WWDC2015 Session 306

Transcript

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
[ Applause ]
>> SAL SOGHOIAN: Whoa, thank
you and welcome to Session 306,
Supporting the Enterprise
with OS X Automation.
I am Sal Soghoian.
I am the Product Manager
for Automation Technologies
at Apple, and I'm
excited to be here today.
Some days I feel like I'm a
dinosaur looking for a tar pit,
but today is not
one of those days.
We're here to talk
about automation
and how it can be used
in production situations,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
and how it can be used
in production situations,
how it can be used within your
organization to address some
of the tasks and challenges
that often come up.
And before we begin, I just want
to make it clear in our minds
that when you talk about an
enterprise you're actually
talking about people.
People are what comprise
an enterprise
and make it successful, they
are the people that come
up with the creativity,
they are the ones
that implement solutions,
they are the ones
that create solutions.
You are those kind of people.
You look for a problem, and
you look for ways to solve it.
So throughout this talk today,
I'm always going to look
at things from a people
perspective, so let's keep
that in mind as we look at
the enterprise and automation.
And specifically when
you're creating a solution,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
And specifically when
you're creating a solution,
or I call them a workflow,
there's some strategies
that could be useful to follow
when you're designing
a solution.
And the first is use
a variety of tools.
It's interesting that
you have to mention this,
but people often get locked
into a one-tool concept.
Don't solve everything with
a hammer because then all
of the problems appear
to be nails.
Use the right tool for the job,
don't try to drive a
nail with a wrench.
You know, use the right tool
that gives you the ability
to accomplish what you
need to accomplish.
And, as well, make
your workflows modular
so that you can take the
individual components
of a workflow and adjust them or
connect them in different ways
or use them in other
solutions as well.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
So by keeping your workflow as
a modular design it's easier
to find the points where
there are problems,
and problems always appear when
you're trying to use a workflow
in an enterprise solution.
Look for the places that
are the bottlenecks,
and they usually occur
around complexity
or a heavy repetition, and you
want to identify those places
and address them so that
your workflows run smooth.
And that's because
in the end all
of our workflows
are run by people.
And if your solution is
really complex and intricate,
people aren't going to use it
or they won't like using it.
But if your workflow is designed
logically so that it flows
and it's understandable,
then people are going
to love using it and
they'll use it all the time.
So those are the basic workflow
strategies that we're going
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
So those are the basic workflow
strategies that we're going
to look at as I review
some examples
of how you can use
automation in the enterprise,
but there's one more concept I'd
like you to pay attention to,
and it is to pursue inclusion.
Now what I mean by that
is this: that the success
of an organization depends upon
the strategy of and, not or.
Many times people get locked
into the idea that's often used
for hardware that one piece of
hardware has to go away in order
for another piece of hardware to
take its place, and many times
that is true, but when it
comes to providing solutions,
inclusion is really important.
You want to use all of the
tools that are available to you,
and we have two platforms
at Apple
that really personify
this power.
And they are OS X and iOS, and
they work really well together,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
And they are OS X and iOS, and
they work really well together,
and it is through them working
together that you get success
for your organization.
When it comes to
being a good partner,
OS X is an incredible
operating system.
It is mature, it has a depth of
frameworks that is unrivaled,
it has support for all
the different connective
technologies that you
want to use in-house
in your organization
to communicate
and share data back and forth.
And when it comes to
automation, OS X is unrivaled.
We have AppleScript, the
English-like language
that you can use to control the
computer and the applications
that run on it, and we've
extended AppleScript
with AppleScript/Objective-C,
that gives it a window
into the Cocoa framework so
that you can directly talk
to Cocoa classes and call Cocoa
methods from within AppleScript,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
to Cocoa classes and call Cocoa
methods from within AppleScript,
so that any of the
Cocoa frameworks
that provide the power
for the OS and all
of its apps are available
to your script as well.
And last OS, we introduced
JavaScript for Automation
so that if you like working with
the JavaScript language or you
like a more tight construct,
JavaScript for Automation --
or JXA as we call it -- provides
you all of the abilities
to control applications
as similar
to the way AppleScript does and
it also provides you the window
into the Cocoa frameworks,
as well.
