As an alternative to Domino policy or use of an install kit's deploy.nsf, some administrative account settings can be assigned using accounts or editing the plugin_customization.ini file.

If you are connecting to a Domino 8.5.2 or greater server, you can use an account to specify Eclipse-based client information, such as Lotus Connections server information, for users. See Administrative accounts for management of client plug-ins 8.5.2 tech note for more details.

Alternatively, you can specify values such as the Lotus Connections server URL by adding an entry to the install kit's (or already installed) plugin_customization.ini file. This article summarizes the settings you can edit in the PLUGIN_CUSTOMIZATION.INI file in the IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.3 installation to configure the IBM Connections features surfaced in the IBM Lotus Notes client. The PLUGIN_CUSTOMIZATION.INI file is supplied in the Notes installation kit in the deploy directory (deploy\plugin_customization.ini). Once Notes is installed, the file is located at <install_dir\framework\rcp\plugin_customization.ini.

For more information about how to distribute configuration settings to users' systems, see these topics in the Notes Domino Help:

Customizing the Notes install kit
Customizing Notes using the plugin_customization.ini file

For information about the new IWA support added with Notes 8.5.3, see the Integrated Windows authentication (IWA) for Eclipse-based clients, including Lotus Notes, Symphony, and Sametime technote.

IBM Connections server settings

Setting	Accepted values Default is bold.	Introduced in version	Description
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/server	No default http\:///	8.5.1	Full web address of the Activities feature on the IBM Connections server including the protocol. Add a backslash before each colon. For example: http\://enterprise.example.com/activities If Activities is not installed, specify the web address of an application that is, such as Profiles.
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/authtype	J2EE-FORM SM-FORM TAM-FORM OS-CRED DOMINO-SSO Required if the server setting is specified, even if you want to use the default value.	8.5.1 8.5.1 8.5.1 8.5.3 8.5.3	Defines the authentication protocol to use when connecting to the IBM Connections server. Choose the protocol that is enabled on the server. The options are: J2EE-FORM: Form-based authentication, default SM-FORM: SiteMinder Form authentication TAM-FORM: Tivoli Access Manager Form authentication OS-CRED Select this option when Notes is configured to support single sign-on for the Windows™ desktop, which is also known as Simple and Protected Generic Security Service Application Program Interface (GSS-API) Negotiation Mechanism (SPNEGO). This option is only supported on system running the Microsoft™ Windows operating system. Use this option for SPNEGO, TAM-SPNEGO, and Siteminder-SPNEGO configurations. Note: If you select this setting and run into issues, refer to the Troubleshooting the OS-CRED setting section below. DOMINO-SSO Select this option when single sign-on is configured between Notes® and the IBM® Connections server. You must know the host name of the Domino® server that was used to set up single sign-on because you must specify it in some additional required properties. See the "Required settings for DOMINO-SSO" section below for the list.
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/authserver	For DOMINO-SSO, specify: Not required for other authentication types. No default For J2EE-Form, specify: \:443/activities/j_security_check	8.5.1	Where is the full web address of the Activities feature on the IBM Connections server including the protocol. The port number might need to be changed from the default of 443 depending on your deployment. Attention: Add a backslash before each colon. For example: http\://enterprise.example.com/activities\:9080/activities/j_security_check Where is the full web address of the Domino server.
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/policy-mode	DEFAULT OVERWRITE Required if the server setting is specified, even if you want to use the default value.	8.5.2	Optional. Use this property to define where the sidebar should read the server information from. DEFAULT: Allows users to modify the server URL. It does not overwrite the server URL if a Connections account has been defined by the administrator. OVERWRITE: Overwrites the server URL that was specified in the preferences page with the one specified in the com.ibm.lconn.client.base/server property, and recreates any associated accounts. Use this setting if you change deployments and want to force users to switch from accessing one server to accessing another or if a change to the current configuration, such as a change in the authentication protocol being used by the server, should be pushed out to users. Note: If you specify this option and users make changes to the server configuration on their systems, those changes will be overwritten when Notes starts the next time.
com.ibm.documents.connector.util/localCacheDir	is the new location for the local cache	9.0.1	Optional: Use this property on Windows to customize the paths to change where Files data is saved. To specify new paths where Files data will be saved, edit the plugin_customization.ini file and update the environment variables that control where data is written. The following rules apply: Any OS-specific environment variable can be used on its own. You can specify sub-folders. You can specify an absolute path without using an environment variable Folders are created if they don't already exist. Always use the forward slash ('/' ) as a separator for the file path. The setting will only be applied to a newly added configuration (server); it will not affect an already configured sidebar. If a server was already specified you must remove and re-add the server via the Connections preferences page in Notes. The specified cannot be a network drive. Environment variables you can use to specify the new location include: Windows environment variable Absolute path (Default) %TEMP% and %TMP% C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Temp %LOCALAPPDATA% C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local %APPDATA% C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming %HOMEPATH% C:\Users\{username} %USERPROFILE% C:\Users\{username} For example: com.ibm.documents.connector.util/localCacheDir=%APPDATA%/MyFiles com.ibm.documents.connector.util/localCacheDir=%TEMP% com.ibm.documents.connector.util/localCacheDir=C:/temp/MyFiles

Required settings for DOMINO-SSO
These properties must be added to the INI file if DOMINO-SSO is selected as the authentication type, even if the default values are used.

