HCL Connections On-Premise Wiki: Integration: Installing the Connections Plug-ins for Notes

Installing the Connections Plug-ins for Notes

Added by ~Sean Frovelumaroni | Edited by ~Sean Frovelumaroni on March 20, 2013 | Version 3

Actions ▼

Abstract

This article is a placeholder.

IBM Connections Plug-ins for IBM Notes

Use the IBM® Connections Plug-ins for IBM Notes to have easy access to Connections content from the Notes® sidebar.

Use the IBM Connections Plug-ins for IBM Notes to have easy access to Connections content from the Notes sidebar. You can do the following from the sidebar applications:

Collaborate on a project using the Activities sidebar.
Display Activities to-do items in the Notes calendar.
Bookmark a Notes document and add it to your bookmark collection in IBM Connections.
Find and interact with colleagues by expanding a person's business card.
Upload files for your own use or to share with others
Keep up with your network by posting status updates and reading updates from people you follow.
Search across the IBM Connections applications.

Upgrading the IBM Notes client after installing IBM Connection plug-ins for IBM Notes

If you installed the IBM Connections plug-ins for IBM Notes and you are updating your IBM Notes client to 9.0, make sure that IBM Connections is selected on the Notes installation panel when you upgrade.

About this task

While you upgrading the existing Notes client to IBM Notes 9.0, make sure that IBM Connections is checked on the Notes installation panel. Otherwise, you do not get the sidebar applications for Activities, Files, and Status Updates. The sidebar applications depend on the IBM Connections Business Card plug-in. For example, if you have IBM Connections plug-ins for IBM Notes installed with Notes 8.5.3, then you upgrade the Notes 8.5.3 client to IBM Notes 9.0, select IBM Connections as an installation option. If you do not select IBM Connections, the Activities and Status Updates sidebar applications will not display after you upgrade the client.
Procedure

1. Make sure that your IBM Notes client is closed before you begin the upgrade.
2. Start the IBM Notes 9.0 installer.
3. Select IBM Connections on the Custom Setup panel.
4. Click Finish.

Installing the IBM Connections Plug-ins for IBM Notes

Install the IBM® Connections Plug-ins for IBM Notes to access Files, Activities, Status Updates and business card integration from your IBM Notes client.

There are two ways to install the IBM Connections Plug-ins for IBM Notes. A user can install plug-ins for a Notes® client using the InstallShield wizard, or an administrator can perform a silent installation for all plug-in users.

Installing the Plug-ins on a Windows client

Install the plug-ins so that the IBM Connections features are integrated with the IBM Notes client.

Procedure

1. Download the IBM Connections Plug-ins for IBM Notes from the IBM Connections catalog at the following web site:

https://greenhouse.lotus.com/catalog

2. Unzip ConnectionsAddonInstaller.zip and click Setup.exe.
3. Make sure your IBM Notes client is closed before beginning the installation.
4. Accept installation prompts for installing the plug-ins.
5. Click Finish to complete the installation.

Silently installing the IBM Connections Plug-ins (Windows)
About this task
Administrators can silently install the Connections plug-ins from the command prompt. A silent installation uses the same installation program that the graphical user interface (GUI) version users. However, instead of displaying a wizard interface, the silent installation reads all your responses from parameters that you pass to the command line. In order for the installation to work successfully, you must run the silent installation from the directory where you unzipped the plug-ins files.
Procedure

1. Make sure your IBM Notes client is closed before beginning the installation.
2. Open a command window. For example, choose Run from the Microsoft Windows Start menu and type cmd, then click OK.
3. Specify the path for the downloaded and unzipped installation file for the plug-in. For example, c:\.
4. Enter setup.exe /s /v" /qn" to begin the installation.

Installing the Plug-ins on a Mac client

Install the Mac version of the IBM Connections Plug-ins for IBM Notes so that it is integrated with the IBM Notes client.

