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Introduction
This article introduces the new version of the IBM® Connections Desktop Plug-ins installer for Microsoft® Windows®. First, we provide an overview of the installer, including the new available features and the new install command line option, “DSB_MS30X_EXPLORER”, and then explain the reason for why a new command line option was added to the installer and show the basic usage of the installer and the new command line option.
Overview
The 3.0.1.1 version of IBM Connections Desktop Plug-ins for Microsoft Windows was delivered early last year. It provides only a Windows Explorer integration that enables you to access IBM Connections services and documents directly from Windows Explorer, as shown in figures 1 and 2.
NOTE: Hereafter we use “MS desktop plug-in” with the version number, to shorten the product name, for example, 3.0.1.1 MS desktop plug-in and 4.0 MS desktop plug-in.
Figure 1. IBM Connections Windows Explorer integration
Figure 2. IBM Connections in shortcut menu
Now that the new 4.0 MS desktop plug-in is available, besides the Windows Explorer integration, there are two new features, Microsoft Office integration and Microsoft Outlook integration, as shown in figures 3 and 4.
The Microsoft Office integration enables you to work with IBM Connections services and documents in Microsoft Office applications.
Figure 3. IBM Connections Microsoft Office integration
The Microsoft Outlook integration lets you use the Outlook Social Connector available with Microsoft Outlook with IBM Connections.
Figure 4. IBM Connections Microsoft Outlook integration
The two new features can be enabled/disabled (they are enabled by default) on the Custom Setup window during the installation (see figure 5).
Figure 5. Custom Setup window
You will see more basic usage (install/uninstall/upgrade) of the installer in Section 4 below.
“DSB_MS30X_EXPLORER” command line option
Let's now look at the command line option, “DSB_MS30X_EXPLORER”, which is newly added to the 4.0 MS desktop plug-in installer. It is used to disable the Windows Explorer features of the previous 3.0/3.0.1 MS desktop plug-in, the IBM Lotus Connections 3.0 Plug-in for Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows and the IBM Connections 3.0.1 Plug-in for Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows.
We delivered these two previous MS desktop plug-ins much earlier, and they also provide the Windows Explorer integration but let you add files to Connections Activities from Windows Explorer (see figure 6). In other words, the old 3.0/3.0.1 MS desktop plug-in is a different product than the 3.0.1.1/4.0 MS desktop plug-in.
Figure 6. Windows Explorer integration of 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in
So, you may wonder: If we have both the 3.0/3.0.1 MS desktop plug-in and 3.0.1.1/4.0 MS Desktop plug-in installed, will the old 3.0/3.0.1 MS desktop plug-in be upgraded? And will there be two “IBM Connections” entries in Shortcut menu?
Yes, if we do nothing, you will get two “IBM Connections” entries on the shortcut menu (see figure 7). This can be confusing when you are trying to upload files to IBM Connections, and it looks strange having two “IBM Connections” entries in the shortcut menu.
Figure 7. Two “IBM Connections” entries in shortcut menu
We want to avoid confusion; however, we cannot upgrade the old 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in while installing the 3.0.1.1/4.0 MS Desktop plug-in since they are different products.
What we did is automatically disable the Windows Explorer feature of the 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in while installing the 3.0.1.1 MS Desktop plug-in. You can enable the old Windows Explorer feature again by modifying 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in from “Add or Remove Programs”.
Note that there is a change for the 4.0 MS Desktop plug-in. The entire 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in is removed silently by default while installing the 4.0 MS Desktop plug-in, but we provide the new command line option, “DSB_MS30X_EXPLORER”, to keep the old plug-in installed.
You use this option to disable the Windows Explorer feature of the 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in from the command line while installing the new 4.0 MS Desktop plug-in. Again, you can get the old Windows Explorer feature back by modifying the 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in from “Add or Remove Programs”.
Usage
Install/Uninstall
To install the plug-in, just follow the installation wizard; it will guide you to finish the installation.
To uninstall it, just run the uninstall from “Add or Remove Programs” (see figure 8).
Figure 8. uninstall entry
Upgrade
Installing the 4.0 MS desktop plug-in over the 3.0.1.1 MS desktop plug-in will remove the entire 3.0.1.1 MS desktop plug-in and then will install the 4.0 MS desktop plug-in. Installing a fix of the 4.0 MS desktop plug-in will update only the fix-related files.
Disable Windows Explorer feature of 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in
You can disable the Windows Explorer integration of the 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in by specifying the “DSB_MS30X_EXPLORER” option in both Silent and GUI modes while installing the new 4.0 MS Desktop plug-in.
Silent mode
1. Open the cmd.exe and run it as Administrator on Windows Vista or Windows 7, specifying the command “IBMConnectionsDesktop.exe /install /quiet DSB_MS30X_EXPLORER” (see figure 9).
Figure 9. Silent mode command
2. Press Enter. It will run in the silent install, and the Windows Explorer feature of the 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in will be disabled after the installation.
GUI mode
NOTE: You still must start the GUI installation from a command line by specifying “DSB_MS30X_EXPLORER”.
1. Open the cmd.exe and run it as Administrator on Windows Vista or Windows 7, specifying the command “IBMConnectionsDesktop.exe DSB_MS30X_EXPLORER” (see figure 10).
Figure 10. GUI mode command
2. Press Enter. It will start the installation and display the install window. The Windows Explorer feature of the 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in will be disabled after the installation.
For more details on usage, refer to the Product documentation topic, “
IBM Connections Desktop Plug-ins for Microsoft Windows.”
Conclusion
You should now be familiar with the 4.0 MS desktop plug-in installer, its basic usage, and the new command line option, “DSB_MS30X_EXPLORER”. While installing the new 4.0 MS Desktop plug-in, you can use the new command line option to disable the Windows Explorer feature of the old 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in from both GUI and silent modes. This allows you to keep the old 3.0/3.0.1 MS Desktop plug-in installed, if you still want to use them.
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About the authors
Xue Li is a Software Engineer working as a Tester on the IBM Connections Linked Valued team and is based at IBM's Shanghai, China, facility. You can reach her at
lixue@cn.ibm.com.
Hai Yang Liu is a Software Engineer working as a Developer on the IBM Connections Linked Valued team and is based at IBM's Shanghai, China, facility. You can reach him at
liuhyang@cn.ibm.com.