I am working to create a silent installation of the Lotus Notes 651 client. I’ve searched the forum and found quite a bit of useful information. However, there are a couple of pieces to my puzzle that aren’t in place.
In preliminary testing, after running the client (in my case an upgrade from Notes 5.X), you are prompted to enter the sametime server address and then select a welcome screen. I will be upgrading approximately 5000 clients from Notes 5.X and I don’t want the users manually entering the sametime client server address or fumbling with the welcome screen. In fact, corporate standards (and cashflow) dictate that a large number of users will need to have the sametime client disabled.
I’ve looked at the installshield tuner, entertained creating a configuration INI file, even manipulated the installation using the MS Office resource kit (which by the way works pretty well). Unfortunately, I am not getting anywhere with any of these tools. Is anyone familiar with modifying the granular options? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
One of the main features of Notes 65 is Sametime Integration. If you have users that shouldn’t be using Sametime, then you shouldn’t install 65 for those users, but use 603 instead which is supposed to have the same code but without Sametime. But if it is because of cashflow, (don’t take my word for it,check and make sure) - I thought that using sametime in 65 did not count against the number of sametime client licenses, but rather was still considered a notes client license. Only if you install the full sametime connect client does it count against your licenses. May be worth checking in to.
As far as the granular options for the installation, you will have to modify the notes.ini file with the sametime information to bypass that setup screen. Without doing so, there is no way to bypass the setup screen that I know of.
This was the message given out at lotusphere, I believe this only applies to the inbuilt messenging within the client, and not the separate sametime client which has extra features.
Create A Button with the following code and send to your users prior to the upgrade. This will set the defaults and not prompt for the sametime setup screen.You also have the option to “turn off” IM.
—>Start Code
Sub Click(Source As Button)
Dim session As New NotesSession
Dim pab As NotesDatabase
Dim locView As NotesView
Dim conView As NotesView
Dim locDocs As NotesViewEntryCollection
Dim locations() As String
Set pab = getPerAB
Call pab.Open( "", "" )
'Get Locations Details
Set locView = pab.GetView("Locations")
Set locDocs = locView.AllEntries
locNum& = locDocs.count
Redim locations(locNum&-1)
Dim locEntry As NotesViewEntry
Dim locDoc As notesdocument
Dim locItem As Variant
Redim configMsg(0)
configMsg(0) = "Locations"
Redim Preserve configMsg(Ubound(configMsg)+1)
configMsg(Ubound(configMsg)) = "Locations:"
For x = 1 To locNum&
Set locEntry = locdocs.GetNthEntry(x)
Set locDoc = locEntry.Document
'Set Sametime(IM) values in each location doc - set to manual logon or all
locDoc.SametimePort = "1533"
locDoc.SametimeKeepAliveInterval = "60"
'2 = Manually, 0 = Auto
locDoc.SametimeLogonWhen = "2"
locDoc.SametimeProtocol = "0"
locDoc.SametimeServer = "sametimeServer/ACME"
Call locDoc.Save(True,False,True)
Next
'set single signon (IM) on to true in notes.ini - with SSO you don;t need a HTTP password.
Call session.SetEnvironmentVar("IM_ENABLE_SSO","1",True)
'disable the IM setup screen (6.5.1)
Call session.SetEnvironmentVar("IM_NO_SETUP","1",True)
'uncomment the following line to disable IM in the client (6.5.1)
'Call session.SetEnvironmentVar("IM_DISABLED","1",True)
Messagebox "Instant Messaging (Sametime) Defaults have been set"
End Sub
Function getPerAB As NotesDatabase
Dim session As New notessession
Dim books As Variant
Dim pab As NotesDatabase
books = session.Addressbooks
datapath = session.GetEnvironmentString("Directory",True)
'We assume that the personal address book is the first in the list
Set pab = books(0)
Set getPerAB = pab
Are you upgrading or new install? Did the tuner add the line to the users existing ini? I cant find notes.ini anywhere in my MST but Im doing an upgrade.
I have also used this option in an Transform file and it works fine. But I also use policies to push out the ‘Sametime’ settings to the client so when clients are installed or upgraded you do not have to enter all the details, just click through the setup screen. One ‘gotcha’ to look out for is the ‘IM_DISABLED’ option. The technote I used specified to use this option as well but this does exactly what is says and 'disables ’ the Sametime feature so the user can not use it, even if configured correctly. To re-activate it you need to delete the line out of the users notes.ini file.