PARCC Testing User Creation

[GabeShack]

Hi all,
So I've been working on setting up a new user specifically for the PARCC test and so far I'm hitting a few roadblocks.
1. I made a policy to create the PARCC user
2. I made a policy to set the PARCC user to auto login copying the kcpassword file.
3. I made a package of the dock settings, as well as one for safari settings to always allow/run in unsafe mode (JAVA).
4. I made a package of the settings for safari to open at login and also have the homepage set to the parcc website.

So here are the problems I'm seeing.
1. The dock keeps adding Maps and iBooks on this user. Id like to eliminate them for just this user and not modify the template.
2. Safari does indeed open at login, but never opens a window. Just the app opens with no window. If I click on it then it opens the webpage. If I run a command to open /Applications/Safari.app it opens the parcc page.
3. When I run the parcc test the 1st time it pops up a java window letting me know that its running in unsafe mode and check the box if I dont want to see this message again.

I need to eliminate these three problems asap. Any help would be Greatly, Greatly appreciated!
Gabe Shackney
Princeton Public Schools

[Jalves]

Hey Gabe, I hope all is well. I had problem # 2 last year when working through my PARCC Setup. I never got Safari actually to open at login. What I did was drag the webloc of the PARCC testing site into the applications folder. I then set that webloc as a login item for my local testing user account. Let me know if that works.

[bvrooman]

Problem #1 is irritating. It has to do with when the Dock plist is created during the login process, from what I can tell. The most reliable way is probably to modify these files to what you want:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/com.apple.dockfixup.plist
/System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/default.plist

The "quick and dirty" way could be to make a script with something like Dockutil, and include a delay at the beginning of the script which waits for a long enough period of time that the OS is done creating the Dock plist for the user at hand.

[jagress]

Hi Gabe et al,

Oh, PARCC! I actually switched to Firefox because I ran into issues with Safari across different OS versions. If your OS and Safari updates aren't all current, I'd be careful about using it across a diverse range of machines. That said, I did all the work for Safari before realizing this :)

To auto-open Safari at login, I ended up creating a Launch Agent for the PARCC user to run "open /Applications/Safari.app" at login. That seemed to be the most reliable way to open an app at login after seeing login items be inconsistent.

Is the Java pop-up about Unsafe mode for Safari (that's a Safari thing setting, not Java) or is it about security? The Java pop-up about security is what I saw and I was able to prevent it by going to Sys Prefs > Java > Advanced > Mixed Code and choosing "Enable - hid warning and run with protections." Then I packaged the Java settings in /Users/parccuser/Library/Application Support/Oracle.

I would recommend testing any different versions of Safari you may have out there as I saw issues specifically with the Unsafe mode setting when logging into TestNav (even when I applied it in the pref file, it became unset...I think something to do with cfprefsd). Seemed to be particularly inconsistent on 10.8.

[GabeShack]

@jagress
Would you mind sharing the Launch Agent you created that runs the open command on safari? I've spent way too much time looking at a computer screen today to make anything work anymore....lol. Once I get this running I can sleep again.
Gabe Shackney
Princeton Public Schools

[GabeShack]

@bvrooman
When you modify those files does it affect the Default user templates as well? I just don't want to mess up other who use these machines.
Gabe Shackney
Princeton Public Schools

[jagress]

@gshackney][/url
Throw this in /Users/parccuser/Library/LaunchAgents and make sure the permissions on it are 644 (rw/r/r). It should automatically load at next login for that user.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>KeepAlive</key>
        <dict>
                <key>SuccessfulExit</key>
                <false/>
        </dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>edu.school.OpenSafari</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>/usr/bin/open</string>
                <string>/Applications/Safari.app</string>
        </array>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

[SincerelyJoshin]

3. When I run the parcc test the 1st time it pops up a java window letting me know that its running in unsafe mode and check the box if I dont want to see this message again.

Doesn't sound familiar, are you referring to the 'Do you want to run this application?' prompt?