So if you like using JavaScript,
you can still accomplish all
of the kind of automations
you want to do using
that as your native language.
And another tool that we
have is Otto the Automator.
Automator is a visual tool for
building automation recipes,
through a drag-and-drop process
where you take the individual
steps that are required
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
where you take the individual
steps that are required
to accomplish something and
you drag them into a file
and save them as a workflow.
It's incredibly powerful,
it works with any language
or ability that's part
of the operating system,
and it handles data translation
for you automatically.
We're going to see
this quite a bit today
as we go over some examples.
And, finally, because
of its heritage
and its power OS X has all of
the UNIX toolset we've come
to rely upon, including all of
the different shelves and some
of your favorite languages, like
Pearl, Ruby, and Python as well.
So combined, it's a
holistic approach.
This is a very powerful set
of automation tools
for you to rely upon.
And today we're going to see
how automation can give you the
speed, the accuracy,
the consistent output,
and the scalability
that you need
when you're dealing
with solutions.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
when you're dealing
with solutions.
So let's take a look at
three example scenarios.
I'm going to keep them simple
so that we can examine the
principle behind them rather
than get lost in any complexity.
See, I'm being people-oriented
here.
The first scenario
we're going to look
at is how you can create a
workgroup image repository,
and by that I mean we can
have a central computer
that is accessible by 40 or 50
people in a local network area
by both computers and
wireless devices as well,
and how we can use automation
and the technologies of OS X
to make that possible.
The second scenario we're
going to look at a basic thing
that faces everyone who
works in an organization,
and that's creating
documents on time.
You know, everybody has
challenges of gathering data,
and putting it together, and
formatting it, and presenting it
in interesting ways,
and so we can look
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
in interesting ways,
and so we can look
at how automation can
be used to solve some
of those issues as well.
And, finally, we're
going to look
at a third example that's new,
where you can use the automation
technologies in OS X to set up
and manage iOS devices
automatically.
So this is going to be an
interesting category for us
because it's a new one as well.
So let's begin with a workgroup
image repository scenario.
Now remember I'm talking
about setting up a computer
that is an image
repository, and we're going
to be specifically using
the new photos architecture
and frameworks and application
that are part of OS X.
And we're going to set
it up on a computer,
and this computer is going
to exist in an environment
where you have other
laptops and desktop computers
that might be running Mac OS X
or it could even be running
Windows, as well as being
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
or it could even be running
Windows, as well as being
in an environment that
has mobile devices,
whether it's the new MacBook
that we just introduced
or it's our great iOS devices,
like iPads and iPhones.
And to accomplish this workgroup
concept, we're going to rely
on three OS X technologies.
The first we're going
to use is File Sharing.
Now File Sharing is part of
OS X basic core structure,
and it allows you to
set up share points
so that other computers
can easily transfer files
over to your computer.
It's been around forever,
it's based on SMB and AFP,
it's very reliable, it's
an established technology.
The second technology we're
going to look at is AirDrop,
and AirDrop is a
newer technology
that combines Bluetooth
with Wi-Fi
so that mobile devices
can easily recognize
and transfer files
to a computer.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
and transfer files
to a computer.
And we're going to use
both of those technologies
when we address this task.
Now you'll notice that in
this connective scenario
that we have here, where
we have the computers
and the iOS devices, there's one
area that still needs some work
in order for all of this
to become automated.
And it is the transferal of the
copied documents or the images
that have been provided
from other sources
into the actual media
library itself.
And to solve that
problem we're going
to use a technology
called Folder Actions
through Automator.
Now many of you might not
know about Folder Actions,
but a Folder Action is a
system service that allows you
to assign a workflow to a folder
so that when items are placed
into that folder, the system
automatically provides them
as input to a workflow that it
executes for you automatically.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
as input to a workflow that it
executes for you automatically.
And Folder Actions
have been part of OS X
since before it was OS X,
we've had them since System 8.5
and they're very powerful, and
we've done a lot of work on it
with the new release
and I think you're going
to really enjoy using them.
So let me show you how easy it
is to create a Folder Action.
For this we're going to need,
for our scenario we're going
to need two different
Folder Actions,
one for the Dropbox folder
for the file sharing and one
for the Downloads folder
that is the recipient
of the AirDrop files.
