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 . With this integration, Plugin screens appear in Outlook's default Appointment view. The Plugin, via Web Services, queries available rooms from Archibus Web Central, requests reservations for rooms, and updates and deletes reservations.

You can also 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 .

Note : The Outlook application may disable the Archibus Outlook Plugin if it causes Outlook to start slowly. If the install process completed successfully, but the Outlook Plugin is not active, check in Outlook → File → Options → Add-ins to see if the Plugin was disabled. You can then set it to Active again. (AD-15346)

Supported Languages

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

Deployment Requirements

Operating Systems and Outlook Programs

The Outlook Plugin works with the following on Windows 10 x86 and x64 systems:

  • Outlook 2013
  • Outlook 2016 (This is installed with Office 2016, Office365, and Office2019.)
  • Outlook 2019

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

  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime

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:

  • Click the Room Finder icon to activate the Outlook Plugin in the Appointment window.
  • Open the Outlook Calendar to change an existing meeting with a reservation.
  • Open Outlook's Appointment window for an existing meeting with a reservation.

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.

See Licenses for the Outlook Plugin and the Exchange Listener for the Reservations Application.

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=Tls12

If you use another security protocol besides Tls12, you need to set it on command line by setting SAML_ACTIVE as shown below:

msiexec /I "<FileName>.msi" WEBC_URL="<http://<serverName>:<port>/archibus/"> SAML_ACTIVE=true PROJECT_ID=”hq-sqlserver” ADDLOCAL=ALL /l*v "./<LogFileName>”

If you do not use SAML_ACTIVE, you do not have to set it. By default, it set to false.

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 Plugin uses the property outlookPlugin.windowsAuthenticationActive to enable Windows authentication when the Plugin 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:

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

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

    Note : The URL to the Archibus Web Central application and the Project ID can also be changed by editing the OutlookPlugin.dll.config file available in the Outlook Plugin installation directory.
    Set DefaultAppServerLocation to your Archibus server address.
    Set DefaultProject to the Archibus Project you want to connect to.

    Note: The Archibus Outlook Plugin log is available at: C:\Users\”Username”\AppData\Roaming\Archibus\xx.x\OutlookPlugin .

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 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:

  • 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 administrator deploys the update as part of a standard installation.

See also

Reservations Plugin for Microsoft Outlook: Configuration