"How to make Mac app management as easy as point-and-click" blog post resource page

[talkingmoose]

Based on our blog post "How to make Mac app management as easy as point-and-click", I wanted to start a discussion area here on Jamf Nation to help answer questions and share resources

We have an exciting new feature in Jamf Pro 10.19, which was released February 11 and will be available to Jamf Cloud customers the weekend of February 21, which I like to call "Bring your own manifest". It's a new way for Jamf Pro admins to add custom configuration profiles without needing to know how to use Terminal, create plist files or understand XML.

Some folks have already started creating custom Jamf Pro manifests for applications like Enterprise Connect, Safari and Firefox as well as for managing complex items like macOS Catalina's new Notifications feature. Kudos to these community members!

Take a few moments to test some of these manifests in your environment and see how easy they make app management.

[talkingmoose]

For anyone who'd like to learn about the structure of JSON Schemas (the format of manifest files), check out the official documentation at https://json-schema.org/.

[lcut]

Hey this is awesome. Thanks for the update.
Will managed (non-MAS) apps have the ability to auto-update thru this feature? ie. push updates as they become available from the developer?

[bmack99]

Thanks for sharing this, very exciting indeed. This reminds me of Group Policy on the Windows side.
Quick question:

You state:
"To use the manifest:
Copy the contents of Edge’s very long JSON manifest to the clipboard."

Where is the actual manifest located?

[dtmille2]

Have any Apple admins begun sharing manifests for use with this new feature anywhere?

[talkingmoose]

@brianmcbride99, getting there is a bit buried, but the instructions are on Microsoft's blog post.

How to get the policy manifest for a specific version of Microsoft Edge

To get the policy manifest:

• Go to the Microsoft Edge Enterprise landing page.
• On the CHANNEL/BUILD dropdown list, select Beta 81.*. (Today, any version of 81 or later supports the manifest)
• On the PLATFORM dropdown list, select macOS 64 bit.
• Click GET POLICY FILES to download our policy templates bundle. (Note: Currently, the policy templates bundle is signed as a CAB file. You’ll need to use a 3rd party tool, such as The Unarchiver, to open the file on macOS.)

After you unpack the CAB file, navigate to the “mac” top level directory. The manifest, which is named “policy_manifest.json”, is in the “mac” directory.

[talkingmoose]

@dtmille2, a few of us are collectively posting items at https://github.com/Jamf-Custom-Profile-Schemas/.

It's growing but we'd love to have more. If you know of any resources that document an app's manageable settings, leave a comment and a link. Or consider using Managed App Schema Builder to make your own and contribute to the community.

I'm currently going through BBEdit's Expert Preferences list and creating manifests for those.

[johna]

@talkingmoose So again... this is awesome. I was able to get your post on Chrome Extensions working. Now, I'm trying to get some managed bookmarks done, too. I found this site from Google and it has a "Schema" example. Can I use schema for my BYOM to Jamf? If so, what am I missing here to get it to work? For example, your extension manifest and the all Edge Manifests have a key called property_order with a value defined. Do I need this and if so where do I find it? Thanks again!

[talkingmoose]

@johna, first, you can definitely use that Google site to build your own manifest. I do know someone has made a manifest already, but I haven't tried it myself. You'll find that manifest here:

https://github.com/Jamf-Custom-Profile-Schemas/noahdowd-schemas

And it does appear to have a ManagedBookmarks section, which is what I think you'd want.

Also, Google has been posting some simple manifests themselves, which I'm glad to see.

This one manages updates!
https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/9923111?hl=en

[psliequ]

@johna The bookmark schema can get very complex if you're trying to organize bookmarks by folder, but if you're content with a single top level folder called 'Managed Bookmarks' something like this works well.

[OJtheD]

@talkingmoose - Thanks for putting that together - I found it very helpful. Can you tell me how I'd make items "recommended", rather than "mandatory"? There are initial settings I'd like to "suggest" for my user, but allow them to change them to suit their own preference.