How to make an app accessible for all users on Mac?

[Kay C Lan]

On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 8:09 PM, Tiemo Hollmann TB <toolbook at kestner.de>wrote:

>
> noop same effect at that location
>

OK, lets go back to the beginning. Delete the app off your HD.

If I remember you said it started out as a DMG on a CD, so when logged in as
the Admin User drag the dmg file (copy) to the HD/Users/Shared folder and
double click on it so it expands. When your app has expanded, drag it to the
HD/Applications folder.

Click on it and Get Info. What does it list for the 3 names & permissions?
system: Read & Write, admin: Read & Write, everyone: Read Only? Does it work
now under Admin user, what about when logged in as a Standard User?

You should be able to do the following when logged in as a Standard User,
but when you try to change anything it will ask for the Admin Name and
Password.

Is this the only Rev standalone on the Mac. Does the Mac have a copy of the
IDE which may only be available for the Admin user to use? Is this
definitely a standalone - a Rev stack can be opened without the IDE if
another Rev Stack exists on the Mac, so in this case, if the app isn't a
standalone but is really only a stack, it will try to start up the IDE, Rev
Player or any other Rev standalone that contains the Rev engine, if these
are only available to the Admin User then the Stack (not app) will fail to
start for a Standard User.

With Get Info what does it list under Name & Extension, does it have .rev or
no extension at all?

Control Click on the app so the contextual menu pops up and select 'Show
Package Contents'. A new Finder window should pop up with a single folder
called Contents, select it so you can look inside. Remember you can't write
to an application, so most of what is in here will have ONLY READ
permission, the exceptions are Info.plist file and any other file you've
specifically created to counter this situation, ie you've created a stack
with splashscreen, have a database or simply write to a seperate file. If
your app works for the Admin user, then the particular file (info.plist,
rev, db or other) must have the correct write permission for the Admin user
so maybe system Read & Write, admin Read & Write, everyone Read. In this
case the everyone needs to change to Read & Write, but remember, everyone
Read & Write should only be changed on those files that you know the user
needs to be able to write to, all other folders and files should have their
permissions left as is.

It might be handy to look in the HD/Applications/ folder for any other 3rd
party (not Apple, ie Firefox or Skype) application that has been installed.
Control Click on it to 'Show Package Contents' and check the various
permissions of the folders and files inside. You will see that the three
names are system, admin and everyone, and typcially ONLY the info.plist file
has Read & Write for everyone. Are these 3rd party apps visible to the
Standard User and do they work correctly?

The next problem might be Preferences. Instead of writing to a .plist file
located inside the app bundle (Mac name for the folder that looks like a
file), you could write to a preference file located in the Preference
Folder, unfortunately there are several of these. Each User has their own,
plus there is a System level one, HD/Library/Preferences. If your app writes
to HD/Library/Preferences it will work for the Admin user as they have Write
permission, but it will not work for standard Users. Preferences should go
in each individual HD/Users/<user name>/Library/Preferences folder so that
each User will have the app start with their own preferences. Obviously each
user can Read and Write to their own Preferences folder.

HTH