Reservations Plugin for Microsoft Outlook: Installation

To reserve rooms from Outlook when you create meetings and appointments, install the Archibus Reservations Plugin for Microsoft Outlook. Plugin screens appear in Outlook's default Appointment view. Via Web Services, the plugin queries available rooms from Archibus Web Central, request reservations for rooms, and updates and deletes reservations.

Deploy the Archibus Reservations application with the Reservations Plugin for Outlook, and the Archibus Extension for Microsoft Exchange. When configured properly, use of the Archibus Reservations Plugin to reserve rooms requires no direct interaction between Web Central and Microsoft Exchange. Rather, Outlook connects to Microsoft Exchange to save the meeting and room reservations. See Configure the Archibus Extension for Microsoft Exchange for Use with Reservations.

Supported Languages

The Archibus Reservations Plugin for Outlook 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 and Outlook Program

The Outlook Plugin works with:

on Windows 10 x86 and x64 systems.

The Plugin also has been verified to work with Office365/Outlook 2016.

Note: Initially Office 365 shipped with Outlook 2016, and the Plugin was fully tested with this version. Subsequently, Outlook was renamed from "Outlook 2016" to "Outlook for Office 365." Archibus has not done full acceptance testing on "Outlook for Office 365." Additionally, you cannot use the Plugin when using the Outlook Web Access for Office 365, but it works with the standalone Outlook application for 365 (and was verified until it shipped with Outlook 2016 but not later).

Client Prerequisites

How the Outlook Plugin uses licenses

The Outlook Plugin does not check out an Archibus license when Outlook starts. An Archibus license is checked out only if you:

Note: If a license is not available when a meeting organizer initiates a change, the Exchange Listener does not process it. In that case, the organizer does not receive notification of the change.

Only Outlook Plugin and Web Central Mobile users require an Archibus license for meeting reservations. Meeting attendees do not need a license.

Installation for SAML

To set up the Outlook Plugin for configuration with SAML, copy the room-reservation.install.properties file from the Archibus folder /projects/remote-client-install/ into the same folder as the Outlook Plugin installer. Before running the installer, set the following properties in the room-reservation.install.properties file:

outlookPlugin.samlActive=true
outlookPlugin.securityProtocol=Tls

If .NET framework 4.5 is installed on your client machines, you can specify Tls12 instead of Tls. This is recommended for better security.

Installation for Windows Authentication

When using the Reservations Plugin for Microsoft Outlook, Web Central must use one of the single sign-on configurations. See SSO Authentication.

Setup for the Outlook plug-in uses the property outlookPlugin.windowsAuthenticationActive to enable Windows authentication when the plug-in connects to Web Central. To enable Windows authentication, open the room-reservation.install.properties file, and ensure the property is set properly:

outlookPlugin.windowsAuthentication=true

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 Web Central program and project ID are set by the 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 \Archibus\xx.x\Outlook Plugin\OutlookPlugin.dll.config.

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.

As the Admin, you have two options for deploying the client application over the network:

Client Deployment over the Network

The Administrator has two options:

Command Line

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

Set the following properties:

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

REM INSTALL - To install, run the following command:

msiexec /I "<FileName>.msi" WEBC_URL="http://<serverName>:<port>/archibus/" PROJECT_ID=”HQ-Sybase” ADDLOCAL=ALL ./l*v ".\<LogFileName>

REM DE-INSTALL - To uninstall, run the following command:

msiexec /X <Product Code>

where Product Code is the Product Code for the release you are uninstalling. You can find the Product Code in the Windows Registry after installation, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\.

Active Directory

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

Upgrade Procedures

Upgrades within the same product version

The System Administrator distributes upgrades in the same way as original installations. Only version signed deliverables are updated; the preferences files are preserved. See the discussion below in Minor Upgrades .

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. Two situations exist:

See also

Reservations Plugin for Microsoft Outlook: Configuration