custom sidebar item #1214

SteveKueng · 2024-04-01T16:13:32Z

we use Munki in combination with Intune.
To make it easier for users, I would like to integrate the company portal web directly into Munki.
As a possible solution I have built a custom sidebar item.
The title, icon and link of the custom sidebar item can be configured via ManagedInstalls.plist

ManagedInstalls.plist:
{
AppleSoftwareUpdatesOnly = 0;
CustonSidebarItem = {
icon = desktopcomputer;
link = "https://portal.manage.microsoft.com/devices";
title = "My Devices";
};
FollowHTTPRedirects = none;
IgnoreMiddleware = 0;
IgnoreSystemProxies = 0;
InstallAppleSoftwareUpdates = 0;
LastCheckDate = "2024-04-01 14:56:58 +0000";
LastCheckResult = 0;
LogFile = "/Library/Managed Installs/Logs/ManagedSoftwareUpdate.log";
LogToSyslog = 0;
LoggingLevel = 1;
ManagedInstallDir = "/Library/Managed Installs";
OldestUpdateDays = 0;
PendingUpdateCount = 0;
UseClientCertificate = 0;
}

defaults write /Library/Preferences/ManagedInstalls.plist CustonSidebarItem 'titleMy Deviceicondesktopcomputerlinkhttps://portal.manage.microsoft.com/devices'

better solution not yet found

gregneagle · 2024-04-01T16:31:18Z

.../apps/Managed Software Center/Managed Software Center/Controllers/MainWindowController.swift

@@ -292,6 +294,15 @@ class MainWindowController: NSWindowController, NSWindowDelegate, WKNavigationDe

    func loadInitialView() {
        // Called by app delegate from applicationDidFinishLaunching:
+
+        // add custom link if nessesary
+        if let CustonSidebarItem = pref("CustonSidebarItem") as? Dictionary<String, String> {


Need to change the name to "CustomSidebarItem" in all occurrences.

I must have missed it :)

It's "CustonSidebarItem" pretty much everywhere, and should be "CustomSidebarItem".

OMG... you're right... I've been working on it for too long...

gregneagle · 2024-04-01T16:33:08Z

.../apps/Managed Software Center/Managed Software Center/Controllers/MainWindowController.swift

@@ -1070,7 +1088,8 @@ class MainWindowController: NSWindowController, NSWindowDelegate, WKNavigationDe
                decisionHandler(.cancel)
                return
            }
-            if scheme == "mailto" || scheme == "http" || scheme == "https" {
+
+            if scheme == "mailto" {


Does this then change the behavior for http/https links from other contexts, like in item descriptions?

I'm not quite sure yet.
I'm still testing when and how this part triggers.

Custom links that don't have target="_blank" would go though this code path, I'd think (Links in client customization, like the footer, the banners, and the (former) sidebar-now-link-strip)

gregneagle · 2024-04-01T16:34:29Z

.../apps/Managed Software Center/Managed Software Center/Controllers/MainWindowController.swift

@@ -1670,6 +1701,16 @@ extension MainWindowController: NSOutlineViewDelegate {
            }
            if let imageView = view?.imgView {
                imageView.image = NSImage(named: NSImage.Name(icon))?.tint(color: .secondaryLabelColor)
+                if #available(macOS 11.0, *) {


What does this mean if an admin has a custom sidebar item and the user is running < macOS 11?

SF symbol only works with macOS 11.0 and above. Therefore the restriction. With older systems no symbol is displayed.
That could definitely be solved a little better

Or just declare no support for custom sidebar items on macOS < 11. (So no item(s) at all -- not weird broken items without icons)

gregneagle · 2024-04-01T16:39:34Z

I like the general idea. I have a few questions and comments, some of which are above. As for the icon, what values are legal, and where is the icon sourced? This will need good documentation, and I expect people might want to provide a custom icon as well. I wonder if this (instead of being in preferences) might better "live" in the other customization resources for MSC.app...

gregneagle · 2024-04-01T16:48:38Z

Once the door has been opened to custom sidebar items, I can see admins wanting multiple such items. Could this be easily implemented in a way that either supports multiple items now, or could be easily extended in the future? (This again maybe pushes the config into the custom client resources instead of ManagedInstalls preferences)

SteveKueng · 2024-04-01T16:58:00Z

SF Symbols are currently used. These are integrated in the OS and can be specified in the configuration. https://developer.apple.com/sf-symbols/ (icon name is the SF symbol name)
I was thinking of using images specified by the admin, but that's challenging with light and dark mode...
The downside of SF symbol is that it only works from 11.0. Therefore the restriction. With older systems no symbol is displayed.

I have already thought about several links. They should be easy to implement.
You could simply specify an array and then display it.
I can only think of one section that is a bit more difficult to set dynamically.

SteveKueng · 2024-04-01T17:04:26Z

Once the door has been opened to custom sidebar items, I can see admins wanting multiple such items. Could this be easily implemented in a way that either supports multiple items now, or could be easily extended in the future? (This again maybe pushes the config into the custom client resources instead of ManagedInstalls preferences)

How do you mean the configuration in a custom client resource? With a separate config?

gregneagle · 2024-04-01T17:14:12Z

How do you mean the configuration in a custom client resource? With a separate config?

Yes, in a new file in the client customization archive (https://github.com/munki/munki/wiki/Client-Customization)

It just seems to me that we already have a method to do some MSC customizations. This is a new MSC customization, and one can argue it should be defined in the same "place" as the other customizations

…ar items are only possible with 11.0 and newer

SteveKueng · 2024-04-01T19:05:01Z

I have left it in the ManagedInstalls.plist for now.
One advantage of this is that you can work with MDM variables in the URLs, e.g. deviceid.

the customisation now includes an array with objects

defaults write /Library/Preferences/ManagedInstalls.plist CustomSidebarItems '
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>title</key>
        <string>My Device</string>
        <key>icon</key>
        <string>desktopcomputer</string>
        <key>link</key>
        <string>https://portal.manage.microsoft.com/devices/c319a32f-6f50-48c1-b1ca-953b42178648</string>
    </dict>
    <dict>
        <key>title</key>
        <string>All Devices</string>
        <key>icon</key>
        <string>macbook.and.iphone</string>
        <key>link</key>
        <string>https://portal.manage.microsoft.com/devices</string>
    </dict>
    <dict>
        <key>title</key>
        <string>Helpdesk</string>
        <key>icon</key>
        <string>questionmark.circle</string>
        <key>link</key>
        <string>https://portal.manage.microsoft.com/helpdesk</string>
    </dict>
    <dict>
        <key>title</key>
        <string>My Homepage</string>
        <key>icon</key>
        <string>book.pages</string>
        <key>link</key>
        <string>https://umb.ch</string>
    </dict>
</array>'

Steve Kueng added 3 commits April 1, 2024 17:56

Custom menu item added

acbcbf3

fix to open the links in munki

90219a5

better solution not yet found

rename to CustonSidebarItem

e0342d0

gregneagle reviewed Apr 1, 2024

View reviewed changes

complete renaming

b9b2cc3

Steve Kueng added 2 commits April 1, 2024 20:53

allow multiple sidebar items

2808e65

since sf symbols are only supported with 11.0 and newer, custom sideb…

7ceff29

…ar items are only possible with 11.0 and newer

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custom sidebar item #1214

custom sidebar item #1214

SteveKueng commented Apr 1, 2024

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custom sidebar item #1214

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custom sidebar item #1214

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