And to do that I'm going
to open up Automator,
I'm going to create
a new document,
and from the template I'm
going to choose Folder Action
as the type of Automator file.
And at the top we're
going to select a folder
that is the source
folder for the workflow.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
So we'll select that,
and I'll navigate
over to the Public
folder and then
within the Public
folder we're going
to select the Dropbox
folder as the source folder.
So any items placed into
the Dropbox are going
to become the input
for this workflow.
Now we need to perform
some series of actions
on those added files,
and to do that I'm going
to select the Photos category
over here and I'm going to drag
in the Automator action for
importing items into Photos.
And I'm running a little
bit of a lag -- there we go.
And so once you've
added an action
to the workflow you
see its action view.
The action view contains
all of the controls
for the various parameters
for that action.
So we're going to set some basic
parameters for that action,
and then it's just a matter
of saving the workflow
and giving it a name, like
Import from Dropbox, very good.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
and giving it a name, like
Import from Dropbox, very good.
And once it's been saved
it's automatically installed
into the operating
system and active.
We'll create a second workflow
just like the first one,
the only difference is its
source folder will be the
Downloads folder.
So that's how easy it is
to create a Folder Action
that can receive files
from network devices.
Once that's been done, then
any files that are placed
into these connected
folders will get transferred
automatically into
our image repository.
So let's take a people
perspective
and see how this looks
to a person using this
from, like, the Mac side.
So if you're running
this from the Mac side,
you have a Finder
window and to connect
to the repository shared folder
is just a matter of going
to the Finder sidebar
and connecting that,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
to the Finder sidebar
and connecting that,
selecting the Public folder
there, and then dragging
in whatever images you have
onto the Dropbox itself.
The computer is running a
little slow today, there we go,
you can see all the builds.
And once you do that you'll
get a notification dialogue
that tells you you're
about to copy some files
and you won't be able to
see them -- is that okay?
You approve that
and the files --
the two computers are
automatically connected,
and the file gets transferred
over into the other folder.
The Automator workflow
gets executed,
and the copied image gets
added to our image repository.
So this is how it looks
when you're running this
from the OS X side of
things through file sharing.
Now let's examine the same
process, but this time
from the viewpoint of
using a mobile device.
So with your mobile device you
connect it, you turn it on,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
So with your mobile device you
connect it, you turn it on,
you find the image that you
want from your mobile device,
you click, you tap
the Share button.
You wait for the destination
to become visible as a network,
as an AirDrop target,
you select the AirDrop
and then the connection is made
and the image is transferred
over to the computer, and then
the Folder Action is triggered
and the image is copied into it.
So from a person's
perspective you can see
that this becomes a very
easy-to-use operation.
This strategy incorporates
basic technologies that are part
of OS X and File Sharing
and AirDrop as well
as Folder Actions, and it works
with a variety of devices,
including computers, Mac
computers, Windows computers,
and mobile devices as well.
Now I know you're asking,
well, okay, Sal, wait a second,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
Now I know you're asking,
well, okay, Sal, wait a second,
so when I send an AirDrop
over, there's a notification
that happens, what
happens if there's nobody
at the computer,
what do you do then?
Well, here's another case
where automation can
solve a problem for you.
You can use the Auto
Accept AppleScript droplet
that whenever a notification
is set,
it will automatically accept
it and continue the process
of allowing the image
to be transferred
over to the media library.
All of this is available, you
can download the beta version
of the photos actions
that you saw here
and you can follow the
instructions on this
and as well get the
Auto Accept droplet
from this location,
photosautomation.com.
Okay, so that's our
first scenario
of using automation technologies
in a mixed-use environment
to be able to solve
some problems.
The next scenario
we're going to look
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
The next scenario
we're going to look
at is how we can automate
document construction.
Now the thing about using
the automation technologies
in OS X is that they're very
powerful and they act as you,
they act on your behalf
with all the authority
that you have as a user.
So you can do all the things
that you normally do
through automation.
You can command and control
applications, you can copy data
from one place to another, you
can create and delete files,
you can mount volumes,
you can unmounts volumes,
pretty much anything that
you can do as a user,
automation can do
on your behalf.
