• Python,  UX Research

    Export Airtable Grids to CSV

    I have to say that when I first saw Airtable I thought, oh look – Excel online. It’s a little more than that and it’s been kinda’ cool to watch Airtable mature. The thing I like about Airtable is that a lot of software – in fact most software, is a database, logic that puts data into the database and takes things out of the database, and then actions based on the data. If we’re interacting with operating system APIs, then that database might be in registry hives (Windows) or defaults domains (Mac). We like to overcomplicate what software does in our brains, but that’s the gist. And a lot…

  • SQL

    Convert a SQL Dump to Excel

    The attached script can be used to migrate data out of a sqldump and into csv and xls for further analysis or ETL’ing. The name of each table is used to create a separate csv file (e.g. table1.csv) and an xls representation of each table is put into a workbook in a spreadsheet. The script requires Python 3.7. So if you’re on a Mac you might need to install that. Here, we use Homebrew to do so: brew install python3 Then you’d need to install the specific mods: python3 -m pip install pandas

  • Mac OS X Server

    Export All Profile Manager Data Into CSV

    If you fire up a connection to Postgres on a Profile Manager server, you can see a list of all the databases and tables on the server, respectively: sudo -u _devicemgr psql -h /Library/Server/ProfileManager/Config/var/PostgreSQL devicemgr_v2m0 devicemgr_v2m0=# \list devicemgr_v2m0=# \dt The list of tables is as follows: Name | Owner | Encoding | Collate | Ctype | Access privileges ----------------+------------+----------+---------+-------+--------------------------- devicemgr_v2m0 | _devicemgr | UTF8 | C | C | postgres | _devicemgr | UTF8 | C | C | template0 | _devicemgr | UTF8 | C | C | =c/_devicemgr + | | | | | _devicemgr=CTc/_devicemgr template1 | _devicemgr | UTF8 | C | C | =c/_devicemgr + |…

  • JAMF

    Free Tool For Mass Updates

    There’s a new JSS companion tool, called JSS MUT, which allows you to perform mass actions based on a CSV. Basically, set fields and enforce mobile device names (becoming a very common need out there). If you’re a JSS admin, it’s a nice tool, and a big should out to Michael Levenick for making it free! Official website is at http://jssmut.weebly.com. Hat tip to Trey Howell for clueing us in! 🙂

  • Articles and Books,  iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    Migrating Objects From Active Directory To Apple School Manager

    Apple School Manager is a portal used to create classes, import students, manage Managed Apple IDs, and link all these things together. You can use a Student Information System (SIS) to create these classes, import students, etc. But, only if you have a SIS with an API that Apple links to. If you don’t, you’ll need to import data using csv files. And you’ll need to import four csv files: Classes, Instructors, Staff, and of course Students. Many schools will already have this data in Active Directory or another LDAP-based solution. Here, we’ll look at getting the information out of Active Directory and into csv. The LDIFDE utility exports and imports objects from…

  • Active Directory

    Export AD Objects Into LDIF On Windows Server

    The LDIFDE utility exports and imports objects from and to Active Directory using the ldif format, which is kinda’ like csv when it gets really drunk and can’t stay on one line. Luckily, ldif can’t drive. Actually, each attribute/field is on a line (which allows for arrays) and an empty line starts the next record. Which can make for a pretty messy looking file the first time you look at one. The csvde command can be used to export data into the csv format instead. In it’s simplest form the ldifde command can be used to export AD objects just using a -f option to specify the location (the working…

  • Mac OS X,  Mass Deployment

    Importing Computers Into DeployStudio

    DeployStudio has the ability to import a csv file that is populated with the MAC address and a few specific settings. This allows you to prepopulate the database with the names that you want each machine to have. If you purchase a lot of machines from Apple then you can get a list of MAC addresses, or, you can use a bar code scanner to scan them as you’re unboxing. If you have a list of MAC addresses (en0), then you will need to format them in a very specific manner. Here, I have included a sample csv file with the data that goes into each field, which I have…

  • Mac OS X Server,  Windows Server

    From Open Directory to Active Directory

    Whether you’re going from Open Directory to Active Directory or from Active Directory to Open Directory, chances are you’ll encounter csvde along the way. Csvde is installed on Windows Server and allows you to interface with Active Directory using csv files. cvsde can import files using the -i switch, followed by the -f switch to indicate the file that you are importing, followed by the path of the file. So if you save a file called toimport.csv to the root of your c drive temporarily you would use the following command to import the objects in the rows of the file: csvde -i -f c:toimport.csv Now, what’s that file need.…