Specifying available update sites

Domino® server-based update of features and plug-ins enables you to control which update sites user can obtain features from. Using fields on the server Configuration Settings document in the Domino® Administrator client, you can control where (and if) users can obtain features for install and update. If the administrator allows, users can initiate feature install and update. The update process searches an update site or site list for feature updates, as well as updates to composite applications. Update sites can be Eclipse update sites or NSF-based update sites.

You can control feature update, using the server Configuration Settings document and the provisioning setting in the Domino® Desktop policy settings document, to restrict the places a user can obtain new or updated features using the enabled Eclipse Update Manager (EUM); you can:

Disable feature update completely.
Enable feature install and update such that users can specify any update site.
Install or update features from a specified site with the sites stored in the bookmarks.xml file or from a default site list specified in the plugin_customization.ini file or the Domino® server Configuration Settings document.
Note: If you use File > Application > Install, your selections are stored in a bookmarks.xml file on your client system for possible use during feature install and update. The bookmarks.xml file is not used for composite applications, only feature install and update. You may also find update site settings in the plugin_customization.ini file on your client system, which can be edited manually either before or after Notes® install. Settings on the server Configuration Settings document override update site settings in both of these files.
-- You can also update existing features from the default site specified in the feature's feature.xml file, provided that the feature.xml is physically resident on your client system.
Note: The feature.xml file is not used for initial feature install; only feature update.
- When a default list or whitelist is not specified, feature install occurs from either the Eclipse update manager or the composite application XML (CA XML) update site settings. Feature update can occur from the FEATURE.XML update site provided that you have enabled the Use update site specified in Feature option in the server Configuration Settings document.
- When a default list or whitelist is specified, feature install and/or update can be constrained to a site list. The default list becomes the whitelist if you enable the Allow client updates only from these sites option in the server Configuration Document.
A whitelist is ideal for preventing users from obtaining updates from unauthorized or untrusted sites. For example, the bookmarks.xml, feature.xml, or CA XML may reference unauthorized sites that are not in the whitelist. If a Notes® user attempts to update from one of these sites, update will fail if the site is not in the whitelist.

Features can be updated over NRPC or HTTP protocol. You can use either an HTTP (Web-style) or NRPC (Domino® style) protocol to specify an available update site or sites.

Note: Although Expeditor allows for automatic feature and component update, Notes® does not. All feature and composite application update in Notes® must be user-initiated. If referencing Expeditor documentation, make note of this difference in behavior.

Note: If a composite application definition (CA XML) has been updated it can trigger a feature update if that CA XML requests a new feature version.

Server Configuration Settings document options

The server Configuration Settings document contains a Client Upgrade tab, on which you can use the Provisioning tab to add, remove, edit, and disable or enable update sites, as well as determine update site availability.

Provisioning settings are enabled

The Provisioning settings are enabled option is an overall Enable/Disable field, which is disabled by default.

Disabling the Provisioning settings are enabled option, prevents the server Configuration Settings document (with its initial default values or current administrator-specified values) from inadvertently overriding any existing update site settings on the server's client systems. This allows you to work with this Configuration Settings document settings but prevents your settings from being pushed to the client systems until you specifically choose to enable them for the client.
Note that settings on the Configuration Settings document will override settings that may exist in the plugin_customization.ini file or bookmarks.xml file on the user's client system, or that may have been pushed to the client previously from this or another server Configuration Settings document.
Enabling this option pushes the settings on this Configuration Settings document to the client, thus overriding any of the present update site settings specified on the client. The client will retrieve the new provisioning settings when you connect to the home mail server.
If you enable this option with the all provisioning choices for the document disabled, then you can install from a composite application (CA XML) or the Update Manager user interface but you will be prevented from performing any feature updates. If you later disable the overall provisioning option, then you can install from a composite application (CA XML) or the Update Manager user interface and you can also do feature update from feature.xml. This is the initial default configuration.

Sites to include in search

You can check the sites that you want to include in the install or update operations. All sites specified in the default site list are available for your selection.

New, Edit, and Delete

You can add new sites to the default site list, edit the server name or URL of a site already present in the site list, or delete a site from the default site list.

Update site options

The Allow client updates only from these sites option and the Use update site specified in Feature option work differently depending on whether only one or both are enabled.

Enabling the Allow client updates only from these sites field, forces the update site list to act as a whitelist. Update can only occur from the update site list only.
Note: If you are using the Eclipse update manager (EUM) and enable the whitelist setting, some options on the Update sites to visit page will be masked, such as New Remote Site, New Local Site, and New Archived Site.
Disabling the Allow client updates only from these sites field allows the user to update features from any update site, including but not limited to those in the update site list. The update site list is treated as a default list and features can be updated from elsewhere.
Enabling the Use update site specified in Feature field updates from the default update site value specified in the feature's feature.xml file.
Note: All features contain an embedded update site URL in their .JAR file (feature.xml). This value is typically the location from which the feature was initially installed and it acts as a default update site.
Disabling the Use update site specified in Feature field prevents the use of feature.xml, for updates.

These two options can also work in combination with one another:

Enabling the Allow client updates only from these sites field and disabling the Use update site specified in Featurefield forces the update site list to act as a whitelist. Update can only occur from the listed updates sites.
Enabling the Use update site specified in Feature field and disabling the Allow client updates only from these sites field allows the feature.xml, to be used for update and the Eclipse update manager and CA XML to be used for install or the default update site list to be used for either install or update.
Enabling both Allow client updates only from these sites field and Use update site specified in Feature field specifies that only the update sites present in the whitelist can be used. The update manager will try the update site specified in the feature.xml file first. If this fails, and a list of updates sites is present, it will try the update site list next.
Note: The Allow client updates only from these sites setting takes precedent over the Use update site specified in Feature setting. If Allow client updates only from these sites is enabled, the update site in the feature.xml file must be resident in the default update site list to be used for update.
Disabling the Use update site specified in Feature option and having no default sites enabled prevents all updates.
Disabling both the Allow client updates only from these sites and the Use update site specified in Feature options, and having default sites enabled, allows updates from the default update site list.