Running an app on startup from a network share

[RattyNath]

Good Afternoon all,

 

First post here, so better make it a tough one! ^^

 

I work in a college where we have in the region of 800 PCs and 100 Macs. We run software called PaperCut to monitor our users' spending on their printing. This has been set up and running perfectly for our Windows machines since we first got it, however we have never been able to get it working on our Macs. We're determined to get it working and I spent the best part of last week wrestling with it, and, lo, some progress!

 

PaperCut itself is now working swimmingly (read: 'oh-god-please-don't-stop-working-on-me') when set up manually on a single machine. This entails installing program locally, printer locally and logon item to ensure it runs on startup.

 

So, our issue is that we want to deploy it out to all our Macs but preferably without having to go to each one! I am led to believe that the best way of accomplishing this is to use a script and a login hook. Is my thought process below correct for a start?

 

1. Mount SMB share where .app is located

2. Copy .app to local applications folder

3. Unmount SMB share where .app is located

4. Run local PaperCut application

5. Add printer

 

If so, does anyone know of any tutorials that would help me accomplish this? I have googled extensively and furiously but no joy, probably due to not quite knowing what exactly it is I am looking for

 

If it's totally wrong and there's an easier way of doing this, please do let me know!!

 

Many thanks,

Ratty

[ukwebb]

You're almost there - The only bit that you need to change is to change number 4 - It should install the login hook so that the papercut client runs automatically on user login.

 

mounting the share and installing the printer can both be done via workgroup manager.

 

but as far as remotely installing the login hook, this is what stumps me and I have to bow down to the Mac Guru's !