Before you begin

Consider the following before you install:

If you run the unsigned installer on Mac 10.7.5 or newer, turn off the GateKeeper first before running the installer. To turn off the GateKeeper, got to System Preferences > Security & Privacy and Click Anywhere as the value for Allow applications downloaded from.
If you are installing a subset of the plug-ins with the signed installer on Mac 10.7.5 or later, turn off GateKeeper, then delete the _CodeSignature from xpd.addon-mac.pkg/Contents/_CodeSignature.

Procedure

1. Download the IBM Connections Plug-ins for IBM Notes from the IBM Connections catalog at the following web site:

https://greenhouse.lotus.com/catalog

2. Extract ConnectionsAddonInstaller_Mac.zip.
3. Make sure your IBM Notes client is closed before beginning the installation.
4. Double-click xpd.mac-addon.pkg to launch the installation program.
5. Accept installation prompts for installing the plug-ins.
6. Click Finish to complete the installation.

Silently installing the IBM Connections Plug-ins (Mac)
About this task
Administrators can silently install the Connections Files plug-in from the command prompt. A silent installation uses the same installation program that the graphical user interface (GUI) version users. However, instead of displaying a wizard interface, the silent installation reads all your responses from parameters that you pass to the command line. In order for the installation to work successfully, you must run the silent installation from the directory where you unzipped the plug-in files.
Procedure

1. Make sure your IBM Notes client is closed before beginning the installation.
2. Open a terminal window.
3. Specify the path for the downloaded and unzipped installation file for the plug-ins. For example, /ConnectionsAddonInstaller_Mac.
4. Enter sudo Installer -pkg package name -target destination volume to begin the installation. Where:

package name is xpd.addon-mac.pkg, the name of the installer.
destination volume is the disk where IBM Notes was installed.

For example: sudo Installer -pkg xpd.addon-mac.pkg -target Macintosh_HD

5. Enter your password at the prompt to begin the installation. When the installation completes, a terminal message displays The install was successful.

Viewing the log files

Use the log files to help you resolv problems with the installation.

About this task

If you encounter any errors during the installation or configuration process, review the log files for troubleshooting information.

On Windows, the logs for the plug-in are stored in the default temp directory for users. For example, on Windows XP, the directory is: C:\documents and settings\\Local Settings\temp\rcp_addon_install.txt\.

To view the logs on a Mac, follow these steps.

Procedure

1. Change to the directory where Notes is installed.
2. Navigate to /Contents/MacOS/rcp/deploy/instalHistory.
3. Find the zip file. It's name will be similar to this: Notes_8.5.3FP4_ADDON_INSTALL_1311563867253.zip or Notes_8.5.3FP4_ADDON_UNINSTALL_1311572948964.zip.
4. Unzip the file and navigate to /colutil/tmp to access the log.

What to do next
There is a configuration which can prevent users from uploading, downloading, or sharing files. Users will be able to view files, but, when trying to upload, download, or share a file will see this error message: "A problem with the server was encountered". This is most likely because an SSL setting called "Forced confidential" is enabled in the LotusConnections-config.xml file on the IBM Connections server and it creates a conflict on the Notes client. To correct this problem, set the following Files configuration setting in the plugin_customization.ini file. This setting applies to all versions of Notes.

1. Open the plugin_customization.ini file for the Notes client in a text editor. The file is stored in the following directory: /framework/rcp/plugin_customization.ini

Note: On Mac, your path might be different depending on where you installed Notes. For example, your path might be:
/Applications/Notes.app(or or Lotus Notes.app or IBM Notes.app)/Contents/MacOS/rcp/eclipse/features/plugin_customization.ini

2. Add this line:

com.ibm.documents.connector.service/ENABLE_SSL=true

Customizing the installation of the IBM Connections plug-ins

Customize the installer by editing the install.addon.xml file to install a custom set of IBM Connections plug-ins for an IBM Notes client.

