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Introduction
This article introduces the installer for IBM® Connections 4.0 plug-ins for IBM Lotus® Notes®. First, we provide an overview of the installer and explain the background for why we created it. We then illustrate how the installer works during the installation and shows how it is used. Lastly, we provide some tips on installing/uninstalling plug-ins.
Overview of the installer
Let's start with an overview of the IBM Connections plug-ins installer for Lotus Notes. The installer is built based on the IBM Lotus Expeditor Addon installer and can be customized for installing plug-ins into a target platform, such as Lotus Notes.
We have customized the Addon installer for our product and called it the “Common installer”. The Common installer includes three Connections 4.0 plug-ins: the Files plug-in, the Status Updates plug-in, and the Activities plug-in (with Business Card data provider).
Separate installers for the Files plug-in and Status Updates plug-in already exist. The Activities plug-in so far has shipped as part of Lotus Notes; however, it will be separated from IBM Notes 9.0, and these three plug-ins will be delivered by the Common installer.
The main reason for creating this installer is to make sure all our new 4.0 plug-ins within a Notes client are of the same version. Another important reason is that we haven't been able to update the Activities plug-in without a Notes hotfix or fixpack, which is inflexible. We will be able to easily provide fixes for Activities or other plug-ins by the Common installer.
There are two different versions of Common installer. One is for Microsoft® Windows®, and the other one is for Macintosh, which is also built based the Addon installer. We also support Linux®, but only with update site support, no installer.
How the installer works
The Common installer works similar to other Addon installers, with only with a few differences. Let's take a look at the install process briefly (see figure 1), then we will go into more details.
At the beginning of the installation, any existing plug-ins (Files / Status Updates / Activities) are uninstalled (not upgraded) by default, and then our new 4.0 plug-ins are installed. This is the main difference between other Addon installers.
Figure 1. Install process
Let's now discuss some details. You can see a lot more information in the install .xml (install.addon.xml, located in deploy folder /deploy/install.addon.xml) than the existing installer for Files plug-in or Status Updates plug-in.
There are some uninstall blocks (see listing 1) on the top that are used for removing existing plug-ins. The existing plug-ins cannot be upgraded because we specified a new id, “IBM Connections Plug-ins for Lotus Notes,” for the installer. The install will run into issues if existing plug-ins are not removed, which is why we need the uninstall blocks.
Listing 1. Example uninstall block
<installfeature id="Activities">
<requirements>
<feature action="uninstall" id="com.ibm.openactivities.client.feature" match="greaterOrEqual" shared="true" version="1.0.0" />
<feature action="uninstall" id="com.ibm.openactivities.client.nls1.feature" match="greaterOrEqual" shared="true" version="1.0.0" />
<feature action="uninstall" id="com.ibm.openactivities.client.nls2.feature" match="greaterOrEqual" shared="true" version="1.0.0" />
<feature action="uninstall" id="com.ibm.openactivities.client.nls3.feature" match="greaterOrEqual" shared="true" version="1.0.0" />
</requirements>
</installfeature>
<installfeature id="statusupdates">
<requirements>
<feature action="uninstall" id="com.ibm.lconn.statusupdates.feature" match="greaterOrEqual"
shared="true" version="1.0.0" />
<feature action="uninstall" id="com.ibm.lconn.client.bizcard.feature" match="greaterOrEqual"
shared="true" version="1.0.0" />
</requirements>
</installfeature>
Be sure not to touch the uninstall blocks; otherwise, an error will pop up, and the install will fail.
Install blocks for Activities plug-in and Status Updates plug-in
The install blocks (see listing 2) are directly adjacent to the uninstall blocks, and are actually the features lists for each plug-in.
Listing 2. Example install block
<!-- Below is the Activities plug-in install block, comment it out if you don't want to install Activities plug-in. -->
<!-- Activities -->
<feature action="install" id="com.ibm.openactivities.client.feature" match="equivalent" shared="true" url="jar:$ {installer.root}/updateSite.zip!/" version="3.5.4.20120905-1505" />
<feature action="install" id="com.ibm.openactivities.client.nls1.feature" match="equivalent" shared="true" url="jar:$ {installer.root}/updateSite.zip!/" version="3.0.1.20120904-1200" />
<feature action="install" id="com.ibm.openactivities.client.nls2.feature" match="equivalent" shared="true" url="jar:$ {installer.root}/updateSite.zip!/" version="3.0.1.20120904-1200" />
<feature action="install" id="com.ibm.openactivities.client.nls3.feature" match="equivalent" shared="true" url="jar:$ {installer.root}/updateSite.zip!/" version="3.0.1.20120904-1200" />
<!-- Activities -->
<!-- Below is the StatusUpdates plug-in install block, comment it out if you don't want to install StatusUpdates plug-in. -->
<!-- StatusUpdates -->
<feature action="install" id="com.ibm.lconn.statusupdates.feature" match="equivalent" shared="true" url="jar:$ {installer.root}/updateSite.zip!/" version="4.0.0.20120904-1849" />
<feature action="install" id="com.ibm.lconn.client.bizcard.feature" match="equivalent" shared="true" url="jar:$ {installer.root}/updateSite.zip!/" version="4.0.0.20120904-1849" />
<!-- StatusUpdates -->
Using the Common installer
Using the Common installer is quite simple.
Install
If you want to install all our 4.0 plug-ins, you just need to run the setup.exe / xpd.mac-addon.pkg to start the installation. If, instead, you want to install parts of the 4.0 plug-ins, one manual step is needed since the Addon installer doesn't support installing multiple plug-ins.
