JNUC2019 Lab Session I Changing EAs

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

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Lab Session Contents - 8 - Changing an Extention Attribute for the Computers in a Group

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Modifying extension attribute values

• Here's something a bit more practical

  • Lets change an extension attribute value for all the members of our group

• This would work for smart groups, as well as static groups

• Here's the extension attribute we'll change

  • put its name into a variable:

ea_name = 'JNUC-2019-LabUser'
# => "JNUC-2019-LabUser"

• Now put your desired value into a variable also, use any text you'd like

ea_value = 'Jeaux Bleaux'
# => "Jeaux Bleaux"

• Now we loop through the group members using each on the array of member_ids from the group:

my_grp.member_ids.each do |comp_id|
  computer = JSS::Computer.fetch id: comp_id

  orig_val = computer.ext_attrs[ea_name]

  computer.set_ext_attr ea_name, ea_value

  computer.save

  puts "Changed EA '#{ea_name}' from '#{orig_val}' to '#{ea_value}' for computer '#{computer.name}' "

  sleep (rand + 1)
end
# [ lines of output]
# => [ array of member ids, from 'each' ]

• In the loop, we fetch the JSS::Computer object by its id

• We store the original value of the EA in a variable, for reporting

  • JSS::Computer objects have a method ext_attrs that returns a hash of EA names (hash keys) to EA values (hash values)
  • For us, the original EA value will be blank, since we just created these computer records

• We then set the EA to the desired value

  • JSS::Computer objects have a method set_ext_attr that takes two parameters, the EA name, and the new value

• Save our changes for this computer

• Print out a line saying what we did

• To check our work, re-fetch one of the computers, and look at the value

comp_to_check = JSS::Computer.fetch id: my_grp.member_ids.sample ;0
# => 0

comp_to_check.ext_attrs[ea_name]
# => "Jeaux Bleaux"

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