And this is incredibly powerful
because when you combine
that with the fact that we
have some great scriptable
applications on OS X, then you
can really accomplish a lot
and create very inventive,
useful solutions.
So here's a simple example.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
So here's a simple example.
Let's say as part of
your daily or as part
of your job assignment,
I'll put it that way,
every Thursday you
have to gather the data
about your company's
sales, you have to put it
into a presentation
that you deliver
to your teammates
every Thursday.
And this usually takes quite a
while to do because you've got
to go gather the data, then
you have to transform it
from one shape of being
spreadsheet into being a chart,
then you have to build
the presentation.
So here's an example of
how you can use automation
to automate that process.
Using Automator, you can
create a workflow for yourself
that will automatically build
a presentation that grabs data
out of other files, transforms
it into the things you need,
and then triggers the sending
of it to your iOS device,
so that all you have to do
is just accept the transfer
from the computer and then
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
from the computer and then
within a couple seconds you have
the presentation ready to go
that you can take
with you when you have
to do your presentation
with your team.
So this is a simple
example of the power
of creating a document.
So let me show you that, I'm
going to create a workflow
that does just what we just saw.
And this is my desktop
that is the Martian sunset,
NASA just released this photo,
it's totally incredible,
it just really makes
you feel small
in the universe when
I look at that.
Okay, so I'm going
to create a workflow
that generates a presentation
and incorporates data
from a spreadsheet and then
sends it to my mobile device
that I have over
here via AirDrop.
So I'm going to launch
Automator, and I'm going
to create a new document,
and let me just zoom this
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
to create a new document,
and let me just zoom this
so that we can see together.
How is that?
Much better isn't it?
So when you launch Automator,
you'll see that there's
a template picker here.
For our purposes we're just
going to use a workflow
that I save into this
system-wide script menu
so that it's always
available for me.
So I'll click Choose.
Over on the left-hand
side is the library
of Automator actions, those
are those individual nuggets
of functionality that
you combine together
to make an automation recipe.
And you can view them by
category, as it shows here,
or you can even arrange
them by application.
I'm going to choose
application and then go
to the Keynote application
and click on that.
When I click on it, you can
see all the actions related
to Keynote are available
over here
and whatever action I have
selected has a description
that appears here at the bottom
that gives me information
on how to use it.
So let me create a workflow.
The first thing I'm going
to do is add an action
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
The first thing I'm going
to do is add an action
to the workflow area
by dragging in here
for creating a new presentation.
You can see that the action
view has various controls
and parameters for
deciding what kind
of presentation I
want to create.
I'm going to choose a gradient.
I'm going to choose its
dimensions to be set
for a mobile device, and I'll
just basically leave it at that.
So my first action is to
create the presentation.
Now when you create a default
presentation in Keynote,
it gives you one slide
that is title and subtitle.
So the next step I want to
do is to set the contents
of the title and subtitle.
To do that I'm going to use
an action called Set Contents
of Default Text Items.
I drag it in.
You notice that there's
a connection made
so that a reference to the
new presentation is passed
to this action.
It then knows which
presentation to work with.
I'm going to set it
so that the title
of the presentation will
be Sales Report, like this.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
of the presentation will
be Sales Report, like this.
And then for the subtitle
I want the current date.
And since I want this to be a
workflow that I can use over
and over again, I'm going
to use an Automator variable
to dynamically generate
the date for me.
Over here on the library I'll
click the Variables category,
and variables are containers
of data, they can either be
from storing it or
dynamically generated.
So I'll click Date
and Time and then drag
in today's date variable into
the body field over here.
Now you'll notice that it
automatically gets added
into a list of variables
currently used
by the document at the bottom.
I can set the parameters for how
the variable is going to appear
by clicking Edit and then
choosing a format that I'd like,
like this one where I have full
month, date, and then the year.
So my second slide, my second
task, the second action has been
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
So my second slide, my second
task, the second action has been
to name the presentation
and provide a subtitle.
The next step is to apply a
transition for that slide.
So I'll go back to my actions
and I'll go drag in the action
for setting transition.
From that I'm going to choose
-- let's do a basic dissolve.
I'll set it for about a
second and a half on click.
