Managing Safari Bookmarks?

[#1]

I hope I'm not missing something totally obvious, but I can't find where to set up pre-configured Safari bookmarks. We deploy (with our current monolithic image) a standard set of Safari bookmarks for users, and I would like to migrate that customization into Casper without having to bake it into my OS image.

Has anyone else done this with success?

Thanks,

Pete

[#2]

Well, like I said, I knew it would be kind of obvious, but I appreciate all the help.

Now my issue is that I can push the DMG with the bookmarks via Remote, but it doesn't seem to go during imaging...

Any thoughts?

[talkingmoose]

Sounds like you haven't selected "Fill User Template" or "FUT" for the
On 4/19/10 2:18 PM, "Wann, Peter" <p.wann at tcu.edu> wrote:
package. Set this in the JSS or via Casper Admin. All new logins should
receive the bookmarks.

--

William Smith
Technical Analyst
Merrill Communications LLC
(651) 632-1492

[mpebley]

Here is what I do and is a little more involved than other methods.

Modify a copy of /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/BuiltInBookmarks.plist
This is the plist file that creates the default bookmarks initially made for each user when they first launch the browser. Make your changes there and package it with Composer to replace the default file for Safari. This effectively injects your default bookmarks, replacing Apples. In my experience this will also keep throughout Safari updates. Use PlistEdit Pro or Apple's Property List Editor to make the initial changes (makes it easier to understand the layout). Since I like placing our internal bookmarks in the Bookmarks Bar - this works great for us, grouping them into the bookmarks bar folders.

Another file that may be of interest is /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Resources/Defaults.plist - here is where you can set default settings like minimum fontsize, menu history limit, show statusbar, etc. I package my changes here as well into the same package with also a modified TopSites.plist and preference file to drop into the User Template directory for each new user account that is created on machine.

I have my package as part of my imaging workflow so every machine will get it before deployment and user account profile setup.

---
Michael Pebley
Discovery EUS
Macintosh Technical Lead and Desktop Engineer
---

I hope I'm not missing something totally obvious, but I can't find where to set up pre-configured Safari bookmarks. We deploy (with our current monolithic image) a standard set of Safari bookmarks for users, and I would like to migrate that customization into Casper without having to bake it into my OS image. Has anyone else done this with success? Thanks, Pete

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[#5]

"Wann, Peter" <p.wann at tcu.edu> writes: I hope I'm not missing something totally obvious, but I can't find where to set up pre-configured Safari bookmarks. We deploy (with our current monolithic image) a standard set of Safari bookmarks for users, and I would like to migrate that customization into Casper without having to bake it into my OS image. Has anyone else done this with success?

I tried breifly but had no success with managing bookmarks easily. I changed my approach by imaging machines and setting the default page on the Configuration to our company portal page which contains all the links and bookmarks that our staff should be using.

Perhaps there's a way to set the default homepage remotely without reimaging?

Gene Anderson
Systems Analyst, ACTC, MCP
Pembina Hills Regional Division No.7
Phone: (780) 674-8535 ext 6860
email: ganderson at phrd.ab.ca

"I find your lack of faith disturbing..."
- Darth Vader, Sith Lord.

[milesleacy]

jamf help setHomePage

it has feu & fut options.

I hope this is helpful.

--
Miles Leacy
Technical Training Manager
Mobile (347) 277-7321

miles at jamfsoftware.com<mailto:miles at jamfsoftware.com>
....................................................................
JAMF Software
1011 Washington Ave. S
Suite 350
Minneapolis, MN 55415
....................................................................
Office: (612) 605-6625
Facsimile: (612) 332-9054
....................................................................
US Support: (612) 216-1296
UK Support +44.(0)20.3002.3907
AU Support +61.(0)2.8014.7469
....................................................................
http://www.jamfsoftware.com<http://www.jamfsoftware.com/>

[#7]

As a follow up to Gene's post, here's a script using the JAMF binary to set
your default homepage for all browsers..

Run this via a policy or with Casper Remote;

/usr/sbin/jamf setHomePage -homepage 'http://www.google.com' -fut -feu

-- Jason Weber
Certified Casper Administrator
Technology Support Cluster Specialist
Independent School District 196
jason.weber at district196.org

[#8]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, but I'm actually referring to setting and customizing the bookmarks, not just the home page. Setting the home page in the JSS configuration works great for me.

[milesleacy]

Have you tried packaging or writing to...

/Users/username/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist

--
Miles Leacy
Technical Training Manager
Mobile (347) 277-7321

miles at jamfsoftware.com<mailto:miles at jamfsoftware.com>
....................................................................
JAMF Software
1011 Washington Ave. S
Suite 350
Minneapolis, MN 55415
....................................................................
Office: (612) 605-6625
Facsimile: (612) 332-9054
....................................................................
US Support: (612) 216-1296
UK Support +44.(0)20.3002.3907
AU Support +61.(0)2.8014.7469
....................................................................
http://www.jamfsoftware.com<http://www.jamfsoftware.com/>

[rmanly]

This works. I have done it for several years using various methods…currently
Dropbox. ;)

Ryan M. Manly
Glenbrook High Schools
? ACSP ? ACMT

[tlarkin]

Maybe this is just me, but this sounds like a job for Apple Script and Automator work flows.... Seeing as AS can directly interact with GUI apps, there is most likely a way to automate the import and export of a set book mark list via an Apple Script. I will admit that I don't know exactly how to code that myself off the top of my head.

-tom

[jarednichols]

Seeing how the user's bookmarks are just a plist, could it be handled with MCX settings with a custom template?

--
Jared F. Nichols
Desktop Engineer, Client Services
Information Services Department
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood Street
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420
781.981.5436

[talkingmoose]

The Safari bookmarks are in .plist format, but they're located in
On 4/20/10 8:31 AM, "Nichols, Jared - 1160 - MITLL" <jared.nichols at ll.mit.edu> wrote:
~/Library/Safari. All the research I've done to manage bookmarks has led me
to believe we can't manage these because of their location outside of
~/Library/Preferences.

If you know how to manage them via MCX, I'd really be grateful to learn how
you did it. I haven't been able to get this to work, even if I point to
~/Library/Safari.

--

William Smith
Technical Analyst
Merrill Communications LLC
(651) 632-1492

[jarednichols]

I'm just positing here because I've never done it before, but could you
replace the ~/Library/Safari/bookmarks.plist file with a symlink to one
that MCX could actually handle?

--Jared F. Nichols
Desktop Engineer, Client Services
Information Services Department
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood Street
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420
781.981.5436

[bentoms]

Anyone found a way of doing this with Casper MCX?

[bentoms]

Finally did a post on how I do it: http://macmule.com/2014/05/20/how-to-create-a-custom-safari-extension-bar/

[jaharmi]

The bookmarks file is not a preference, so it can’t be managed with preference management tools even though it is a plist.

The concern I have is not so much the initial population of the bookmarks, but maintaining it over time. Sites and systems bookmarked will probably change. Updating bookmarks seems to be a more difficult task overall — especially because you may not want to overwrite existing user bookmarks — and because of that, I personally think it’s better to find a different solution (like this) to the same need. Besides that, every browser handles this differently, so if you have another solution that can work across browsers, that would seem more ideal.

[bentoms]

Hi @jaharmi,

We use the Extension Bar to deploy links to company websites & resources. As it seems most web based products we have only support Safari on a Mac, we’ve found this is a good way to drive people to use Safari to access these sites, even if they use other browsers for general browsing.

With the linked sites being internally hosted, they rarely change.

[jaharmi]

@bentoms,

I’ve seen it both ways, internal sites that change and others that don’t (and even that probably depends upon the timescale). I think your idea of adding an extension is a reasonable alternative. It’s too bad that even that requires all this effort. Thanks for sharing your setup!

[milesleacy]

I agree with @jaharmi 's comments. Since we're working in a Casper Suite environment, Self Service URL plugins seems like a good solution to me. If you're interested in scoping different links to different computers/users, have a look at this article...

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=177