Setting up Site-wide Preferences  
 

System administrators can change OmniWeb's preferences for all their users. This is especially useful for proxy server settings, but can be used to change any preference the user can change (and more). For example, administrators may want to change the site-wide default for their users' start page, bookmarks file, or font settings.

At startup, OmniWeb looks for files named Defaults.plist in each of the following folders: /Network/Library/Application Support/OmniWeb/, /Library/Application Support/OmniWeb/, and ~/Library/Application Support/OmniWeb/. If it finds any, it will configure its default settings to match those in the file(s). If a given setting is present in more than one place, the /Network/Library setting will be replaced by the /Library setting, and the /Library setting by the ~/Library setting. (Generally it's of little use to put anything in the user-level defaults file, as users can just as easily edit their settings in the Preferences window.) If you have the PropertyListEditor application installed (it comes as part of the Developer Tools package available from Apple) you can use it to create and edit one of these files.

The Defaults.plist file should have an entry for each default you want to change. For example, this Defaults.plist file will set the Automatic Software Update, JavaScript error alerts, window cascading, Java applets, Shorcut addresses, and Speech Recognition preferences for all users:


{
     OAPreferenceController = {
          OWHiddenPreferences = {
               category = Advanced;
               defaultsDictionary = {
                    AutomaticSoftwareUpdateCheckEnabled = 1;
                    JSPopupErrors = 1;
                    OAWindowCascadeDisabled = 1;
                    OHAppletsDisabled = 0;
                    OWAddressShortcuts = {
                       "*" = "http://www.%@.com/";
                       "http://www.w3.org/" = "http://www.w3.org/";
                       localhost = "http://localhost/";
                       www = "http://www/";
                    };
                    SpeechRecognitionEnabled = 0;
               };
          };
     };
}
All settings go within the OAPreferenceController block, under the OWHiddenPreferences block. For a complete list of acceptable default names and values, see the Complete Defaults List.

Note that defaults files only specify the default settings -- a user can still customize their own preferences.

The defaults command-line utility

It's also possible for advanced users and administrators to edit OmniWeb's settings via the defaults command-line utility. Type defaults or man defaults in a terminal window for information about using it. You'll find acceptable keys and values for use with this utility in the Complete Defaults List.

Related Topics
Complete Defaults List

Table of Contents: Advanced Topics for System Administrators
Main Table of Contents