To help keep on top of software updates, I’ve been using AutoPkg in combination with AutoPkgr and JSSImporter for a while now to upload new software updates to Jamf Pro. However, I recently ran into a challenge when I wanted to build an AutoPkg recipe for Apple’s Enterprise Connect.
AutoPkg recipes usually rely on the vendor having a publicly accessible way to get downloads via HTTP or HTTPS. Apple does not have a publicly accessible download URL for Enterprise Connect and in fact discourages customers from sharing the download link. The fact that there was a download link meant that I could write AutoPkg recipes but at the same time I couldn’t include the URL needed to download the latest update as part of the recipe .
After some thinking and research into AutoPkg’s functionality, I found a way to create AutoPkg recipes for Enterprise Connect while at the same time not sharing Apple’s download URL. For more details, see below the jump.
The solution is to use an AutoPkg recipe override to store the download URL for Enterprise Connect. Recipe overrides are locally-stored files that allow you to change certain input variables in AutoPkg recipes.
Since the recipe overrides are stored locally on the Mac which is running AutoPkg and not shared with any other resources, Apple’s download URL for Enterprise Connect is only made available to the AutoPkg installation running on that specific Mac.
I have written AutoPkg recipes for Enterprise Connect, which are available from here:
https://github.com/autopkg/rtrouton-recipes/tree/master/EnterpriseConnect
By default, the EnterpriseConnect.download recipe contains a non-functional placeholder value and requires that placeholder value to be overridden before the recipe will work.
To use the Enterprise Connect recipes, you will need to create a recipe override of the desired recipe and enter the URL Apple sends you into the DOWNLOAD_URL value of the override. Here’s an example of using, using AutoPkgr and the EnterpriseConnect.jss recipe.
1. Launch AutoPkgr.
2. If needed, add the rtrouton-recipes repo to AutoPkg.
3. Click on the Repos & Recipes tab and locate the EnterpriseConnect.jss recipe
4. Right-click on the EnterpriseConnect.jss recipe and select Create Override…
5. Give the recipe override a unique name.
6. Go to /Users/username_goes_here/Library/AutoPkg/RecipeOverrides and locate the newly-created recipe override file.
7. Open the recipe override file file in a text editor and locate the DOWNLOAD_URL value.
8. Change the DOWNLOAD_URL value of the override from the non-functional placeholder value to whatever the current download URL is for Enterprise Connect.
When you run the recipe override using AutoPkg, it should use the Enterprise Connect’s current download URL in place of trying to use the non-functional placeholder value.
Note: The download.apple.com URL shown in the example above is also a placeholder. As I mentioned earlier, Apple discourages customers from sharing the download link.
Apple’s download URL for Enterprise Connect may change, so you will need to check and update the download URL as needed in the recipe override when you’re notified by Apple that a new Enterprise Connect version is now available.
