This article covers the process to auto-install the Pendo Launcher extension on the Chrome web browser on a Mac computer using Mobile Device Management (MDM) tooling, which involves:
- Creating a .plist file on your own device.
- Pushing the .plist file to your end-user devices.
- Validating that the installation was successful.
The installation process doesn’t identify the visitors (end-users) or include metadata about them. Pair this installation with a follow-up configuration to identify visitors to Pendo. You can find a list of these options in the IT guide to deploying the Pendo Launcher.
For complete documentation on enterprise management of Chrome, see Google’s article: Set Chrome app and extension policies (Mac).
Prerequisites
This installation method isn't compatible with the Google Admin console method of extension installation, even for other non-Pendo extensions. If you already use Google Admin console for managing Chrome extensions, you must use that method for the Pendo Launcher as well.
Before you continue, we recommend that you read our Plan your Adopt installation and IT guide to deploying the Pendo Launcher articles.
Step 1. Create a .plist file
Create a file on your own machine called com.google.Chrome.plist
. Copy the following code into the file and save:
<?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>ExtensionSettings</key> <dict> <key>epnhoepnmfjdbjjfanpjklemanhkjgil</key> <dict> <key>installation_mode</key> <string>force_installed</string> <key>update_url</key> <string>https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx</string> <key>toolbar_pin</key> <string>force_pinned</string> </dict> </dict> </dict> </plist>
If you would like users to have the option to uninstall the Pendo Launcher extension, you can change the keyword force_installed
to say normal_installed
instead.
If you don't want to automatically pin the extension to the user's toolbar, you can remove the key toolbar_pin
and its associated string, force_pin
.
Step 2. Push the .plist file to your end-user devices
The preference domain for the configuration profile is com.google.Chrome
. If your tooling requires the .plist file to be converted to a configuration profile before uploading, you can use the open source tool, mcxToProfile.
Your MDM tooling has specific instructions on how to deploy a custom configuration profile. Below is a list of documentation for some of the most common MDM tools used for Mac devices:
Step 3. Validate the installation
Pendo recommends gradual rollout of the installation, beginning with a device that you have physical access to. Once the configuration profile is pushed to a given device, confirm its presence to validate your deployment process, and then confirm that the extension is installed to validate the content of your delivered profile.
Confirm the presence of the configuration profile
There are two ways to confirm a configuration profile is successfully installed:
Apple system settings
- On your Mac, choose System Settings in your Apple menu.
- Select Privacy and Security in the sidebar.
- Select Profiles. You might need to scroll down to find it.
- Search for your configuration profile, which is the name configured in your MDM tool, to check that it's present.
The command line
- Open the Mac terminal app.
- Enter the command
cd /Library/Managed\ Preferences
to navigate to the managed preferences folder. - Verify that the
com.google.Chrome.plist
file is present. - Enter the command
defaults read /Library/Managed\ Preferences/com.google.Chrome
. - Verify the contents match the following:
{
ExtensionSettings = {
"epnhoepnmfjdbjjfanpjklemanhkjgil" = {
"update_url" = "https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx";
"installation_mode" = "force_installed";
"toolbar_pin" = "force_pinned";
};
};
}
Validate the content of your delivered profile
Once you've confirmed that the configuration file is present, validate that the file is formatted correctly by checking that the browser correctly force-installs the extension.
- Open Chrome on a device that has the configuration profile present. If the Chrome app is already running, quit and re-open it.
- In your Chrome browser, navigate to the
chrome://extensions
page by copying and pasting that exact text into your URL bar. - Find the Pendo Launcher, listed under Extensions. If you chose
force_installed
when creating the configuration profile, there is no option to disable the extension from the page.