All right, now that
we've done that,
I'll need to create a
new slide that I'm going
to add my sales data to.
And for this slide, I'm going
to create one that has a title
at the top and I'm going to add
it to the end of the slides.
So I have a new presentation,
I've titled it, subtitled it,
created a transition for the
first slide, added a new slide.
Now I'm ready to add the
data that I want to have
in my presentation, but this
data lives in another file.
I have a numbers spreadsheet
here that contains the data
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
I have a numbers spreadsheet
here that contains the data
that I want to bring
into my presentation.
So I'm going to close that
and use an action
here called Add Chart
with Numbers Table Data,
drag it into my workflow,
and you can see that the action
view has two areas for settings,
the Data Settings and
the Chart Settings.
So we're going to pick the
file that I want to use,
it will be in my Documents
folder, and here it is,
ACME Widget Domestic Sales --
bring that over a little bit,
like that -- and then I
can choose to identify
which table in that document.
I can use the active table, a
selection of the active table,
I can use the first table
that's on the active sheet,
or I can even enter a name
for the table and it will find
that table in the document.
I'm going to use first
table of active sheet,
and I want to use the table
title for the slide title.
Now when it comes to a chart,
I'm going to pick something
very standard like a 2D,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
I'm going to pick something
very standard like a 2D,
I'm going to group it by
column data like this.
So now I've created a
presentation, I've titled it,
subtitled it, applied a
transition, added a new slide,
imported data from a file,
formatted into a chart,
added that chart to a slide.
The next step is I will save
this document using a Save
Document action, I'm going
to save it to a folder,
and I'm going to save it
to my Documents folder.
And for its name I'm going
to call it Sales Report,
and then I want the file
name to have the same name
as the variable, so I'll
drag the variable from here
up into this field, so now the
file will be named Sales Report
and the current date.key and
replace any existing file.
And then, finally, I have over
here my little iPad ready to go,
and I have it set up with
AirDrop, so let's make it easy
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
and I have it set up with
AirDrop, so let's make it easy
to get that file over here.
I'm going to go begin AirDrop
with disk items, and I'll extend
out the AirDrop for a
couple seconds extra just
in case we need it.
And what this will do is
at the end of the workflow,
it will take the
file that's created
and automatically begin an
AirDrop so that I can see it
over on my iPad and
receive it there.
So I would save this,
I would place this
into the Scripts folder,
I would find a location
that I like to keep it.
And then once it's saved, it
becomes part of your script
and you can choose
it at any time.
I'll run the workflow so that
you can see it run in action,
right from here, let me
zoom back out a little bit.
And I will run this workflow, it
will generate the sales report,
grab the data, bring it in,
and begin the AirDrop session,
and there's the Woodbury School,
so now I'll click over to three.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
and there's the Woodbury School,
so now I'll click over to three.
You can see, yes, you can see
here I'm going to accept this,
and it's going to copy
it right into Keynote.
I can bring it in, I can do
editing because the power
of iWork I can make it a
little bit more colorful.
And then I actually have
my presentation here
and I can begin delivering --
it's going to give me some tips,
and get to the next
presentation.
So there's an example of how you
can create a workflow using the
power of OS X -- let's
go back to one --
so here's how you can create
a workflow using the power
of the automation technologies
in OS X to make the process
of creating a chart and
a presentation as simple
as just going to a menu and
selecting that option for you.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
Okay, so let's go
back to slides here.
[Applause] Oh, thank you.
So how do we get
back over there?
You guys do that, magic.
Isn't it interesting?
I'll bet you most of
you didn't realize
that stuff was actually
in the OS, huh?
Right? Okay, so this
example uses all
of our automation technologies
that you have available to you.
And remember, they act
on your behalf with all
of your authority, so you're
not limited by what you can do.
You don't need a specific
app for each step of it,
all you need is the
functionality
that can be exposed to
you through Automator.
And you have some great apps
to work with, like iWork
and Photos, the Finder
and FileMaker Pro,
you can create incredible
solutions.
And this example with
the Automator actions
and the whole complete
examples available for you today
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
and the whole complete
examples available for you today
at iworkautomation.com.
It's a website that
contains individual websites
about pages, numbers,
and Keynote.
I think you'll find it
useful in an informative way.
