Overview
This article covers the installation process of the Pendo Launcher on a Mac computer. The installation process for a Mac computer is different than the process for a Windows computer. If you don't wish to use an MDM device to force install the Pendo Launcher to your users, you can also install the Pendo Launcher via the Chrome Admin Console and instructions for that process can be found here. Planning your Pendo Launcher install will help your team accurately capture all of the Visitor and Account metadata you'll need to install the Pendo Launcher on their computer.Note: Force installing the Pendo Launcher via the Chrome Admin Console will not allow you to push metadata.
Installation Process For Mac
- Determine the Google Chrome Extension ID of the particular version of the Pendo Launcher you are using
- Determine metadata values you intend to configure onto the machine.
- Create a .plist file for chrome using these strings
- Verify policy configurations in Chrome
Determine Google Chrome Extension ID
For the purpose of this document the Google Chrome Extension ID will be called <EXTENSION_ID>. This ID will remain the same through major and minor version updates, but there may be other versions of the Pendo Launcher deployed to the Chrome Extension Store intended for use by other organizations. You can check this value by navigating to chrome://extensions in Chrome.
Determine Metadata Values
These metadata values can be at two levels, either account or visitor. The Visitor is an individual unique user. These are users you can identify based on how they signed up or logged in to your product. A Visitor ID is typically an email or a unique number. This is different from an Account, which is a collection of multiple visitors.Any values you include must be configured in Pendo prior in order for our backend to ingest them. These values should be stored as a stringified JSON object with all XML incompatible characters escaped. An example can be found in the code snippet below.1{ 2 "id": "foo", 3 "bar": "baz", 4 "bingo": [ 5 1, 6 2, 7 3], 8 "tango": "2006-01-02T15:04:05.999-05:00" 9}
Would become:
1{ 2 "id": "foo", 3 "bar": "baz", 4 "bingo": [ 5 1, 6 2, 7 3], 8 "tango": "2006-01-02T15:04:05.999-05:00" 9}
Create .plist file
Using the strings it’s now time to create a .plist file for Chrome. Plist files are unique to Mac systems.PLIST (stands for Property List) is an extension used to save preferences of applications. These files are formatted in XML and contain properties and configuration settings for various programs.
Note: This plist file should be pushed to com.google.Chrome.extensions.<YOUR_EXTENSION_ID>
For the Property List field, input the script found below:
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>APIKey</key>
<string>YOUR API KEY HERE (REQUIRED)</string>
<key>visitor</key>
<string>YOUR VISITOR STRING HERE (OPTIONAL, BUT RECOMMENDED)</string>
</dict>
</plist>
Below is an example pList file.
<?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>APIKey</key>
<string>INSERT API KEY<</string>
<key>visitor</key>
#Please reference your MDM manual for common variables to set Visitor ID (i.e. john.doe@pendo.io)
<string>{"id": "john.doe@pendo.io"}</string>
</dict>
</plist>
Verify Correctly Configured Policies
Navigate to chrome://policy. After clicking refresh policies, you should see your strings configured as chrome policies for the Pendo Launcher. For quick validation, the color of the Pendo Launcher tells you whether or not the extension is actively collecting data. If the Pendo Launcher icon is pink, it is active and is collecting data. If the Pendo Launcher icon is grey, it is inactive and is not collecting data.
To verify the metadata is being correctly injected into the agent, right click the Pendo Launcher extension icon and click "Show Debug Info".
If the Pendo Launcher is collecting information properly, you will see a message stating "The Pendo Launcher is collecting data on this page." This means your Pendo Launcher is configured to collect information on the current web page.
If the Pendo Launcher is NOT collecting information on the page, you will see this message below.
To validate that the IDs and metadata are correctly configured, first confirm the string sharing who the user is identified as. Next, click the ‘Show Configuration Info’ button to expand the settings configured within the extension. Click the ‘Re-fetch extension settings’ to ensure the extension has the latest settings and review the IT-Managed Config section to ensure the data aligns with the expected deployment configuration.
