Friday, October 16, 2009

SnTT - InstallShieldTuner with Lotus Notes 8.5.1

It only took me a few days, but here it is. My latest documentation on using InstallShield Tuner for Lotus Notes with the new Notes 8.5.1. There are a few changes in how Lotus is installed, but it should all make sense.

I've noticed this link is out of date.  To access the most up to date information on this, please see this link
It's my slightly updated Lotusphere 2012 slides on how to use InstallShield Tuner for Lotus Notes.  Updated for 8.5.3.


(updated 08/31/2012)

21 comments:

Bernd Steidele said...

Thanks a lot for that.

Keith Brooks said...

You are a prince! Thanks for this, you are still the ruler of all that is The Tuner.

schlof.net said...

Perfect! This will save me a few hours... Thank you

Unknown said...

Andy, Thanks so much for this, I have added custom notes.ini parms for the first time with your help! Thanks again!

Unknown said...

Andy, thanks again. If we are ever at the same location, I owe you a few beverages of your choice.

One question for anyone who feels helpful. I am getting an error, RCP Base Plug-In Not Found. I had many hits when I searched for it, but no solutions. It only seems to happen if I try to add custom ini entries. Does anyone have any insight to this? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Marc Champoux said...

Hi Andy,

Thanks for your instructions, they are awesome and helped me create a "tuned" package for the R8.5.1 Standard Notes client.

However, I do have one weird question: when I try to create a "tuned" package for the Full R8.5.1 Standard client (the one with the Admin and Designer) I run into a weird thing.

To begin I do this:

(1) I start the tuner and pick the ITW file from the R8.5.1 Full clients install directory.
(2) I click on Create a new Transform
(3) I select the MSI from the R8.5.1 Full clients
(4) I check the Response Transform box.
(5) I click on Create

and this is where things go weird on me ... the installer screen that comes up only allows me to "Modify, Repair, Remove".

Now, it's true that I do have the full R8.5.1 clients installed on my machine so the installshield wizard finds them and I guess that's why I get this screen.

I tried a few things to hopefully get around that (but no luck so far):

- Renaming the Notes directory
- Renaming the appropriate registry entries.
- Renaming the notes.ini
- Setting the Lotus Notes SSO and NSD services to manual and rebooting.

Whatever I do ... the "tuner" only gives me the options to "Modify, Repair, Remove".

Any ideas?

There has to be a file somewhere on my hdd that I haven't renamed/deleted or something to get the "normal" installer screens and get back to the tuner ... I'll keep hunting but I was wondering if you knew what I could do/try.

Thanks again!

Marc Champoux

Unknown said...

I found my problem and it was looking me in the mirror. When I removed the IBM folder from the necessary locations to keep the old directory structure, I believe I messed up the location of the RCP folder location. I tried to correct it and came up empty. I ended up recreating the package from scatch and ensuring I did not touch this folder. All came out aces.

For Marc, I would suggest that you use a completely clean machine. When I was intially messing around, I had the standard client on a machine that had 7.0.x on it and saw the samething. I completely uninstalled and cleaned folders and registry up and all was well. Notes has often been too smart for its own good during the installation.

Here is one other issue I figured out. I was trying to enable SSO with the embedded Sametime client. I was using the IM_ENABLE_SSO entry in the INI file. I found out from Notes Support that this entry is outdated for the Standard Client. I had to put the following entries in the plugin_customization.ini. (You can do this during installation by using the plugin_curomization.ini file located in the deploy folder of the installation files.)

com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.community/loginAtStartup=true
com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.community/loginByToken=true
com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.community/host=-Validation Server-
com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.community/savePassword=false
com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.community/SametimeServer=-Sametime Server-

Joe Hanke said...

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I have searched high and low for a "Good" guide to using the tuner for years, and finally stumbled onto yours. Went through the instructions one time and the package installed correctly. I will definately be subscribing to your blog.

~Joe

Anonymous said...

Hi Andy - thanks for this information....very useful. Question -- which install package did you use for 8.5.1 Standard? I downloaded CZ34GEN and it does not seem to give the necessary ITW file. Also when extracting the files, this version does not give you the new 'unpack' options that you mention in your instructions.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant - guided me through something that was really quite daunting.

One more question - how do I turn the package of files into an .exe that when run runs the install.bat file ?

Thanks again
Paul

Anonymous said...

Thank you sir

Unknown said...

When I prepare my package following this steps, Symphony is not installed with Notes 8.5.1. There is some issue?

Thkz!

Anonymous said...

hi. has anyone encountered the error 'No Msi Database is currently opened' when creating an installer kit using the installshield tuner? i am using the 851 installer from IBM (CZ5S3EN) and the installshield tuner for lotus notes.

we managed to do this a few months ago and was able to create a tuned kit that does a silent install of notes. i tried creating a new tuner kit and started encountering this error very recently. any thoughts? thanks.

Unknown said...

Hey! Great guide, It got me exactly what I needed. I had one question.
When looking at the setup properties, there is a setting for...
XPD_USERNAME and it used my username
the same thing for...
usrManifestLocation it tries to use the user path related to my login.
is there a way to change this to be the generic %username%

Anonymous said...

Hi! Have you had the chance to create a customized LN8.5.2 installer using installshield tuner? We tried to do that and it looked like it installed fine when we were prompted to test the installer kit (it ran a silent installation). But when we test using setup, it turned out to be not a silent install. Is anyone aware of what switches need to be used so that the install is silent and there is no user interaction?


Thanks,
Mardell

Anonymous said...

So here is my question. I am working the the Install Shield tuner in attempt to create Smart Upgrade packages. Our company has a number of different versions of Notes, which is fine. The problem is that some are installed in C:\Program Files\Lotus and some in C:\Program Files\IBM\Lotus.... Thank you IBM.... Can a variable be used in the tuner and how can you silently upgrade without minimum prompting?

Unknown said...

John-I thought that even if you have specified a path, that is only for a new install. If it is already installed, the notes install will use the path that is already set. I have not tested this, but believe it to be based in some level of truth.

Anonymous said...

It appears that is not the case. When creating the transform file you have to set the directories for the install. The problem I am facing is this... We have some installations in the C:\Program Files\IBM\Lotus folder and some in the C:\Program Files\Lotus folder (Of course all of this being caused by IBM's need to change the installation folders over the years, STUPID). I need to be able to upgrade EITHER but cannot figure a way around this. My first thought was to somehow use a variable for the install path but the Tuner is not very well documented and lacks good examples... As a matter of fact the whole smart upgrade process is poorly documented and supported, that I can find anyway. This is becoming very frustrating. Why can't i just create a package that EITHER installs to the place I wish OR installs to the same folder as exists (for upgrades)?

Go figure huh???

Anonymous said...

A big THANK YOU from Switzerland. Saves me at least a day of work !

Please do the same in future ;o)

Tim Carlo said...

Thanks!!!

Terry said...

Thanks!! I appreciate it!!