GMetrix Adobe In-App Exercises

[jbisgett]

Any one dealing with GMetrix plugins for Adobe and non-admin users? Currently, installing GMetrix plugins requires admin rights on the computer and GMetrix states that they do not have an IT package available that installs all of the required components that I can provide to student devices.

I was wondering how others were handling this issue?

[Howard_Trevor]

Im handling it the same way I assume you are... by pulling my hair out. Its driving me crazy. I have an email out to their support to see if there was any way they could send me the plug ins and I could push them out, something... anything at this point. How many iMacs are you dealing with?

[jbisgett]

So, I was able to figure out this issue. It was a combination of GMetrix requiring admin rights and a restriction that I had applied to prevent apps from running from any location but /Applications. The application launches the plugin from both the /Library and User/Library folders, along with a tmp directory.

I had to completely remove this restriction from my iMac labs that needed access to GMetrix, then I had the teacher (who has admin rights for the lab) install the plugin manually from the GMetrix client for each user that logs in and needs to perform the exercises.

Our high school students are 1-1 with macbooks, so I informed the teacher that the students would not be able to use the In-App Exercises on their devices, because I was not removing the application restriction from those devices.

[Howard_Trevor]

Glad you got it working. My teachers don't have admin rights, but the only way I could get around this without me having to manually enter credentials on every machine was to invoke some admin credentials for them to use for a period of time. Its the quickest way I could get this moving forward as I've gotten zero response from Gmetrix. Are they also using certiport/compass for the actual testing? Its rough when there isn't a mass install option for these apps.

So how is it with the teachers having admin rights for their lab? Ive been tossing the idea around in my head but I'm on the fence. Did you have them sign something accepting responsibility for any misconduct? I have basically everything restricted on our machines, terminal, App Store, etc. but I'm still weary of a few teachers that love to try to break whatever rules they can.

[jbisgett]

It's been fine for us. Just the standard computer usage agreement that they sign to get their computers. Our filter and firewall prevents them from getting to most crap stuff. I try to make most of the things they need/use available in Self-Service for installation, so most of the time, they don't even realize they have rights to install other software. It comes in handy, though, when they are testing out legitimate one-off software, I don't get a million and 1 requests needing admin access, or throw this temp software in self-service for them to install.

[eforstne]

Did anyone happen to find a solution to this? Is there a way to pull the plugins out and package them for deployment?

[jbisgett]

I was unable to get the plugins stripped out and packaged. I had to install them using the GMetrix client for each user that logs in to the device using admin credentials. The plugins download to the System/Library and then copy over to various folders in the User/Library, which is aggravating.

I tried using Composer to do a file capture while manually installing the plugins on a test machine, but when I tried to deploy the plugins to a student device, it would not work for some reason. Most likely some sort of permissions issue that I failed to notice.

[cgalik]

I reached out to GMetrix support to see if they would provide an installation package of the plugins a week ago, but have yet to receive a reply. Maybe if everyone peppers their support email with requests for this they'd actually listen? I'm not holding my breath, of course.

[gmorgan]

I am dealing with this currently because our staff accounts recently got changed to standard users. I actually got a response just moments ago, but I haven't tested it yet. Here's how that went:

ME: "Is there somewhere I could download all the plugins related to the Adobe Suite? If not, what is the path to the plugins on Mac?"
THEM:"Unfortunately there is not a way to download the plugins except through the gmetrix application. The path for the plugins on mac is,
Macintosh HDD (The Computers Harddrive)>Library>Application Support>Adobe>CEP. Each test will use the same plugin, so if you can download the plugin on one computer you should be able to push it to the other computers."

I am going to see if that's correct and attempt to create a policy to place them in that folder. I'll update when I know more.

EDIT: I did, in fact, find 3 folders in there: GMetrixTemplates, gmetrix.lita.adobe.illustrator, and gmetrix.lita.adobe.photoshop.

There is still the issue of the pop-up we receive upon first starting the test. It's something about "MakeTemplates directory wants to make changes" and then asking for admin login. I am guessing this will be a PPPC thing, but I'll need to look at it more to be sure.

Anyone else any closer?

[Howard_Trevor]

@gmorgan Nope… stuck at pretty much the same spot. Cant get around that admin credential pop up. Gmetrix told me they were in the process of reaching out to adobe to get the plugins in a distributable package, but yeah like someone else said I’m not holding my breath. Considering they only reply to me about once every 5 or so days, I dont think it will happen anytime soon. I ended up just pushing out an admin account to the machines and gave the teachers the credentials to have their students install the plugins when they see the pop up. I dont tell them its for an admin account (dont want them testing their limits) I just call them “gmetrix credentials” and then I wipe that account out at the end of the day. I didnt feel like one by one installing all those plugins on hundreds of machines, no thanks. Lol

[gmorgan]

I ended up using admin credentials by hand for this one classroom. @Howard.Trevor , I like your idea of "GMetrix credentials". Maybe I'll steal that for the full rollout. Once I put the downloaded tests in the correct folder, and allowed permissions once, it all worked as expected. It's just tedious.

[Howard_Trevor]

@gmorgan How many machines are you dealing with? Its crazy tedious... and that monotony gets to me sometimes. haha I thought there would be some shenanigans with them using the credentials to try to do other things but oddly calling them "Gmetrix credentials" really deterred them from the idea that they were admin rights. Not like they could do anything anyways but still, I was pleased with the outcome. I left the credentials active for almost a month in some of the labs because they were only testing a few students at a time and even had them use those credentials for the compass update that popped up. I now have proof of concept for any future one by one item that may arise.

[mherna02]

I was able to get GMetrix installed with the plugins by using Jamf Composer.   I took a snapshot pre install,  Installed GMetrix and then launched GMetrix and installed the plugins manually for all the Adobe apps.  Took another snapshot and created a dmg installer.  I kept getting an error when I tried creating a .pkg

[cgalik]

How were you able to install the plugins manually?

[mherna02]

Click the gear in the left hand corner of GMetrix then click the Plugins tab.