To do this, modify the install.addon.xml, commenting out the unwanted plug-ins, and then run the installer. Comments in the install .xml indicate what you need to do.
Here is one case for installing parts of the 4.0 plug-ins on Windows:
Install the 4.0 Files plug-in only. To do this:
1. Open the install.addon.xml, and comment out the Activities plug-in and Status Update plug-in install blocks as shown in listing 3.
Listing 3. Activities and Status Update install blocks commented out
<!--- Below is the Activities plug-in install block, comment it out if you don't want to install Activities plug-in. -->
<!-- Activities -->
<!--
<feature action="install" id="com.ibm.openactivities.client.feature" match="equivalent" shared="true" url="jar:$ {installer.root}/updateSite.zip!/" version="3.5.4.20120905-1505" />
<feature action="install" id="com.ibm.openactivities.client.nls1.feature" match="equivalent" shared="true" url="jar:$ {installer.root}/updateSite.zip!/" version="3.0.1.20120904-1200" />
<feature action="install" id="com.ibm.openactivities.client.nls2.feature" match="equivalent" shared="true" url="jar:$ {installer.root}/updateSite.zip!/" version="3.0.1.20120904-1200" />
<feature action="install" id="com.ibm.openactivities.client.nls3.feature" match="equivalent" shared="true" url="jar:$ {installer.root}/updateSite.zip!/" version="3.0.1.20120904-1200" />
-->
<!-- Activities -->
<!-- Below is the StatusUpdates plug-in install block, comment it out if you don't want to install StatusUpdates plug-in. -->
<!-- StatusUpdates -->
<!--
<feature action="install" id="com.ibm.lconn.statusupdates.feature" match="equivalent" shared="true" url="jar:$ {installer.root}/updateSite.zip!/" version="4.0.0.20120904-1849" />
<feature action="install" id="com.ibm.lconn.client.bizcard.feature" match="equivalent" shared="true" url="jar:$ {installer.root}/updateSite.zip!/" version="4.0.0.20120904-1849" />
-->
<!-- StatusUpdates -->
2. Run the setup.exe. After the installation, you will see that only the Files plug-in is installed into Lotus Notes.
Uninstall
On Windows you can uninstall the plug-ins, using “Add or Removed Programs”. The uninstall entry is “IBM Connections Plug-ins for Lotus Notes”. On Macintosh, run the “Uninstaller.app” to uninstall plug-ins.
Note that uninstall cannot be customized, so all installed 4.0 plug-ins will be uninstalled.
Tips
1) The Windows version of Addon installer is also a Windows installer, so running the same installer will trigger the uninstallation. There is a limitation for the incremental install to the Common installer, so refer to following case:
The Connections 4.0 Files plug-in has been installed into Lotus Notes by the Common installer (meaning that the Activities plug-in and Status Updates plug-in have been commented out from the install .xml). Then, we re-install the Activities plug-in. This is the incremental install:
- Uninstall “IBM Connections Plug-ins for Lotus Notes”, using Add or Remove Programs. The 4.0 Files plug-in will be uninstalled.
- Modify the install .xml again, returning the Activities plug-in (just uncomment it). Do not comment out the Files plug-in; otherwise, it will not be available after the installation.
- Run the setup.exe.
After these steps, you will get both Files plug-in and Activities plug-in installed into Lotus Notes. Note that there's no such limitation for Mac version of the Common installer.
2) If you have the Activities plug-in installed with the Notes installation and then want to upgrade Lotus Notes, make sure the Activities plug-in is removed from the Notes kit before upgrading; otherwise, the upgrade might fail with a conflict error (see table 1).
Table 1. Error log
You can remove the Activities plug-in per IBM Support Technote #1459716, “
Adding and removing components from the Notes install kit using UpdateSiteMgr tool.”
3) Mac OS X 10.8 comes with a native application called “Notes”, so IBM has renamed “Notes” to “Lotus Notes” on the Mac, to work around the install issue. Also, when Lotus Notes is renamed “IBM Notes” in v9.0, our Mac version of Common installer will support this change.
4) It is strongly recommended to turn off the Gatekeeper before running the Common installer on a Mac.
5) It is also possible to include the 4.0 plug-ins in the Notes kit by using the UpdateSiteMgr tool per Support Technote #1459716, so then Lotus Notes and the plug-ins can be deployed at the same time.
Conclusion
You should now have a good understanding of the IBM Connections Plug-ins for Lotus Notes installer, including its background, and the best practices for how to install and use the installer.
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Resources
Connections wiki product documentation topic, “Installing the IBM Connections Plug-ins for Lotus Notes”:
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lcwiki.nsf/xpDocViewer.xsp?lookupName=IBM+Connections+4.0+documentation#action=openDocument&res_title=Installing_the_IBM_Connections_Plugins_for_Lotus_Notes_ic40&content=pdcontent
developerWorks IBM Connections product page:
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/products/connections/
IBM Connections documentation:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/documentation/connections/
IBM Connections Forum:
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lcforum.nsfAbout the authors
Xue Li is an IBM Software Engineer based at IBM's Shanghai, China, facility where she works as a Tester on the IBM Connections Linked Valued team. You can reach her at
lixue@cn.ibm.com.
Hai Yang Liu is an IBM Software Developer based at IBM's Shanghai, China, facility where he works on the IBM Connections Linked Valued team. You can reach him at
liuhyang@cn.ibm.com