PARCC Testing User Creation

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.

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.

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.

@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

@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

@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>

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?