Okay, so that's Automating
Document Construction.
And for our last example we're
going to try something new,
this will be the first
time I'm demoing this,
it's the first time
anybody has seen this,
and you guys are the ones
that are going to see it.
We're going to talk about
setting up iOS devices.
Now there could be no doubt
that Apple makes the
most incredibly powerful
and sophisticated and elegant
mobile devices there are.
They are wonderful tools for the
enterprise, they're attractive,
they're powerful,
they're easy to use.
And with our partnership now
with IBM we are creating
best-of-class applications
for data deployment to put the
power of the enterprise right
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
for data deployment to put the
power of the enterprise right
at your staff's hands
and fingers.
And it's really incredible
what the tools
that are being produced
through this collaboration.
And we really are happy with
what is being developed,
but let's talk about for a
second, not data deployment,
but device deployment.
So when it comes to
device deployment,
there's usually two
strategies that you follow.
The first is called One to One,
and in One to One you
have a group of employees
that are given a mobile device
that is profiled
specifically for them.
It contains information about
them, it is targeted to them,
so that no matter where they
move within your organization
or within geographic location
that device stays with them.
Now the second strategy
for device deployment
is called Shared Use,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
for device deployment
is called Shared Use,
and in this scenario you
have a set of devices
that are configured
generically for your company
as the identifier, and then your
staff uses those as they need
and then passes them to
other members of your staff
who will use them and then
pass them to other members
of your staff that gets
to use them as well.
So shared use, you have a
limited number of mobile devices
that get used by a
large variety of people,
as compared to a
one-to-one scenario
where every employee gets
their own mobile device.
Now in shared use,
a couple scenarios
that quite often
happen with shared use,
are you'll see them used in
professional organizations,
you'll see them used in
service organizations,
and you'll also see them
used in classrooms as well.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
Many classrooms use a limited
number of mobile devices
that they format and set
up for different classes
and different use
throughout the school.
So with both Shared
Use and One to One,
Apple has some great solutions
for device management.
For One to One, we have our
device enrollment program
and we have the volume
purchase program.
That really makes just
a simple setup process:
you turn on the device
and connects to a network,
it will set itself up for
that employee automatically.
When it comes to Shared
Use we have an application,
it's called Apple Configurator.
And Apple Configurator is
the application that you use
to connect to hardware
controllers like this
or like carts like this so that
you can have it manage hundreds
or dozens of devices
simultaneously.
You connect your computer
to the hardware controller
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
You connect your computer
to the hardware controller
and then you run the software
to manage that device.
On Tuesday we announced a
brand-new reimagined version
of Apple Configurator
with the incredible name
of Apple Configurator 2.
And this look and feel of this
application is very interesting.
It now has a very nice graphical
flow to it, it's a lot easier
to use, and imagine the
controls, they're visual,
and they've done a really good
job at taking the complexity
of the processes for setting up
devices and made them logical
and attractive in
appearance to use.
Now even this application, as
smooth as it is, still requires
that you have some basic
knowledge of terminology
and the intricacies of
managing mobile devices.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
and the intricacies of
managing mobile devices.
This requires you to understand
these various concepts,
and for you guys that's
not really an issue
because you're all
award-winning IT professionals,
you have your crack staffs
and for you complexity, ah,
it's no big deal, you can drop
into the command line
anytime you need.
But it just so happens that in
large organizations it's quite
often a reality that
the people who end
up managing devices really
don't have a great depth
of knowledge about IT issues.
So we call them, like,
accidental administrators.
It might be someone who
assumes a role or assumes a task
because another person has
moved to a different part
in the company, or organizations
might merge together
and people assume
new responsibilities.
So your challenge as an IT
professional is to create tools
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
So your challenge as an IT
professional is to create tools
that will solve these people's
problems and allow them
to set up mobile devices.
And, fortunately, new
Apple Configurator 2 comes
with Automator support.
And you as the IT professional
can use that Automator support
to easily create Automator
workflows that will go
through the various steps to set
up and configure mobile devices
and do the various actions
and the complexities
and the authentications and all
of the other interesting things
that have to be done in
order to set up a device.
And these actions will
run in order from the top
of your workflow down to
the bottom of your workflow,
they're executed, passing
along data as they work.
