versions we have and I havent even started on DC yet - which came with CC. So I'm having fun! Thanks again for all the suggestions and help.

Reader X v10 Adobe Reader.app /Applications/Adobe Reader.app Reader XI v11 (11.0.4 oldest version) Adobe Reader.app /Applications/Adobe Reader.app Acrobat X Pro v10 (10.1.2) Adobe Acrobat Pro.app /Applications/Adobe Acrobat X Pro/Adobe Acrobat Pro.app Acrobat XI Pro v11 (11.0.0) Adobe Acrobat Pro.app /Applications/Adobe Acrobat XI Pro/Adobe Acrobat Pro.app

scottb
Honored Contributor

Using Application search like @stevewood posted is great - except that once again, you can't generate a report from that info. Sure, there's other ways to get that report, but it's just me hyping the FR's to get more reporting capability into Casper without having to dig into the API or MySQL database.

Sorry to veer off-track, but it annoys me ;) I realize that this post wasn't about reporting...

sean
Valued Contributor

DC is complex thanks to Adobe's versioning

JAMF nation post #18915