Installation manual

Chapter 9 Automating Tasks 173
Using Automator actions, you can even create your own interfaces to Apple Remote
Desktop functions without having to give users access to Remote Desktop. For
instance, say you wanted to give all your teachers a tool to lock and unlock screens
in their classrooms. You still need to congure Remote Desktop and set up computer
lists, but instead of giving the teachers all access to Remote Desktop, you can create an
Automator plug-in or application. This plug-in lets them select only the computers in
their classroom, and the plug-in does the rest of the work for them.
You can create an Automator workow, application, Finder plug-in, or iCal alarm similar
to the AppleScript script mentioned above. By stringing together Remote Desktop
actions in Automator, you accomplish the same work as an AppleScript script, but
without having to write code.
Creating and Running an Automator Service
If you’re running Remote Desktop on a computer with Mac OS X version 10.6 or later
installed, you can create services in Automator that perform Remote Desktop tasks.
After creating a service, you can select computers in Remote Desktop and run the
service against all selected computers. Because service entries are just collections of
Automator actions, the individual Remote Desktop tasks will appear in the Active Tasks
list as they’re performed, and in the History list when they complete.
To create an Automator service:
1 In Automator, choose File > New, select Service, and click Choose.
2 In the “Service receives selected” pop-up menu, choose Remote Computers. In the
pop-up menu to the right, choose “Remote Desktop.
3 Add Remote Desktop Automator actions to the workow.
For more information, see Automator Help.
4 After you nish adding actions, choose File > Save.
To run an Automator service:
1 In Remote Desktop, select computers that you want to run the service against.
2 Choose Remote Desktop > Services > Automator service name.