And then it's just a
matter of you being able
to save this workflow to the
Script folder on your computer,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
to save this workflow to the
Script folder on your computer,
and then it will
become installed
and ready to use by others.
So when the workflow
gets installed
into the Scripts folder, it
becomes part of the Script menu,
so that anybody that's using
that management computer just
merely needs to connect devices,
go to the Script menu, and then
choose one of the setup scripts
that you have created
through Automator,
one of the setup workflows,
and then let the process begin
and manage the device, either
setting it up or configuring it,
and everybody is happy.
So let's take a look
at a specific scenario.
I'm going to create a
workflow and set up a device
for you here, and in
this scenario we're going
to have a -- we're going to
create an Automator workflow
that will automatically install
required documents onto iPads.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
that will automatically install
required documents onto iPads.
So in this scenario let's
say we have a school
that we're working with,
we're going to want to copy
across the book report
template, the student handbook,
the student presentation
template, those kind of things.
So we're going to
create a workflow
that will allow administrators
to easily transfer
documents over to iPads.
So let's take a look
at that now.
There we go, let's launch
Automator, and I'm going to zoom
into this so you can see a
little bit better as we do this.
Again, I could choose
to create a variety
of Automator workflow
types, like workflow,
a self-running application, a
system service, a print plug-in,
a folder action, calendar,
alarm, image capture plug-in,
or a dictation command, but for
our purposes we're just going
to use a standard workflow file
that we can have installed
into the Script menu.
Over on the left-hand side,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
Over on the left-hand side,
I'm going to choose Apple
Configurator as the category
that I'm going to be
drawing my actions from,
and then it's just a matter
of putting together
the various steps.
So the first thing you do
when you create a workflow
that involves setting up
mobile devices is to identify
which devices you
want to work with.
So we have two actions
for doing that,
you have Choose Connected
Devices,
which would interactively
present you a list,
or we're going to use the one
called Get Connected Devices.
I'll drag it into my
workflow area, and you can see
that in the action view I
can choose iPads, iPhones,
iPod touches, or Apple TVs,
so I can have multiple types
of devices connected and filter
out the ones that
I'm looking for.
We're going to choose iPad.
Then once I've identified the
devices this action will pass a
reference to those devices to
the next action, which is going
to be to copy some
documents over.
So I have an action here
called Copy Documents
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
So I have an action here
called Copy Documents
to Devices, I drag that in.
In iOS a document is
associated with a specific app,
so you have to identify
what application is going
to be associated
with these documents.
And there's two ways to do that,
you can pick it from the list
of installed applications on
this computer or you can enter
in the iOS app ID, here.
We're going to choose
pick from the list.
I'm going to choose the first
one, Adobe Acrobat Reader,
and then I'm going to click
this to locate the documents.
In this case I want PDFs,
I'm going to choose the student
handbook, yes, and I'm going
to choose the student
newsletter, okay, good.
So I'll select these two,
and these two have now been
associated with this application
and will copy across
to the device.
Now here's a tip, as
administrator you might want
to go back into this
workflow again sometime,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
to go back into this
workflow again sometime,
hold down the right key, the
Control key, right-click this
and go rename, and you can add
a comment into the action title.
So I'm going to say
Install Student Handbook,
and then hit the
-- oh, handbook --
nothing is going to help me
with my spelling, handbook.
And now I can collapse that.
So I have Get Connected Devices,
Install Student Handbook.
Let's add this action again.
This time I'm going to
choose as an application,
I'm going to choose
the Pages application.
I'll go back here, select
it again, and I'm going
to choose the book
report template,
and I'll right-click
the title bar
and go Install Book
Report, very good.
And then I'm going to add the
action one more time over here,
and I'm going to choose Keynote
as the associated application,
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
and I'm going to choose Keynote
as the associated application,
choose Add, and then we're going
to find the photo slideshow
template, choose that,
right-click the title bar
so I can give myself a name.
I go Install Photo
Slideshow, very good.
So there's my simple workflow,
so if those documents
are required
in all my devices now I have
a workflow that can be run
by my accidental administrators
to automatically copy all
the required documents over.
I can come back to this
workflow later and update it
with new documents if I want to.
