Prefill Libraries for classroom usage not working in macOS

[pnerum]

Most appropriate sub-area of Processing 4?

Other (specify if possible)

Processing version

4.3

Operating system

macOS Sonoma and Sequoia

Steps to reproduce this

1. Install libraries as current logged in user
2. Capture the contents of ~/Documents/Processing to a "shared" template folder
3. Log in as another local user
4. Copy the contents from template folder to current ~/Documents/Processing folder
5. Open Processing app and check if the Libraries are marked as installed
6. Libraries aren't noted as installed in Processing 4

Additional context

We're using your software in our classroom labs where we give Processing lessons. Our lab macOS devices are shared between a lot of students and therefore we need to delete all the home folders with reboots to prevent storage problems and to (pre)deploy preferences for all kinds of software titles that are teached in those classroom labs.

We would like to be able to also pre-deploy (copy) Processing 4 libraries when a random student logs in. When we can’t pre deploy those preferences it takes a teacher an additional 10-15 minutes of their lesson when the teacher needs to ask all the students in the classroom to install those libraries using the GUI in the Processing.app. And they have to perform this procedure every time a macOS computer reboots.

Background:
These preferences we capture from all kinds of software titles and copy those to a template folder. When a new student logs in a new local home directory is created (by the OS) and preference files are copied to the corresponding local homefolder directory using a script.

We were already using that for Arduino and Processing 3 for example. But for Processing 4 this doesn’t work anymore and therefore this seems like a bug.

Do you have a workaround for this problem, or is there an additional folder that we need to copy to the template folder directory?

[pnerum]

I've have 2 screenshot examples where we pre-populated the ~/Documents/Processing folder to a newly created user (log in)

[pnerum]

One thing O forgot to mention: I don't use the same Processing 3 and 4 versions of the Libraries for Processing 4.

[SableRaf]

Thank you for sharing the details of your setup—it’s clear this workflow is important for your classroom environment and I'm sorry that you can't replicate it in Processing 4.3.

I encourage you to post your question on the Processing forum, where other educators and advanced users might share ideas or collaborate on a solution.

Processing is a community project, so if you or someone in your community has the capacity, you’re welcome to contribute a fix for this use case by submitting a pull request.

[SableRaf]

This was posted on the forum at https://discourse.processing.org/t/prefill-libraries-for-classroom-usage-not-working-in-macos/45427

[Stefterv]

I just tried this on my local machine and it works just fine... Anything special about the user setup?

[Stefterv]

In any case, it might be helpful to also copy the ~/Library/Processing folder