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Reservations Plugin for Microsoft Outlook: Configuration and Installation

ARCHIBUS users setting up meetings and appointments in Microsoft Outlook may wish to integrate the ARCHIBUS Reservation features so that they can reserve rooms right from Outlook at the time that they establish their meetings. To meet this need, ARCHIBUS provides the Reservations Plugin for Microsoft Outlook, whose GUI is added to Outlook's default Appointment view. By means of Web Services, the Plugin queries available rooms from ARCHIBUS Web Central, requests reservations for rooms, and updates and deletes reservations.

Supported Languages

The plugin ships with resource DLLs compiled for French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Simplified Chinese, and English. The plugin loads the appropriate DLL based on the workstation operating system.

Deployment Requirements

Plugin Compatibility with Operating Systems, Outlook Program, and Exchange Server Programs

• The Plugin works with Outlook 2007 (Service Pack 3) and Outlook 2010 on Windows 7 x86 and x64 systems.
• The server-side application works with Microsoft Exchange 2007 and 2010 on 2003 and 2008 SP2 and 2008 R2 servers.

Client Prerequisites

• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime

ARCHIBUS Web Central

Must use one of the single sign-on configurations. See SSO Authentication.

If Web Central is configured to use Remote User with IIS authentication, the OutlookPlugin.dll.config needs to be modified adding AuthenticationType=”Windows”, as per below.

<configuration>
    <Settings DefaultProject="archops" RememberCredentials="false">
     <AppServerLocationHistory>
       <add AppServerLocation="http://archops/archibus/">
         <Authentication AuthenticationType="Windows" />
       </add>
     </AppServerLocationHistory>
    </Settings>

Database Configuration

For each employee, the email address of the Microsoft Outlook user must match exactly, including case, the email address in the ARCHIBUS Users table (afm_users) and the Employees (em) table. Since Oracle is case-sensitive, the case used in the email address must match the database; for Sybase and MS-SQL it does not matter.

Also, in the Employees (em) table, each Employee record must have a value for Site and Building.

The Plugin detects the language of the operating system and presents it as default. When installed, the Plugin will load the .dll correspondent to that language. The user in ARCHIBUS must be set with the same Locale.

Server-Side Configuration

In order for the client Plugin to communicate with the Web Central server, you need to enable the Reservations Web Services.

1. In a text editor, open WEB-INF/config/remoting.properties.
2. Locate the line that starts withremoting.configurationFile.
3. Add the following text:

remoting.configurationFile=context/remoting/smartclient-reservation.xml

Client Deployment

The System Administrator sends out a link to the setup.exe program for the plugin on the network (e.g. \\fileshare\tools\archibus\room reservations\setup.exe). The URL to the ARCHIBUS WebC program and project ID are set by Admin in the room-reservation.install.properties file, see Layout of the room-reservation.install.properties File.

Setup.exe reads the room-reservation.install.properties file and updates the ARCHIBUS\xx.x\Outlook Plugin\OutlookPlugin.dll.config file.

Before the installation starts, the room-reservation.install.properties file must be located in the same folder as setup.exe . The internal customer runs the installation.

The Admin has two options for deploying the client application over the network:

• Create a deployment package out of the setup.exe by using the deployment tools at his disposal.

• Use the \remote-client-install\msi-install\*.msi file.

Client Deployment over the Network

The Administrator has two options:

• Deploy through the command line.
• Deploy through Active Directory. In this case, the client installation requirement must be met prior to starting the deployment. See the above section Deployment Requirements.

Command Line

Note: For information on forming the Command Line, see How to Form the Command Line and below examples of Silent Install/Uninstall through command line

Set the following properties: WEBC_URL=”http://<serverName>:<port>/archibus/”, PROJECT_ID=” HQ-Sybase”.

REM INSTALL
msiexec /I "<FileName>.msi" WEBC_URL="http://<serverName>:<port>/archibus/" PROJECT_ID=”HQ-Sybase” ADDLOCAL=ALL ./l*v ".\<LogFileName>"
REM DE-INSTALL
msiexec /X <Product Code>
20.2 Product Code - {93DACF2A-BA73-4C67-AF43-11774120F44D}

Active Directory

Before deployment, open the provided msi db and manually set the above properties (for instance, use Orca to edit the msi db).

Upgrade Procedures

Upgrades within the same product version

The System Administrator distributes them in the same way as for Installation. Only version signed deliverables are being updated; the preferences files are preserved. See the Minor Upgrades discussion below.

Version upgrades

The major version upgrade installation and the parallel deployment are not supported. To upgrade to a new version, the Admin has to uninstall the previous one and install the new one.

Minor upgrades

Minor upgrades are fixes within the same version.There are two situations:

• The program is installed on a user’s system. In this case, the Administrator deploys the update without uninstalling the existing application.
• First-time installation. The Admin deploys the update as the first time, as per the standard installation above.

Notes for Using the Plugin

Once you install the Plugin, users will work with the Reservations panel in Microsoft Outlook. They will use the dialog boxes and error messages for any guidance; user documentation is not required.

However, ARCHIBUS Administrators may wish to be aware of the following corner cases so that they can field questions that might arise:

• To cancel future reservations, you must consider both the current date and the cancellation window associated with each room. For example, suppose a room requires three days notification in order to cancel a reservation, and the reservation is scheduled to occur two days in the future; in this case, you cannot cancel this room’s reservation through Microsoft Outlook. ARCHIBUS users who are members of the Reservation Service Desk or Reservation Manager security groups are not subject to this restriction.
• The Plugin does not support Outlook’s recurrence exceptions. If you want to modify a recurring pattern that has exceptions, the Plugin will prompt you to confirm that it must first cancel the exceptions. However, if restrictions exist in ARCHIBUS, some exception dates may not be able to be canceled. In this case, the system prompts the user to ignore these dates or abort the cancellation altogether. If the user chooses to ignore these items, the Plugin will disconnect them from Outlook but retain them in ARCHIBUS.
• For single appointments, you can use Outlook's time zone control to change the time zone of the appointment. For recurring appointments, Outlook hides the time zone controls as well as the date and time controls. For recurring appointments, you modify the date, time, and time zone via Outlook’s recurrence pattern dialog.
• If you make reservations using Outlook and are not connected to Web Central, the system will warn you that you are not connected. If you go ahead and make a reservation, the next time you use the Plugin the system will inform you that the records are out of synch and prompt you to resolve the issue.

• If you change just the Room selection in Web Central, the application does change the room of the reservation. However, the Plugin does not replace the "Location" field of the appointment in Outlook. The reason for this is that the person who makes the appointment often changes the Location from the default provided by the Plugin, and the Plugin should not overwrite the user's changes.