Explanation:

Is there any way to pre-configure a Lotus Notes Client so that the Administrator can prevent user intervention? In this scenario, the Administrator does not want users to have to know what server they need to connect to, or be able to select options the Admin does not want them to when they log in to their Notes Client for the first time after installation.

Solution: Although there is not a way to avoid configuring the client altogether, much of the configuration can be achieved behind the scenes so that you have limited user intervention through a process called "Scriptable Setup." The scriptable setup option uses a setting in the Notes.ini file to provide information to the client setup wizard. During installation, the wizard displays only the panels that users need to set up the Notes client. The Notes.ini parameter, ConfigFile= points to a text (.TXT) file that contains the parameters that the wizard needs.

For example: ConfigFile=C:\Program Files\Lotus\Notes\Data\setup.txt The wizard reads the text file and completes the setup. The user is able to bypass the wizard screens for which parameters have been provided by the text file.

The settings and parameters that you can use in the text file are listed in this table:

Setting Description

Username User's hierarchical name -- for example, John Smith/Acme

KeyfileName Directory path to the user's ID file name --for example, c:\program files\lotus\notes\data\jsmith.id

Domino.Name Domino server in the same domain as the user name. You do not need to enter a hierarchical name.

Domino.Address An address for the Domino server, such as the IP address of the server, if needed, to connect to the server. For example, server.acme.com or 123.124.xxx.xxx

Domino.Port Port type, such as TCPIP

Domino.Server 1 to connect to the Domino server, 0 for no connection AdditionalServices 1 forces display of the "Additional Services" panel even if sufficient information is provided for these services; the Additional Services panel lists Internet, proxy, and replication settings.

Starting in release 6.5.5 and 7.0.1 of Notes/Domino a value of -1 can be used to force the panel to not display.

AdditionalServices.NetworkDial To configure a network dialup connection to Internet accounts created via Additional Services dialog box

Mail.Incoming.Name Incoming mail (POP or IMAP) server name

Mail.Incoming.Server 1 for POP; 2 for IMAP

Mail.Incoming.Protocol Mail account user name or login name

Mail.Incoming.Username Mail account password

Mail.Incoming.Password An address -- such as the IP address -- of the home server, if needed to connect to server

Mail.Incoming.SSL 1 to use SSL; 0 not to use SSL

Mail.Outgoing.Name Outgoing mail account name, a friendly name used to refer to these settings

Mail.Outgoing.Server Outgoing mail (SMTP) server name

Mail.Outgoing.Address User's Internet mail address, such as user@isp.com

Mail.InternetDomain Internet Mail domain name such as isp.com

Directory.Name Directory account name, a friendly name used to refer to these settings

Directory.Server Directory (LDAP) server name

News.Name News account name, a friendly name used to refer to these settings

News.Server News (NNTP) server name

NetworkDial.EntryName Name of remote network dialup phone book entry

NetworkDial.Phonenumber Dial-in number

NetworkDial.Username Remote network user name

NetworkDial.Password Remote network password

NetworkDial.Domain Remote network domain

DirectDial.Phonenumber Phone number of Domino server

DirectDial.Prefix Dialup prefix, if required. For example, 9 to access an outside line.

DirectDial.Port COM port to which the modem is connected

DirectDial.Modem File specification of modem file

Proxy.HTTP HTTP proxy server and port -- for example, proxy.isp.com:8080

Proxy.FTP FTP proxy server and port -- for example, proxy.isp.com:8080

Proxy.Gopher Gopher proxy server and port -- for example, proxy.isp.com:8080

Proxy.SSL SSL proxy server and port -- for example, proxy.isp.com:8080

Proxy.HTTPTunnel HTTP tunnel proxy server and port -- for example, proxy.isp.com:8080

Proxy.SOCKS Socks proxy server and port -- for example, proxy.isp.com:8080

Proxy.None No proxy for these hosts or domains

Proxy.UseHTTP Use the HTTP proxy server for FTP, Gopher, and SSL security proxies

Proxy.Username User name if logon is required

Proxy.Password User password

Replication.Threshold Transfer outgoing mail if this number of messages held in local mailbox

Replication.Schedule Enable replication schedule

All or only some of these parameters can be used. Depending upon which parameters are used dictates which of the setup screens the user may be challenged with.

Starting in Notes 6.5 the following options are also available:

IM.Server Sametime server required.

IM.Port Sametime server port (any positive number)

IM.ConnectWhen (Optional setting) Defines when to connect to Sametime:

* 0 -- At Notes login (default)

* 2 -- Manually

IM.Protocol Use one of these:

* 0 -- Directly to Sametime server

* 1 -- Directly to Sametime server using HTTP protocol

* 2 -- Directly to Sametime server using IE HTTP settings

* 3 -- Use a proxy

IM.ProxyType Required if IM.Protocol is set to 3. Use one of these:

* 0 -- SOCKS4 Proxy

* 1 -- SOCKS5 Proxy

* 2 -- HTTPS Proxy

* 3 -- HTTP Proxy

IM.ProxyServer Required if IM.Protocol is set to 3. Name of Sametime proxy server

IM.ProxyPort Required if IM.Protocol is set to 3. Port of Sametime proxy server (any positive number)

IM.ServerNameResolve Only used if IM.ProxyType is 1 (SOCKS5) but it is not required. Use one of these values:

* 0 -- Disable IM.ServerNameResolve

* 1 -- Enable IM.ServerNameResolve

IM.ProxyUsername Required if IM.Protocol is set to 3 and IM.ProxyType is not SOCKS4

What follows is an example of a text file that would simply prompt the user for his/her password upon initial login. Based on the parameters in this example text file, setup would be complete once the user's password has been entered and the client has completed creating the Bookmark.nsf, Names.nsf, etc.

Example setup.txt:

Username=User Name/Acme

KeyfileName=c:\Program Files\Lotus\Notes\Data\username.id

Domino.Name=servername/Acme

Domino.Address=servername.acme.com

Domino.Port=TCPIP

Domino.Server=1

AdditionalServices=0

AdditionalServices.NetworkDial=0

Replication.Threshold=9999

Replication.Schedule=0

Note: An enhancement request, to allow the use of Environment Variables in the Scriptable Setup, was submitted to Quality Engineering as SPR#JPIK5WWR6N. However, there are currently no plans to add this functionality.

Note: Please refer to the technote, "Additional Considerations When Using a Scriptable Client Setup for a Roaming Notes User" (#1206817) or the Notes Client Help Topic titled "Scriptable Client Setup for Roaming Users" in the Lotus/Domino Release Notes if you plan to use a scripted setup that will also be used for a Roaming User. There are some important differences that you need to be aware of with the use/value of the variables noted above for Roaming purposes.

Applies to:

Workstations

Default Value:

None

UI equivalent:

None

Syntax:

Configfile=Path/Filename

Available since:

Lotus Notes/Domino 6.0

Obsolete since:

Lotus Notes/Domino x.x.x