Lotus Domino Administrator 8.5 Help - Adding new features to the Notes install kit using a supplied tool

NOTES CLIENT INSTALLATION AND UPGRADE

Adding new features to the Notes install kit using a supplied tool
You can optionally add new, signed features to the IBM® Lotus® Notes® install kit before installing or upgrading Notes.

Using the addToKit tool, you can customize the Notes install kit by copying the signed contents of a customized, zipped update site (features subdirectory, plugins subdirectory and SITE.XML file) and customized install manifest (INSTALL.XML) file to the IBM® Lotus® Notes® install kit structure prior to installing or upgrading Notes.

The addToKit tool is available as addToKit.exe. If using "Linux, see Customizing Notes install for Linux RPM or DEB".

The addToKit tool is part of the Apps directory toolkit available with the Notes install kit.

Note As an alternative, can manually add your feature to the Notes install kit using Notes install kit conventions. Be sure that the contents of the feature update site are signed before attempting to add it to the Notes install kit. All features must be signed to be installed.

After you update the content of your zipped update site directory, place it at the same level as the Notes install kit structure and use the addToKit tool to copy your source files into the install kit's structure.

Before using the addToKit tool, perform the following tasks:

Create and sign any new Eclipse™ features that you want to add to the Notes install kit.
Place the new features and plug-ins JAR files in the features and plugins update site subdirectories (updateSite.zip\features and updateSite.zip\plugins).
Create and validate the new SITE.XML site manifest file (updateSite.zip\site.xml).
Create and validate the new INSTALL.XML install manifest in the deploy directory (deploy\install.xml).

Considerations

The following information is helpful when using the addToKit tool:

There is no validation capability with the addToKit tool so be sure that your XML is validated and your "installfeature" ID attribute values are unique.
You can run the addToKit tool with or without arguments.
The <addTokitPath> must contain a deploy directory and zipped updateSite directory that matches the format of the Lotus Notes install kit.
The updatesSite.zip\site.xml and deploy\install.xml information is merged from the <addTokitPath> to the <destKit> path and the plug-ins and features are copied over. The files in <addTokitPath> are added to the existing kit; they are appended to the destination SITE.XML and INSTALL.XML files.
Running the tool with no arguments copies files to a temporary directory. If you do not specify a source path <.\addTokitPath> in the command line, the default source path is .\addToKit. If you do not specify a destination path <destKit>, the default destination path is the current working directory. The .\addToKit value should be the default source path.
Before running this tool, place your signed features and plug-ins correctly in the update site directory and update the SITE.XML and INSTALL.XML files in their correct directories. Zip the update site directory.

Procedure on Windows platform

1. Extract ADDTOKIT.ZIP into the temporary directory in which your files reside, for example, c:\temp\notes8abx.w32. This zip file contains the directory addToKit, which contains your zipped update site directory (UPDATESITE.ZIP), and your deploy (deploy) directory.

2. Copy AddToKit.exe to the same temporary directory.

3. Open a command window, change to the directory in which the addToKit tool resides, and run the tool, preferably with the source path and target path arguments, using the following format:

addToKit.exe <

In this format, <addTokitPath> is the source path containing the source UPDATESITE.ZIP file and deploy directory and <destkit> is the target directory in which your Notes installation resides.

The source update site is an update site directory containing the features subdirectory, plugins subdirectory, and SITE.XML file. The deploy directory contains the updated INSTALL.XML file. The format of the source update site directory zip file and deploy directory must match the format of the target update site directory zip file and deploy directory.

Command line options and examples are as follows:

When you run the following command, information from <

kitPath

> is merged into the kit that is in the same directory as the ADDTOKIT.EXE file.

addToKit.exe [-dhnV] <kitPath> <installPath>

In the following example, the contents of C:\addToKit are copied to the temp\notes8abx.w32 directory.

addToKit.exe c:\addToKit c:\temp\notes8abx.w32

When using addToKit.exe -h, tool usage is displayed:

<kitPath> defaults to addToKit/

-d Turns debugging on

-h Prints command line option usage

-n Runs the utility as a dry run

-V Prints version information

Procedure on Mac OS X platform

1. Extract ADDTOKIT.ZIP into the temporary directory in which your files reside, for example, c:\temp\notes8abx.mac. This zip file contains the directory addToKit, which contains your zipped update site directory (UPDATESITE.ZIP), and your deploy (deploy) directory.

2. Copy addToKit_Mac.pl to the same temporary directory.

3. Run the tool using the following command line:

./addToKit_Mac.pl [-dhnV] <

kitPath

> <

installPath

>

This command merges information from <kitPath> into <installPath>.

The <kitPath> identifies the folder containing the third-party updateSite.zip and site.xml and defaults to "addToKit".

The <installPath> identifies the Lotus Notes installation Meta Package and defaults to "Lotus Notes Installer.mpkg".

Command line parameters are as follows:

-d Turns debugging on