Updating specific apps

The App Catalog is designed to update as many apps as possible, both managed and unmanaged apps and as automated as possible. However, some organizations may only want to update certain specific apps due to several reasons.

Rules

To only update specific apps, you can specify rules in the IncludeAppsUpdate key. These rules can be very simple or more complex, based on your needs. Rules are evaluated from top to bottom in the Configuration Profile. The first rule that matches an app's Bundle ID will be applied.

Examples:

Update only apps from Mozilla, Google and the Root3 Support App:

<key>IncludeAppsUpdate</key>
  <array>
    <string>org.mozilla.*</string>
    <string>com.google.*</string>
    <string>nl.root3.support</string>
  </array>

Behavior

• All available updates will still be presented in the Catalog App and available to users to install manually, regardless of the IncludeAppsUpdate

• The command catalog --check-updates also outputs all available updates, regardless of the IncludeAppsUpdate

• All updates can also be manually performed with sudo catalog --update BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER_HERE regardless of what is specified with IncludeAppsUpdate

User experience

If the end-user Catalog App is enabled, App Catalog transparently shows which updates are automatically updated and which must be updated manually. These labels are shown with the apps when "Updates" is selected in the sidebar.

The delay rules are also visible in the Catalog App settings > Info > Includes Apps Rules: