JNUC2019 Lab Session G Creating Objects

Hands On, Real-time Classic API Using ruby-jss

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Lab Session Contents - 6 - Creating Objects

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Creating a Static Group

• Let's create a static group and do some work with it

  • ruby-jss can be used to create smart groups
    • Dealing with criteria programmatically is more complex than we have time for today

• First, invent a unique name for your group, and store it in a variable:

  • Use something that no one else in this room will use
  • Store it in the variable grp_name

# REPLACE THE NAME IN THE QUOTES WITH SOMETHING UNIQUE
grp_name = 'my-awesome-computer-group'
# => "my-awesome-computer-group"

• Now create our group object in ruby, and store it in another variable

my_grp = JSS::ComputerGroup.make name: grp_name, type: :static ;0
# => 0

pp my_grp ;0
# [group info]
# => 0

• For objects in ruby-jss that are 'creatable', you use the make class method to make a new one

  • You must always provide a name: parameter, some classes require other info
  • Group objects require the type: parameter which must be either :static or :smart

• This creates a local instance of the JSS::ComputerGroup class

  • It isn't yet stored in the JSS, it only exists in ruby's memory

• For now, we don't need to set any other values for this group, so lets save it to the JSS:

my_grp_id = my_grp.save
# => 61

• save sends changes to the API, either creating or updating the object in the JSS

  • You can also use create or update as appropriate

• Whenever you use save, or create or update on a ruby-jss object, the return value is the id number of the thing you created or updated.

Creating Five Computers

• You rarely need to create computer records using the API

• But we need to do that here, so we each can have our own computer records to work with

• We're going to create very minimal records, just enough to do what we need

  • JSS::Computer objects have LOTS of data in them, way more than we can look at today

• First, pick another unique name to use as the base-name for your computers:

  • Again, choose something no one else will
  • Store it in the variable comp_base_name

# REPLACE THE NAME IN THE QUOTES WITH SOMETHING UNIQUE
comp_base_name = 'my-awesome-computer'
# => "my-awesome-computer"

• Next, make an empty array to hold the ids of the computers we create, we'll use them later:

new_comp_ids = []
# => []

• Now we're going to do a loop 5 times and make new computer records:

5.times do |pass_num|
  comp_name = "#{comp_base_name}-#{pass_num}"

  comp_sn = comp_name + "-sn"

  comp_udid = `uuidgen`.chomp

  comp = JSS::Computer.make name: comp_name, sn: comp_sn, udid: comp_udid; 0

  new_comp_ids << comp.save

  puts "Created Computer '#{comp_name}'"
  puts "  id: #{new_comp_ids.last}"
  puts "  sn: #{comp_sn}"
  puts "  udid: #{comp_udid}"
end
# [ lines of output]
# => 5

• Oh look! An iterator method!

  • They aren't just for arrays, times works with integers.

• We use the base-name and pass-number thru the loop to create a unique name and serialnumber

• We create the udid from the output of a shell command uuidgen

  • The chomp method removes the trailing newline we got from the shell

• Then we make our local ruby Computer instance

  • Again, until we save it, it only exists in local memory, not in the JSS

• In one step, we save it to the JSS, and append the new id number to the array we created above

  • << will append something to the end of an array

• Finally, we output some lines saying what we did

• To see that your computers were created, try this:

pp JSS::Computer.all_names(:refresh).select { |name| name.start_with? comp_base_name } ;0
# [array of computer names]
# => 0

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