Setting	Accepted values Default is bold.	Introduced in version	Description
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/ dominosso.preferred.username.field	ShortName FullName InternetAddress LTPAUserName	8.5.3	Required if DOMINO-SSO is the authtype. Species the credentials set up in WebSphere Application Server or the LDAP server to be used for authentication where is the value specified on the IBM Connections server to use as the login value. See the IBM Connections wiki product documentation for more details.
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/ dominosso.dominoresolveservername	false true	8.5.3	Required if DOMINO-SSO is the authtype. If a network sprayer is in use, set this value to true. Defaults to false.
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/ dominosso.useclustermates	false true	8.5.3	Required if DOMINO-SSO is the authtype. If the deloyment is relying on Domino cluster failover support, set this value to true. Defaults to false.
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/ dominosso.PreferredInternetSite	No default	8.5.3	Required if DOMINO-SSO is the authtype. If Domino has multiple configurations and IBM Connections needs to use something other than default LTPA configuration, use this property to specify the host name of the Domino internet site.

Advanced server settings
Note: The following settings are new with 8.5.3. When you select Tivoli® Access Manager Form or Site Minder Form as the authentication type, they are enabled by default, unless you specify otherwise using the INI file. As a result, connectivity might fail at first. Test the upgrade before rolling it out.

Setting	Accepted values Default is bold.	Introduced in version	Description
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/requireSSL	true false	8.5.3	Secures traffic using the Secure Sockets Layer protocol.
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/requireTrustedSites	true false	8.5.3	Limits the available external web sites to a specified list. Accounts preferences define the list of trusted sites.

Enabling or disabling IBM Connections

Setting	Accepted values Default is bold.	Introduced in version	Description
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/ enableConnectionsIntegration	true false prohibit	8.5.3	Specifies whether IBM Connections should be started when the Notes client starts. This property can be used by administrators to control whether the sidebar is enabled on users' systems by default. Options are: false The sidebar does not connect to the IBM Connections server when the client is started, but users can connect to the server by clicking the Enable Connections button from the Connections preference page. This option is useful if not all users are part of Connections yet, because it enables users to 'opt in' without being prompted for credentials. prohibit No connection to the IBM Connections server is attempted in the sidebar when the Notes client starts. Instead, a message is displayed that says the sidebar is disabled. On the Connections preferences page, a message is displayed that states that the sidebar was disabled by the administrator and there is no Enable Connections button. Only the administrator can enable it. true The sidebar connects to the IBM Connections server when the client is started. If the INI file defines server information, the Connections account is created the first time the user access the sidebar, and the user is prompted for credentials. Users can disconnect from the server by clicking the Disable Connections button from the Connections preference page.

Activities performance settings

Setting	Accepted values Default is bold.	Introduced in version	Description
com.ibm.openactivities.service/ cache.refresh.rate	0	8.5.3	Specifies how often to refresh the sidebar (in seconds). This value used to be set to 300 seconds by default, which refreshed the sidebar content every 5 minutes. As of 8.5.3, the default value is 0, which sets the sidebar to not be automatically refreshed at all. This property improves server performance. It also means that users must manually refresh the sidebar to see the latest content.
com.ibm.openactivities.service/ preload.templates	false true	8.5.3	If set to false, prevents activity templates from being loaded when the sidebar is started and instead loads them when someone clicks the New activity button. Setting this property to false improves startup performance because the sidebar makes the request at the time when the template options must be available to be displayed and not as the sidebar is opening. As a result, the templates are loaded the first time the user creates an activity (and will then be cached). This can cause the first new activity action to take a while as the request waits for a network response. There is no delay the next time the person creates an activity. The default value is true.
com.ibm.openactivities.service/load.templates	private favorite all	8.5.3	This setting enables you to limit the number of activity templates retrieved from the server by the sidebar, and therefore improve server performance. The options are: all Retrieves all public activity templates. This option uses the most resources. favorite Retrieves only those activity templates that you have selected as favorites. private Retrieves only those activity templates that you created or are a member of. This is the default option.
com.ibm.openactivities.service/ include.public.activities.in.priorityview	true false	8.5.3	The By priority view includes public activities with high or medium priority. You can exclude public activities from this view by setting this property to false. Default is true.

Business card

Setting	Accepted values Default is bold.	Introduced in version	Description
com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/ cache.expiry.time.hours	24	8.5.1	Specifies how often to refresh the business card cache, in hours. The business card cache manages contact information, such as the person's phone number. This defaults to 24 (1 day). To improve performance, consider setting this value to 168 (7 days). Note: The Sametime business card is refreshed once a week.
com.ibm.lconn.client.bizcard/ profile.status.update.interval.minutes	60	8.5.1	Specifies how often to refresh the status information in the business card, in minutes. The status information tells you whether the person is away from their desk or available to chat. This defaults to 60 minutes (1 hour). For improved performance, consider setting this value to 1440 (24 hours).
com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/show.photo	true false	8.5.1	Specifies whether a photo should be displayed in the business card.
com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/show.twistie	true false	8.5.1	Specifies whether the twistie should be displayed, which can be expanded to reveal more information about the person.
com.ibm.lconn.client.bizcard/ hide.profiles.status.update	false true	8.5.3	Disables the retrieval of status updates, which use system resources because they involve making a network call to the server. Note: If there is status update information in the cache, it is displayed until the cache expires.
com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/enable.location	false true	8.5.3	Information about a person's geographic location can be added to the contact information that is displayed in the IBM Connections business card. Use this setting to enable the display of this information. If set to true, the person's work location and time zone are displayed in the card.

