Putting ProfileCreator in Version Control

Index

• About ProfileCreator Files
• Configure ProfileCreator to use Version Control

About ProfileCreator Files

Any saved profiles with ProfileCreator are stored in .pfcconf files in ~/Library/Application Support/ProfileCreator/Profiles named after the profile's UUID. These files contain both the view settings as well as the payloads and preference values you configure.

Similarly, any saved profiles which you organize into Library Groups are stored in .pfcgrp files in ~/Library/Application Support/ProfileCreator/Groups. These files contain the Library Group name and each saved profile's UUID associated with it.

If you share the responsibility of creating profiles with a larger team, without a shared repository of these files each team member who did not originally create a profile would have to remake it from scratch, as ProfileCreator does not support importing existing profiles. Without much work however, you can bring these .pfcconf and .pfcgrp files into your version control system to centrally share and distribute these settings.

Configure ProfileCreator to use Version Control

While your team may have a more formalized change control process, below are the basic steps:

1. Initialize a repository to store your ProfileCreator files (ex. ProfileCreator-Resources).
2. With ProfileCreator closed, copy both the Profiles and Groups folders from your ~/Library/Application Support/ProfileCreator folder into your repo.
3. Delete your original ~/Library/Application Support/ProfileCreator folder and replace it with a symbolic link to your repo.

ln -s /path/to/ProfileCreator-Resources ~/Library/Application\ Support/ProfileCreator

4. Open ProfileCreator and verify your profiles and groups are still displayed. You can right-click one of your saved profiles from the ProfileCreator Library window and select 'Show "<saved_profile_name" in Finder'. This should point to your repo.
5. Once verified, commit your changes and distribute the repo with your team members.
6. For team members who have created their own profiles, have them copy their .pfcconf files to the Profiles folder in your repo. Any groups that these need to be included in can be added by copying the .pfcconf filename (the UUID) and adding it in the applicable .pfcgrp file's Identifiers array. Once added, have them delete their own ProfileCreator folder and create a symbolic link to the repo.