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Automatically approving Automator workflow?

I have written a long time ago and still use an Automator workflow which runs an AppleScript which front-ends the built-in ZIP command line tool. Its main purpose is to provide a means to generate password protected ZIP files. The built-in 'service' does not give this option even though I suspect it also frontends the same built-in ZIP command line tool.


This workflow for me still works fine even in macOS Sonoma.


It used to be (back in the good old days 😁) that installing an Automator workflow was literally a simple matter of copying it to either -


/Library/Services/ (to make it available to all users)

or

~/Library/Services/ (for an individual user)


These days it is a lot more complicated.


You still need to copy it to /Library/Services/ but you then apparently need to open it in Automator, re-save it in the same /Library/Services/ location which appears to cause Automator to register it in the list of available services - this of course requires using an Administrator authentication, then you have to go to -

System Settings… -> Privacy & Security -> Others -> Extensions -> Finder Quick Actions, Preview -> Select Quick Actions to show in Finder:


(It did not show up in the above until I told Automator to re-save it.)


You then 'tick' the Quick Action aka 'workflow' to enable it.


Then and only then will it show up in the Services menu in the Finder.


This is way too complicated for the average user even ignoring the fact they may not have Administrator privileges.

 

I would therefore like to automate all this for them via Jamf Pro. Automating copying the file to the desired location i.e. /Library/Services/ is easy, it is all the rest I am stuck on.


I cannot seen any obvious way to do this via e.g. a PPPC profile, or defaults write or other method.

Does anyone else have suggestions?

 

Note: For anyone interested my workflow is available free via the following link.


https://github.com/jelockwood/Make_Password_Protected_ZIP_Service


Whilst there are numerous full-blown GUI apps to make password protected ZIP files on Mac e.g. Keka, my script also uses additional options provided by the built-in ZIP tool to automatically exclude unwanted files such as the infamous .DS_Store files and also (normally invisible) Microsoft Office temporary files which begin with ~$

Posted on May 17, 2024 2:55 AM

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Automatically approving Automator workflow?

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