Outlook Plugin Distribution

In many large-scale deployments or in environments where user-initiated installations are not permitted due to security considerations, the installer can instead be invoked through a scripting or SCM deployment system. In this case, the installer is typically launched using the msiexec program. For example

Uninstall Procedures and Considerations.

msiexec /i SystemInstaller_2_1_0_4353.msi

Note here that this is launching the system-only installation package, in which case the underlying deployment system must be executing on the target system with administrative privileges, or the installation will fail.

The above command will still execute the installer in ‘normal’ (user interface) mode, in that it will interact with the end user to complete the installation. In automated deployment environments, this is probably not desirable, in which case the silent/quiet mode installation mode can be selected by including the /q option in the command line above.

Note: Due to an issue in the VSTO registration mechanism for the add-in wrappers, the dual-mode installer will always register for the installing user (instead of all users) when using silent mode, even if the installation is executed under administrative privilege. For all-user installation in automated/silent mode, use the system-only installer instead.

The final installation option to be discussed is the automatic installation of the client-side configuration file, as described in the next chapter. In the default mode, the installer will deploy two files, ACEForOutlook.dll.config and ACEForOutlook.dll.config.default in the indicated installation directory. The first file is the one that is read by the add-in during startup to configure the basic connectivity behavior, the latter is not used but is included as a reference of the full set of options that are available. Any subsequent update of the add-in through another installer will replace the default file but not replace the main configuration file, to avoid the loss of any existing configuration details.

The standard mode for the installer is to install the default (reference) file and then copy it verbatim to the main configuration file. However, the installer will recognize the provisioning of a site-specific installation file through the definition of the AFOCONFIGFILE installer parameter. If this parameter is defined, the indicated file will be copied into the installation directory as the main add-in configuration file, allowing for the predefinition of standard settings for the client. So, a full example of an automated, no interaction install with a predefined configuration file would execute a command like:

msiexec /q /i SystemInstaller_2_1_0_4353.msi AFOCONFIGFILE=C:\afo.cfg

Note that the specification of the predefined configuration file in the example above is an absolute filename. This is required, as the MSI installation system will execute various commands from the context of different directories and will be unable to find the provided configuration file if a relative name is used.