Business card data providers
See this article in the IBM Lotus Notes wiki for background information about the different data providers available
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/Defining_business_card_data_retrieval

Setting	Accepted values Default is bold.	Introduced in version	Description
com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/ disable.content.for. com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/disable.content.for.profiles com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/ disable.content.for.NotesContacts com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/ disable.content.for.com.ibm.lconn.client.bizcard.livename	false true	8.5.2	Set the value of the setting to true to disable the providers from retrieving content.
com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/disable.resolving.for. com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/disable.resolving.for.profiles com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/disable.resolving.for.NotesContacts com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/ disable.resolving.for.com.ibm.lconn.client.bizcard.livename	false true	8.5.2	Set the value of the setting to true to prevent the business card from attempting to resolve information for a given provider. This setting is useful, for example, when a given provider returns a different email address than the one you want the business card to display.
com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/disable.status.for. com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/disable.status.for.profiles com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/disable.status.for.NotesContacts com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/ disable.status.for.com.ibm.lconn.client.bizcard.livename	false true	8.5.2	Set the value of the setting to true to disable status information from being retrieved from the specified provider.
com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/change.priority.for. com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/change.priority.for.profiles com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/change.priority.for.NotesContacts com.ibm.rcp.bizcard/ change.priority.for.com.ibm.lconn.client.bizcard.livename	E A C	8.5.2	Set the value of the setting to true to overwrite the priority for a given data provider. Note: 'E' is the highest priority and 'A' is the lowest priority.
com.ibm.lconn.client.bizcard.extension/ enable.st.photo.provider	true false	8.5.2	This settings allows certain Sametime views (such as Primary Contacts, tabbed chat view) to pick up profile photos from the new business card. Otherwise, photos are taken from the Sametime LDAP directory, which might result in inconsistent photos being displayed. This setting was disabled by default until 8.5.3.

Service monitor
The ServiceMonitor checks the availability of the Connections Profiles application to determine if it can populate the business card. If Profles is down, these settings control how often a reconnect is attempted. If the service is unavailable after multiple attempts, a message is displayed to the user asking the person if they want to keep trying to connect.

Setting	Accepted values Default is bold.	Introduced in version	Description
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/service.monitor.enable.ui	true false	8.5.2	Starting in 8.5.2, this setting is set to true by default. Previously, it was set to false by default. When set to false, if Profiles is down, the service is automatically marked unavailable until the next restart of the client. No message is displayed to the user. Note: If set to false, the two settings below are obsolete.
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/retry.interval.in.minutes	15	8.5.2	Defines the amount of time, in minutes, that the service monitor will wait before trying again after a test of connectivity fails. Note: Defining a value for this setting has no effect if service.monitor.enable.ui setting = false.
com.ibm.lconn.client.base/retry.max	3	8.5.2	Number of times the service monitor tries to connect after failing before displaying a dialog to the user asking whether the person wants to keep trying or stop. Note: Defining a value for this setting has no effect if service.monitor.enable.ui setting = false.

Files plugin

Setting	Accepted values Default is bold.	Introduced in version	Description
com.ibm.documents.connector.service/ ENABLE_SSL	false true	IBM Connections 3.0.1	Enable SSL support for Files.

Status Updates

Setting	Accepted values	Introduced in version	Description
com.ibm.lconn.statusupdates/refresh.rate.in.minutes	time in minutes Default is 15	3.0	Refresh rate of the StatusUpdates sidebar. The minimum value that is allowed is 5 minutes.
com.ibm.lconn.statusupdates/download.image.enabled	true/false	8.5.2	By default photos within the StatusUpdates sidebar point directly to the server. Depending on the server config there can be authentication issues (for example, when using Domino SSO). In such cases, photos need to be downloaded using the ATOM API (which handles auth properly). Note: this setting should be used when photos don't show up in StatusUpdates or if they cause a login prompt

Troubleshooting server authentication settings
If you specified a value for the com.ibm.lconn.client.base/authtype property and are experiencing issues connecting to the IBM Connections server, enabling debugging in the client by completing the following steps:

1. Open the rcpinstall.properties file in a text editor. You can find it in the following directory:
notes_install_root\Data\workspace\.config\rcpinstall.properties

2. Add the following lines:

• com.ibm.rcp.accounts.level=DEBUG
• com.ibm.rcp.net.http.level=DEBUG
• com.ibm.rcp.security.spnego.level=DEBUG

Save and close the properties file, and then restart the client, and reproduce the problem.