Clearing applications from Profile Manager

For some unknown reason when editing the Dock payload in Profile Manager there are sometimes applications that won't go away, even if you delete them from the server. Thanks to this post on krypted.com I was able to figure out how to remove the offending apps from the database. Once they are created again on the server they will appear correctly when editing a Dock payload.

1. Open a Terminal session on the profile manager server.
   You can do this while connected via Screen Sharing or on your Mac by connecting via ssh
   
2. Switch to root with the following command:
   sudo –s
   
3. Open the PostgreSQL command line application with the following command:
   sudo -u _devicemgr psql -h /Library/Server/ProfileManager/Config/var/PostgreSQL devicemgr_v2m0
   
4. Show a list of applications installed on the system that are in the database with the following command:
   select id,path from system_applications;
   Note the semicolon at the end of the command line, it is needed
   
5. To show a list of specific applications, e.g. Photoshop use this command:
   select id,path from system_applications where path like '%Photoshop%';
   Make a note of the id for the application you want to remove.
   
6. To delete the offending application:
   delete from system_applications where id=123;
   Substitute the 123 for the actual id found in steps 4 or 5
   
7. Exit psql with the following command:
   \q
   
8. Exit the root shell with the following command:
   exit 

Once in the psql command line application there is a lot you can do to muck around in the database, of course. If you aren't comfortable in that kind of environment then be very careful or you would ruin your entire Profile Manager setup.