Deployment

OffShoot is used by many facilities with hundreds of offload/ingest stations, so we made it easy to deploy OffShoot at scale. We strongly suggest using an MDM solution to set up OffShoot deployment.

Activating OffShoot

Activating a license can be done via the API:

offshoot://activate?key=[your license key]

Deactivation works via the same mechanism:

offshoot://deactivate

Settings and Presets

By default, OffShoot stores settings and presets per user. When multiple users use the same computer, each user has their own preferences and presets.

If needed, OffShoot can use computer-based settings and presets.

Settings

OffShoot settings can be set at different levels. Each level overrides the levels before it.

App Settings The default settings of OffShoot.
Computer Settings Settings stored for the computer. These apply to all users on the same computer, unless overridden by user settings or policies.
User Settings Settings stored for the current user. These override computer settings.
Computer Policy Policy settings stored for the computer. These override the computer and user settings. Users can still change these settings while using OffShoot, but the settings will revert to the computer policy when OffShoot is relaunched.
User Policy Policy settings stored for the current user. These have the highest priority. Users can still change these settings while using OffShoot, but the settings will revert to the user policy when OffShoot is relaunched.

On macOS, preferences may be cached by the system or overwritten by OffShoot while it is running. Before changing settings, make sure OffShoot is closed.

If changes do not appear, make sure to also restart macOS’s preferences server:

sudo killall cfprefsd
killall cfprefsd

App Settings

Example

Check OffShoot's default settings

Open Terminal

Paste this command and press Return

defaults read "/Applications/OffShoot.app/Contents/Resources/SFIDefaults"

Example

Check OffShoot's default settings

Open PowerShell

Paste this command and press Return

Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Hedge"

Don't see all the settings? Change the setting you want in OffShoot > Settings, then run the command again.

Computer Settings

Example

Adds a computer-level setting for OffShoot > Settings > Connect > Computer Name

Open Terminal

Paste this command and press Return

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy \
  -c "Add :SFIDefaultsConnectConnectionName string 'COMPUTER DEFAULT'" \
  "/Library/Preferences/nl.syncfactory.Hedge.Mac.plist"

Validate

defaults read "/Library/Preferences/nl.syncfactory.Hedge.Mac" SFIDefaultsConnectConnectionName

Example

Adds a computer-level setting for OffShoot > Settings > Connect > Computer Name

Open PowerShell

Paste this command and press Return

New-Item -Path "HKLM:\Software\Hedge" -Force | Out-Null

New-ItemProperty `
  -Path "HKLM:\Software\Hedge" `
  -Name "ConnectClientName" `
  -Value "COMPUTER DEFAULT" `
  -PropertyType String `
  -Force

Validate

Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Software\Hedge" -Name "ConnectClientName"

User Settings

Example

Adds a user-level setting for OffShoot > Settings > Connect > Computer Name

Open Terminal

Paste this command and press Return

Current user

defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/nl.syncfactory.Hedge.Mac SFIDefaultsConnectConnectionName "USER DEFAULT"

Validate

defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/nl.syncfactory.Hedge.Mac.plist SFIDefaultsConnectConnectionName

Specific user

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy \
  -c "Add :SFIDefaultsConnectConnectionName string 'USER DEFAULT'" \
  "/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/nl.syncfactory.Hedge.Mac.plist"

Example

Adds a computer-level setting for OffShoot > Settings > Connect > Computer Name

Open PowerShell

Paste this command and press Return

Current user

New-Item -Path "HKCU:\Software\Hedge" -Force | Out-Null

New-ItemProperty `
  -Path "HKCU:\Software\Hedge" `
  -Name "ConnectClientName" `
  -Value "USER DEFAULT" `
  -PropertyType String `
  -Force

Validate

Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Hedge" -Name "ConnectClientName"

Computer Policy

Example

Adds a computer-level policy for OffShoot > Settings > Connect > Computer Name

Open Terminal

Paste this command and press Return

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy \
  -c "Add :SFIDefaultsConnectConnectionName string 'COMPUTER POLICY'" \
  "/Library/Managed Preferences/nl.syncfactory.Hedge.Mac.plist"

Validate

defaults read "/Library/Managed Preferences/nl.syncfactory.Hedge.Mac" SFIDefaultsConnectConnectionName

Example

Adds a computer-level policy for OffShoot > Settings > Connect > Computer Name

Open PowerShell as Administrator

Paste this command and press Return

New-Item -Path "HKLM:\Software\Policies\Hedge" -Force | Out-Null

New-ItemProperty `
  -Path "HKLM:\Software\Policies\Hedge" `
  -Name "ConnectClientName" `
  -Value "COMPUTER POLICY" `
  -PropertyType String `
  -Force

Validate

Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Software\Policies\Hedge" -Name "ConnectClientName"

User Policy

Example

Adds a user-level policy for OffShoot > Settings > Connect > Computer Name

Open Terminal

Paste this command and press Return

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy \
  -c "Add :SFIDefaultsConnectConnectionName string 'USER POLICY'" \
  "/Library/Managed Preferences/<username>/nl.syncfactory.Hedge.Mac.plist"

Validate

defaults read "/Library/Managed Preferences/<username>/nl.syncfactory.Hedge.Mac" SFIDefaultsConnectConnectionName

Example

Adds a user-level policy for OffShoot > Settings > Connect > Computer Name

Open PowerShell as Administrator

Paste these commands and press Return

To set a user policy for another user, write to that user’s hive under HKEY_USERS using their SID.

Get-CimInstance Win32_UserProfile |
  Select-Object LocalPath, SID

Then, replace S-1-5-21-... with the user’s actual SID:

New-PSDrive -Name HKU -PSProvider Registry -Root HKEY_USERS -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

New-Item -Path "HKU:\S-1-5-21-...\Software\Policies\Hedge" -Force | Out-Null

New-ItemProperty `
  -Path "HKU:\S-1-5-21-...\Software\Policies\Hedge" `
  -Name "AutoSourceSearchPattern" `
  -Value "USER POLICY SETTINGS" `
  -PropertyType String `
  -Force

Validate

Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Policies\Hedge" -Name "ConnectClientName"

Presets

By default, presets are stored separately for each account. You can set a different preset location with a computer setting or policy. This allows multiple users on the same computer to share the same presets.

Example

Override OffShoot's default preset folder location for all users.

Open Terminal

Paste this command and press Return

sudo mkdir -p "/Users/Shared/OffShoot Presets"

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy \
  -c "Add :PresetLocation string '/Users/Shared/OffShoot Presets'" \
  "/Library/Preferences/nl.syncfactory.Hedge.Mac.plist"

Validate

defaults read "/Library/Preferences/nl.syncfactory.Hedge.Mac" PresetLocation

Example

Override OffShoot's default preset folder location for all users.

Open PowerShell as administrator

Paste this command and press Return

New-Item -Path "HKLM:\Software\Hedge" -Force | Out-Null

New-ItemProperty `
  -Path "HKLM:\Software\Hedge" `
  -Name "PresetLocation" `
  -Value "C:\Users\Public\OffShoot Presets" `
  -PropertyType String `
  -Force

Validate

Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Software\Hedge" -Name "PresetLocation"

Last updated 14 days ago