One more thing.
I often find it useful that
when you're creating workflows
for others that you give
them a confirmation dialogue
at the beginning and end
of the workflow process.
So I have a script here
that does that for me,
that adds in confirmation
actions,
so when the workflow is
run you'll get this kind
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
so when the workflow is
run you'll get this kind
of confirmation action here.
Now I have my iPad
connected over here,
I'm going to copy this across.
Let's see if the
network holds up today.
We're going to actually run
this workflow right now.
So here's my confirmation,
and it's beginning the process
of identifying the devices.
It's now copying across
the first set of handbooks,
and now it's copying
across the book report,
and now it's copying
across the Keynote document,
and now it's confirmed
to me that it is done.
So let's go over to number
three, number three is showing
up over here -- yes, okay,
so here's our Woodbury
Middle School pad,
if I go to the Acrobat
Reader you can see that, hey,
there's the student
handbook, indeed,
and here's the student
newsletter
that they can read, very good.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
that they can read, very good.
And if I go to Pages,
I can import
that new book report template
into here, I'll tap it, hey,
and there's a place you can
add your picture as a student.
I'm going to choose take
photo, reverse the camera,
hold it on myself, use the
photo, it gets transferred in,
crazy man making a book report.
And then, finally, I'm
going to go to Keynote here
and you can see, I'll click Add,
and here is our photo slideshow
for students using the official
Woodbury School template,
so I launch that.
And then I can add a
slide from the template,
and as long as we're doing that
let's add in a picture here,
let's pick this one, double tap,
call that Wind Power like that,
give that a capital, Power.
Spell, Sal, spell.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
Spell, Sal, spell.
Very good.
So there's the template.
So anytime that our accidental
administrators need to use
or configure some devices,
they just connect it,
they go over to the Script menu,
and they go over to the
Script menu on the computer,
choose Woodbury School,
and they can pick from any
of the various things
that they have set up.
Now I want to show
you one other thing.
I'm going to choose this Rename
and Wallpaper workflow and open
that up over here for us
to examine a little bit.
One of the things about any
workflow is customization.
You might not find all the
actions that you're looking
for within a particular library
of actions, but the advantage is
that since you're
using a variety
of automation technologies, you
can use the AppleScript library
that the Apple Configurator,
Automator actions are based upon
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
that the Apple Configurator,
Automator actions are based upon
to create your own
customized scripts
that you can insert
into the workflow.
This particular script here will
name the device a default name,
like Woodbury School, and then
add, append its serial number
to it as well, or any other
information that you want.
So this is what the
script for that type
of thing would actually look at.
Okay, let's go back
to our slides.
So when you use Automator
to set up iOS devices,
you can create these
kind of workflows
that could be used
by anybody, even you.
They're convenient,
easily modifiable
because they're modular,
and they're used by anybody,
even your accidental
administrators.
And you can also then call
into the underlying library
structure using either
JavaScript or AppleScript
to make your own detailed
controllers as well.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
to make your own detailed
controllers as well.
And that, all of this,
is documented for you
at a third website, called
configautomation.com.
It's available for you today.
So we looked at three different
examples today of how automation
and OS X can be used to
support the enterprise.
And especially important to
remember that the concept
of inclusion is really valuable.
When you have iOS and
OS X working together,
they're unbeatable.
When you have a variety of
work tools available to you,
you can create interesting
and powerful solutions.
And remember we have these links
here for you to get information
about all of the examples
that I showed you today.
We have photosautomation.com,
configautomation.com,
iworkautomation.com,
and for OS X
in general we have
macosxautomation.com as well.
X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:181083,LOCAL:00:00:00.000
in general we have
macosxautomation.com as well.
So I want to remind you that
if you want more detailed
information about
Apple Configurator 2,
Todd on Tuesday really
covered it well in his session,
and I urge you to go back
and look at the video
on that, on his session.
In addition, we have some
labs that are going on today
and tomorrow, and after I'm done
here I'm going to go downstairs
and hang out at the lab so
you can come by and see me
and ask any questions
about this and we can play
with it right there
and try these out.
So I want to thank you for
coming by today and thank you
so much for being part of
this experience for me.
I hope this was valuable
for you.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]