We have been moving away from Apple Remote Desktop in recent years and have been trying to use Casper Remote more often. We got to a point where we were only using ARD for its chat feature. I worked up a script that can be run from Casper Remote that prompts the end user to see if they are available for remote support, then if they agree, it opens a pre-filled text document with TextEdit. This document auto-saves in the users documents folder. Hopefully this is useful to someone else. Also if anyone sees room for improvement, please comment. Thanks.
#!/bin/bash
#Aaron Getz
# We capture the logged in user and the UID to use later when running the local script as the user
loggedInUser=$(stat -f%Su /dev/console)
loggedInUID=$(id -u "$loggedInUser")
# Create a script in /tmp to run as the logged in user
cat << EOS > /private/tmp/availability_user.sh
#!/bin/bash
#Sound to Alert User
afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Basso.aiff
# Run an Applescript to Prompt the User for Availability
Availability=$(/usr/bin/osascript << EOD
tell app "System Events"
activate
set myMsg to "Message from Technology: We received your recent tech request. Are you available for remote support?"
set theResp to display dialog myMsg buttons {"No", "Yes"} default button 2
end tell
EOD)
# Echo back the selection result
echo "$Availability"
EOS
# Script creation done
# Now make the new script executable
chmod +x /private/tmp/availability_user.sh
# Run the script as the user, capturing the output into a new variable
AvailabilityResponse=$(/bin/launchctl asuser "$loggedInUID" sudo -iu "$loggedInUser" "/private/tmp/availability_user.sh")
# If the button returned from the confirmation was Yes, then create and open the file
if [ "$AvailabilityResponse" == "button returned:Yes" ]; then
echo "User available. Starting chat..."
# Create a text file in Logged in Users Documents
cat << EOS > /Users/$loggedInUser/Documents/Tech_Chat_Log.txt
Hello, I will be taking care of your issue today. Please give me a moment to get connected.
EOS
# File creation done
# Now make the new file editable.
chmod 777 /Users/$loggedInUser/Documents/Tech_Chat_Log.txt
# Now open the new file.
/bin/launchctl asuser "$loggedInUID" sudo -iu "$loggedInUser" open -e /Users/$loggedInUser/Documents/Tech_Chat_Log.txt
exit 0
else
# If not, cancel since the user chose No
echo "User is not available."
exit 0
fi
