Installing the Notes Tools using rcplauncher.exe

Owned by Matt Vargish (Unlicensed)
May 22, 2020
3 min read

Sometimes Notes, Windows, and the Teamstudio Tools Installer can get out of sync, especially after multiple failed install or uninstall attempts, or when upgrading after beta versions of the tools have been installed.

In these situations, the Notes Tools installer often runs far enough to create or update the Notes Tools executable and configuration files, usually in C:\Program Files (x86)\Teamstudio\Notes Tools\ – but then the installation fails, and the tools don’t appear in Notes.

While Teamstudio tech support can provide additional information about launching the installer with debug logging enabled, it may be just as efficient to attempt to get Notes to register the tools and install the tool plugins directly via the command line – especially if you are comfortable with command-line operations in Windows.

This document is provided as a convenience for users who would like to attempt this type of install on their own. For assistance with installation issues, please contact Teamstudio at techsupport@teamstudio.com.

Using rcplauncher.exe

The tool used to provision plugins in the Notes environment is called rcplauncher.exe and it is located in the Notes executable directory (where Notes.exe is) in the framework\rcp\ subfolder.

To use rcplauncher.exe to configure the Teamstudio Notes Tools in Notes, the following will be required:

  • The ability to launch a command window, preferably with “run as administrator” privileges

  • A valid Notes Tools install folder (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Teamstudio\Notes Tools\) which contains files in each of the bin, prov, and update subfolders. This folder is created by the Notes Tools installer during the first part of the install. If your install did not run far enough to create this folder, please contact Teamstudio tech support.

  • The location of the Notes executable directory (by default, C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Notes\)

  • The location of the Notes “data” directory (by default, C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Notes\Data)

  • Notes must not be running while using rcplauncher.exe commands – all clients, including Notes, Administrator, Designer must be exited first.

An example of the command to install Teamstudio Delta might look like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Notes\framework\rcp\rcplauncher.exe" -application com.ibm.rcp.provisioning.application.ProvisioningApplication -provisioningOperation provision -data "C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Notes\Data\workspace" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Teamstudio\Notes Tools\prov\install.delta.xml"

The syntax of the command is as follows (items in <angle-brackets> refer to the directories identified above, or the name of the tool):

"<notes-exe-directory>\framework\rcp\rcplauncher.exe" -application com.ibm.rcp.provisioning.application.ProvisioningApplication -provisioningOperation provision -data "<notes-data-directory>\workspace" "<teamstudio-install-directory>\Notes Tools\prov\install.<name-of-tool>.xml"

You can also uninstall a tool using the same syntax, but substituting deinstall.<name-of-tool>.xml in the last parameter, for example, deinstall.delta.xml

The provisioning files for each tool that the installer attempted to install are in the <teamstudio-install-directory>\Notes Tools\prov\ directory.

When the command is running, Notes should run in the background, and you may see a Notes splash screen. The Notes client should not open. You may see the following tasks in Task Manager: Notes.exe, Notes2.exe, nlnotes.exe, rcplauncher.exe.

After running an install command, it’s a good idea to either review or capture the following files – these logs will typically contain messages about the provisioning operation, and often contain meaningful errors when something goes wrong:

<notes-data-directory>\workspace\logs\rcplauncher.log
<notes-data-directory>\workspace\logs\.prov2install
<notes-data-directory>\workspace\logs\error-log-0.xml

Note that if you launch Notes prior to checking these files, they may be overwritten or re-numbered and provide misleading information.

A common problem when trying to install an upgrade happens when the install / deinstall process is out-of-sync. If an error indicates a tool is already installed, try the deinstall.<name-of-tool>.xml command, and then retry the install command.

Teamstudio tech support can help investigate any errors with this process by providing Teamstudio the log files listed above.