WatSAFE desktop notification - Mac Installation

Owned by Matthew Harford (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jun 28, 2023 by Natasha Jennings
3 min read

What is WatSAFE desktop notification?

WatSAFE desktop notification is one of several channels the University of Waterloo's emergency communication system will use to distribute messages in the event of an emergency. When triggered, the WatSAFE desktop notification software would cause a pop-up window to appear on the user's desktop screen, displaying the emergency message. 

Installation

It is very important that both an installer file, and a configuration file exist before running the installer. Be sure to unzip both files. The installer will look for the settings file in the same folder from where it was run. If the settings file can’t be found, then the installation won’t be configured properly.

When unzipping is complete, there should be two files that were extracted:

  • Desktop Notifications-X.X.pkg - This is the Desktop Notifications Installer

  • DeviceSettings.plist OR UserSettings.plist - The settings for your desktop notifications app

Extract and install the software

Users may need to click Allow to allow downloads.

  1. Extract the contents of the AppArmor zip file and Run the PKG file to begin installation: See zip file AppArmorDesktopMac_6.6.zip below

  2. Right-click or Ctrl-click on the installer and then click on the Open button

  3. Step through the rest of the installation process and enter your Mac password when prompted to install the software

  4. In Finder > Applications, look for Desktop Notifications (blue icon with exclamation mark) and double click it to start

  5. When prompted, click Allow to let WatSAFE Desktop Notifications access System Events, and depending on the OS version, to allow the tool to provide notifications

The Desktop Notifications app for MacOS is available as a notarized and signed PKG installer. The PKG is distributed within a ZIP file also includes a .plist file that contains the configuration for the app. After the installer has finished, it will run a post-install script to copy the settings to the /Library/LaunchAgents/ so that it can be automatically run by LaunchD.

Next steps

We recommend that you restart your computer to verify that the Desktop Notifications app automatically starts whenever you sign into the computer.

Troubleshooting

This is likely because the settings file (DeviceSettings.plist or UserSettings.plist) couldn’t be found by the installer during the installation process. Recommend that you uninstall the app by dragging the blue “Desktop Notifications” icon from your Applications folder to the Trash. Then download the installer again and verify that both the PKG and PLIST files are extracted from the zip.

You are seeing this dialog because the settings for the app couldn’t be found. To solve the problem, exit the Desktop Notifications app by clicking the icon in the Status Bar, and choose Exit.

Then, uninstall the app by dragging the blue “Desktop Notifications” icon from your Applications folder to the Trash. Download the installer again and verify that both the PKG and PLIST files are extracted from the zip.

Verifying installation

To ensure the WatSAFE Desktop Notification tool is installed, look for the icon (University crest with green circle/check mark) in the menu bar and ensure the status icon is green. Hovering over the icon will display WatSAFE Desktop Notification. 

Managed Mac machines

If you are responsible for managing a group of Mac machines, you may use the above file to deploy WatSAFE desktop notification to a single or large group of managed Mac machines.