Overview
The process for pushing out IT provided configurations vary from operating system to operating system, but once those values have been inserted into Chrome’s policies, they can all be interpreted by the Pendo extension in the same way. Before any of the Operating Systems are able to accept values into the managed storage, the managed storage must have its schema set in the extension’s manifest.json.
In order to work with as many Chrome and device policy management systems as possible, IT managers can provide metadata to the Pendo extension via Google Chrome’s extension policy API.
IT force installing of extension and defining metadata can also both be accomplished using the same ‘Chrome Policy’ interface. While they are different fields, the same tools that are used to set the Chrome policy for force installation can also be used, in exactly the same way, to define metadata for the Pendo Chrome extension.
Mac Configuration
Chrome on Mac accepts its configuration policies in the form of .plist files. .plist files contain properties and configuration settings for various programs and are formatted in XML.
There are various ways for IT managers to actually push these configurations to the machines in their network and various locations where these could be stored, all depending on existing Chrome configuration; what’s important is that in the .plist the policies are targeted at the specific extension id of the installed version of the Chrome extension, shown here as EXTENSION_ID.
epnhoepnmfjdbjjfanpjklemanhkjgil: static Launcher ID.
<?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>com.google.Chrome.extensions.<EXTENSION_ID></key>
<dict>
<key>visitor</key>
<dict>
<key>state</key>
<string>always</string>
<key>value</key>
<string>
YOUR VISITOR STRING HERE
</string>
</dict>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>
Windows Configuration
For Windows, there are two types of policy templates: an ADM and an ADMX template. The choice of which to choose will depend on existing IT infrastructure. The templates here (https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/187202?hl=en#zippy=%2Cwindows) show how registry keys can be set for an extension in order to load policies into Chrome.
Metadata Types
Once you've added metadata fields into Adopt, set the metadata field's type. There are 6 Type options: Text, Boolean, Number (int), Number (float), Date, and List. In the Sample column shown above, Pendo has provided examples of each type. This same text can be found below.
Tip: Consider using the Boolean type for custom metadata fields that reflect whether an employee is an administrator or a contractor. If you have the permissions metadata field added to Adopt, consider using the List type to capture any type of list data you need to keep track of i.e internal application permissions.
| Name | Type | Sample |
| Department | Text | Engineering |
| createdAt | Date | 2019-07-09 |
| isAdmin | Boolean | Yes |
| yearsAtCompany | Number(int) | 5 |
| permissions | List | ["read", "write", "edit"] |
Note: Number(int) refers to numbers without a decimal point. Number(float) refers to numbers with a decimal point.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Types Of Metadata Should I Send To Pendo?
We recommend that you send us anything you would find beneficial in segmenting your Visitor base. Several examples include Role, Account Status, Account Manager, Contract Expiration Date, Department, Geolocation etc.
Does the Pendo Launcher update automatically, or do customers have control over the updates? How often does Pendo push updates?
The Pendo Launcher updates automatically. It's update schedule varies, but updates are performed roughly once a week.