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Question

How to show ONLY Apps that need updating in Self Service

  • April 14, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 30 views
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Hi JN,

I am looking for a way to get Self Service to show only the apps that need updating on a user Mac?

We were a bit over zealous during the roll out (8 mths ago), and packaged up a lot of applications and software updates for our user community. Even though these applications were categorized in Self Service, the user feed back I was getting seemed to be "Information over load" "Too Many Items".

In response, I then disabled a number of self service apps that I felt may have been unnecessary and made the icons smaller. Hoping to make the list of available applications more manageable and less daunting. However, a few more months go by, and now the feed back is "Why was ... removed?" "I can find ...?" "Hey can you put back...?" ... Rather than put everything back to how it was originally (and recreate my 1st issue). I started to wonder if it was possible to keep ALL my Self Service applications and configure/script a way, for the End User, to ONLY see in Self Service (from the FULL list of ALL applications) those applications that were out of date and need updateing on their Mac's?

So I went on JN, and started searching. And though I have read the some discussions on the topic, there is nothing specifically saying how to do it, from what I can see? Any assistance that any can provide will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance
J

    2 replies

    D
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    • dgreening
    • Honored Contributor
    • April 14, 2016

    We typically scope Application updates via smart groups which look at the application version, for example: "Has Firefox.app and Application Version is not 45.0.2". We feature the update policies on the main page, and also offer ones which do not need an update as available installs under categories, but do not feature them on the main page.

    C
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    • cwaldrip
    • Valued Contributor
    • April 14, 2016

    Basically what @dgreening said.

    We have three policies for each app (one more than most I'm sure).

    The first is scoped to machines that do NOT have the app installed at all, and where needed scoped only to people that should get it. These are assigned to relevant categories (Internet, Adobe, Etc.)

    The second is scoped to machines that do NOT have the current version installed, which is a pain since we have to do a like/not like series of tests. This shows up in both the relevant categories (See above), as well as a category called Updates which shows up before almost all categories. So it should show up as the default category when they open self service.

    The third is scoped to machines that HAVE the current version installed. We had situations where users would just go through and install anything and everything. Argh. So, we created this third policy. If the app is installed it shows up in the relevant category (see above), and also shows up in a category called Installed. The icons have a bar with "Installed" across it, and they have the option to reinstall the app if they think that might help if they have a problem.

    Apps that are out of date and are deemed urgent to update, or are new and they need to install, or OS updates, etc. all fall under the Featured category and shows up first, before even Updates, when needed.

    Users will only see one of these categories at a time, so they will ONLY see the Installed Transmit if they have it installed. If its out of date they'll only see the Update policy. And if they don't have it at all they'll see it under the relevant category with the option to install.

    A bit of a pain to maintain three policies for each app, but it helps the users.

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