Configure on Chrome for macOS using configuration profiles – Pendo Help Center

This article covers the process to configure the Pendo Launcher extension on the Google Chrome web browser on a Mac computer using Mobile Device Management (MDM) tooling, which involves:

Determining values to configure.
Creating a .plist file on your own device.
Pushing the .plist file to your end-user devices.
Validating that the configuration was successful.

The process described in this article can be used to configure the following types of data:

API key
Visitor ID
Metadata

Prerequisites

Before configuring the extension on end-user devices, you must first install it on end-user browsers. See the IT guide to deploying the Pendo Launcher for all implementation options. We also recommend reading the Plan your browser extension implementation article before running any deployment steps.

Step 1. Determine values to configure

To fully deploy the Pendo Launcher, you must configure an API key and Visitor ID. You can also include metadata, such as role or location, which you can use to enhance your analytics and guide targeting. For more information about selecting appropriate Visitor IDs and metadata, see Plan your browser extension implementation.

API key

Find the API key needed for Step 2 of the configuration process by navigating to Settings > Subscription Settings. Your unique extension API key is displayed at the top of the page and looks something like the following:

{
    "APIKey": {
        "Value": "c022bb1e-676d-4c58-731c-caf13fe12a89"
    }
}

Visitor ID and metadata

The visitor information should be formatted as a string JSON object with all XML incompatible characters escaped. To create this file:

1. Create a normal JSON object containing your information, such as:

{
  "id": "foo",
  "bar": "baz",
  "bingo": [
    1,
    2,
    3
  ],
  "tango": "2006-01-02T15:04:05.999-05:00"
}

2. Use an online tool to escape your text, such as freeformatter.com or codebeautify.org. The resulting text from the above object looks like:

{
  &quot;id&quot;: &quot;foo&quot;,
  &quot;bar&quot;: &quot;baz&quot;,
  &quot;bingo&quot;: [
    1,
    2,
    3
  ],
  &quot;tango&quot;: &quot;2006-01-02T15:04:05.999-05:00&quot;
}

3. Refer to your MDM tooling’s documentation for instructions on how to dynamically populate the values in this visitor object. For example, Jamf uses Payload Variables to dynamically insert values specific to the targeted end-user into configuration profiles.

Step 2. Create a .plist file

Use the strings created in Step 1 to create a .plist file. Plist (Property List) files are extensions unique to Mac systems used to save the preferences of applications. These files are formatted in XML and contain properties and configuration settings for various programs.

Create a file on your own machine called com.google.Chrome.extensions.epnhoepnmfjdbjjfanpjklemanhkjgil.plist. Copy the following code into the file, then insert the values you determined in Step 1.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>APIKey</key>
    <string>YOUR API KEY HERE</string>
    <key>visitor</key>
    <string>YOUR VISITOR STRING HERE</string>
  </dict>
</plist>

Below is an example .plist file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>APIKey</key>
    <string>c025bc1f-606d-4d62-731c-caf13fe12j24</string>
    <key>visitor</key>
    <string>{&quot;id&quot;: &quot;john.smith@example.com&quot;}</string>
  </dict>
</plist>

Step 3. Push your .plist file to end-user devices

Using your MDM tooling, push your .plist file as a configuration profile to end-user devices. The preference domain for this configuration profile is com.google.Chrome.extensions.epnhoepnmfjdbjjfanpjklemanhkjgil.plist. If your tooling requires the .plist file to be converted to a configuration profile before uploading, you can use the open source tool, mcxToProfile.

Your MDM tooling has specific instructions on how to deploy a custom configuration profile. Below is a list of documentation for some of the most common MDM tools used for Mac devices:

Jamf (you can also see our own documentation: Configure on Chrome for macOS using Jamf)
Kandji
Hexnode
Workspace ONE

Step 4. Validate your configuration

First, test the script on a single device that you can physically access to verify correct configuration. Validation involves confirming the presence of the configuration profile and validating the correct browser behaviour.

Confirm the presence of the configuration profile

There are two ways to confirm a configuration profile is successfully configured:

Apple system settings

On your Mac, choose System Settings in your Apple menu.
Select Privacy & Security in the sidebar.
Under Others, select Profiles. You might need to scroll down to find it.
Search for your configuration profile, which is the name configured in your MDM tool, to check that it's present.

The command line

Open the Mac terminal app.
Enter the command cd /Library/Managed\ Preferences to navigate to the managed preferences folder.
Verify that the com.google.Chrome.plist file is present.
Enter the command defaults read /Library/Managed\ Preferences/com.google.Chrome.
Verify the contents match the values that you configured in Step 2.

Validate the browser behavior

Confirm that the browser is correctly reading the contents of the configuration profile.

Open Chrome on the device with the configuration profile. If the Chrome app is already running, quit and re-open it.
Install the Pendo Launcher browser extension on your Chrome browser. If you've already configured force-installation of the Pendo Launcher, you can skip this step.
Visit any non-Chrome webpage, such as Pendo.
Right-click on the Pendo Launcher extension icon in the top-right corner of your browser toolbar.
Select Show Debug Info.
Confirm that the Visitor ID in the Identified as field is correct.
Select Show Configuration Info.
Open the IT-Managed Config dropdown menu and search for your configuration values to check that they're present.

IT-Managed