Hey.
Our company decided to use Cisco's token-less SSL VPN Service for Macs- and it was a mess to enable due to Safari (rightly) hating Java. Essentially, the VPN service ran a java script that kicked on Cisco AnyConnect- and then errored out due to Java settings. To resolve, one had to jump into Safari Preferences, enable our website, run it in Unsafe Mode, and either quit or reload the page- and we had 3 sites, so this had to be done in triplicate. It was basically an 11 step process, and for the average user, something of a nightmare. Attempts to alter the Safari Plist wouldn't stick, as well as a few PlistBuddy fixes from this site with no result. Safari 6.1 and above removed the Whitelist option, so those fixes didn't work either.
Well, I found a great solution today! First I enabled the site in Safari the way it needed to run- in Always Allow Unsafe Mode, and verified that it worked for all 3 of my sites. Then I opened the com.apple.Safari.plist file with Xcode, and copied the ManagedPluginPolicies section that contains the Java listings, and created a new Plist file with that set of information.
external image link
In Casper, I created a new Configuration Profile with a Custom Settings payload with a Preference Domain of com.apple.Safari, and uploaded my newly created Plist.
external image link
Configuration Profile keeps our specific sites enabled for Java, and made it a seamless experience for our users. It alters the Safari Plist, and doesn't overwrite it. You can allow new sites to be enabled with Java in Safari Preferences as you see fit, but the sites in the Config Profile can't be changed by the user.
Hope this helps, especially for anybody looking to alter a Plist.
-ben