Before you begin

Attention: Activities and Status Updates depend on the Business Card plug-in. Do not remove the Business Card plug-in if you are installing Activities or Status Updates.
About this task
Customize the installer to install parts of the plug-ins so that they are integrated with the IBM Notes client. For example, if you do not want to deploy Status Updates, you can exclude that plug-in from the installation by commenting it out in the install.addon.xml file.
Procedure

1. Open install.addon.xml in a text editor from the /deploy folder. For example,

Windows: /ConnectionsAddonInstaller/deploy
Mac: /ConnectionsAddonInstaller_Mac/xpd.mac-addon.pkg/Contents/deploy

2. Comment out the plug-ins you do not want to deploy or uncomment the plug-ins you do want to deploy. For example, if you don't want to install Status Updates plug-in, comment out the Status Updates plug-in. For example:

3. Click setup.exe/xpd.mac-addon.pkg to start the installation.

Connecting to a Connections server

Log into IBM Connections servers to access Connections content from the sidebar applications.

Before you begin

These steps describe how a user can connect to a Connections server. To provision this for a group of servers, use a policy. For more information, see the article on Creating an activities policy settings document in the IBM Domino product wiki.

You need the following information to connect to the Connections server:

The Web address of the Connections server (not just the server name, but the full Web address, like https://activities.example.com)
The username and password you use to log into IBM Connections.

About this task
When you first open a Connections panel in the sidebar, if a connection to the server is not available, you are prompted to verify connection information. The following steps describe how to log in from the Activities panel of the sidebar:
Procedure

1. In the Activities panel of the sidebar, click Show Connections preferences to open the Connections preferences window.
2. Fill in the following fields in the Connections Server Settings section:

Field	Description
Server URL	Type the Web address of the IBM® Connections server, beginning with either `https://` or `http://` For example: `https://enterprise.example.com` If you know that the server requires a secure, encrypted connection, begin the address with `https://` Some administrators change the context roots that are used to access IBM Connections features. If the web address that you normally use to access the Activities feature has a value other than /activities, specify the server URL using a syntax similar to this: `http://enterprise.example.com/activities` Note: Your administrator might have already provided a value for this field using an administrative policy. If so, do not change the value.
User name	Type your user name for logging in to the IBM Connections server.
User password	Type the associated password.

3. Only required if you are instructed to perform this step by your administrator: If Tivoli® Access Manager or Computer Associates eTrust SiteMinder are configured in your environment, click Advanced, and then select the appropriate option.

Results
The Activities sidebar should now display a list of your activities. Connecting to the Activities server also creates the necessary connection for the Files and Status Updates applications.
What to do next

The next time you log in to Notes®, you are logged in to the Connections server automatically.

Uninstalling the IBM® Connections Plug-ins for Lotus Notes

Uninstall the IBM Connections plug-ins to remove them from your Lotus Notes® client.

Before you begin

Attention: If you are planning to uninstall the Notes client, uninstall the IBM Connections plug-ins first.
About this task
You can remove the plug-ins from a single client or run a command to remove them from all plug-in users.
Procedure

1. To remove plug-ins from a single Windows client:

a. From the Microsoft Windows Control Panel, select Add or Remove Programs (on Vista, it is called Programs and Features), then select IBM Connections Plug-ins for Lotus Notes..
b. Click Remove (on Microsoft Windows 7 and Vista, it is called Uninstall), and then click Yes to confirm your choice.

2. To silently remove plug-ins from Windows clients:

a. Make sure your Lotus Notes client is not running.
b. Open a command prompt window. For example, choose Run from the Microsoft Windows Start menu and type cmd, then click OK.
c. Specify the path for the downloaded and unzipped installation file for the plug-ins. For example, c:\.
d. Enter setup.exe -s -x -v"/qn" to remove the plug-ins.

3. To remove the plug-ins from a single Mac client:.

a. Open the folder where you unzipped the ConnectionsAddonInstaller_Mac.zip file.
b. Click unistaller.app, and then click Yes to confirm your choice.

4. To silently remove the plug-ins from Mac clients:

a. Make sure your Lotus Notes client is not running.
b. Open a terminal window.
c. Specify the path for the downloaded and unzipped installation file for the plug-ins. For example, /ConnectionsAddonInstaller_Mac/uninstaller.
d. Enter ./addonUninstall -rcphome '/Applications//Contents/MacOS' -addonID IBMConnectionsPluginsforLotusNotes to remove the plug-ins. is Notes.app, Lotus Notes.app, or IBM Notes.app.