When you’re building and manipulating apps in the Apple App Stores, it helps to be able to pull and parse pieces of data. Here, we’ll look at two strategies that you can use to do so. It’s worth noting that the purpose of this was to use the URL of an app from an MDM and then be able to script updating metadata about the app, given that vendors often change names of the display name of an app (e.g. Yelp is actually called “Yelp: Discover Local Favorites on the App Store”). First, we’ll grab a URL. This one is for Self Service: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/self-service-mobile/id718509958?mt=8 If you don’t know the URL…
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My 16 Mac Security Advances Article On TechCrunch
Ever since the kids from Silicon Valley went to TechCrunch, I’ve been thinking that at some point I’d want to put a piece there. Luckily, I recently got the chance. Today, 16 Apple Security Advances To Take Note Of In 2016 went up on TechCrunch. You can access the article here. The original article actually listed the year that each was introduced in order. It was a lot of work to go back in time and piece the timeline together, so since the years didn’t make it through editorial, I list them here (not that anyone actually cares): 2002: Managed Preferences 2003: FileVault 2004: Require all software installers that need system resources…
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Disable Automatic Updates On OS X Servers
By default, OS X now updates apps that are distributed through the Mac App Store (MAS). OS X Server is really just the Server app, sitting on the App Store. If the Server app is upgraded automatically, you will potentially experience some adverse side effects, especially if the app is running on a Metadata Controller for Xsan, runs Open Directory, or a major release of the Server app ships. Therefore, in this article we’re going to disable this otherwise sweet feature of OS X. To get started, first open the System Preferences. From there, click on the App Store System Preference pane. From the App Store System Preference pane, uncheck the…
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Use The Caching Server In OS X Server 5
The Caching Server in OS X Server 5 (for El Capitan and Yosemite) now does content and Software Updates. Woohoo, the promised land. Now, when 10 of your users download that latest Nicholas Sparks book and movie, you only sacrifice your WAN pipe to download it once, and the other 9 people piggy-back off that. And when OS X El Capitan ships, you only need to download it over the WAN once, and the other local users will pull off that spiffy Caching Server sitting in your office. Pretty sweet, right? So, how do you use this ultra-complicated service. Well, it looks and feels kinda’ like an iPad app. Which is…
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Completely Reinstall Final Cut In OS X
I’ve seen a few instances where an upgrade caused Final Cut to run kinda’ strangely. To resolve, I’ve just been doing a quick reinstall of Final Cut. To do so: First move the Final Cut application to the trash (it’s in the /Applications folder). From your home folder, go to ~/Library/Application Support and move the Final Cut folder in there into the trash. From Library/Preferences in your home folder, put com.apple.FinalCut.plist, com.apple.FinalCut.LSSharedFileList and com.apple.FinalCut.UserDestinations.plist in the trash. Finally, trash com.apple.FinalCut directory from ~/Library/Caches. Once done, go back to the Mac App Store and reinstall Final Cut and open it. Those folders you just tossed out will get re-created. Your toolbars and other customizations…
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Obtain Old Versions of OS X Server
With Yosemite in beta, it’s worth mentioning that older versions of OS X Server are still available on the app store, if you just know where to look. You can access and purchase other versions using these links: Server 4: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-server/id883878097?mt=12 Server 3: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-server-3.2.2/id714547929?mt=12 Server 2: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-server-2.2.5/id537441259?mt=12 Server 1: If you already own OS X Lion Server from the app store then you can still access it under Purchases.
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Viewing Mac App Store Purchases From The Command Line
As you may have noticed, we’ve been working on building some links between the App Store and patch management tools such as Casper, FileWave and Munki. We’ve been looking at policy-based management of apps as well. In this semi-new world of signing and stores and the such, there’s actually a good bit you can ascertain about an app both inside the app as well as inside metadata OS X keeps about the app. I’ve discussed signing (apps and packages) in the past, but let’s look at using some commands to help us out with some tasks. The first command is to determine some information about apps that are on the…
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Enable the Debug Menu in the Mac App Store
The Mac App Store has a debug menu. To enable the debug menu, enable the ShowDebugMenu key in com.apple.appstore. To do so: defaults write com.apple.appstore ShowDebugMenu -boolean YES Once enabled, there are a number of options to show the folder where apps download, enable logging, clear cookies and reset the Mac App Store. To turn the Mac App Store debug menu back off: defaults write com.apple.appstore ShowDebugMenu -boolean NO
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What Mac App Store ID is Bessie Using in Lion?
Users can log into the Mac App Store using their personal Apple ID. Users can also log into the Mac App Store with an AppleID that is linked to a company owned email address instead. The AppleID itself should be a company owned asset so that if/when users leave the organization, the organizations till owns the software that they purchase. Whether purchasing software through a volume purchasing program or directly, those dollars are wasted if the user is purchasing software through a personal AppleID. Therefore, you need a way to look at what AppleID that a user is using and to make sure that the organization has a way to…