Systems Management

I went back and hacked around on this again to figure it out.
And noticed that someone had posted a partial answer on an oracle message board thread which lead me to the a real solution to fixing my problem

When using the standard oracle spreadsheet add in installer - InstallShield handles the pre MSI portion and passes a variable to it containing the install directory:
C:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1\products\ExcelAddin

Then during the install the environment variables are set correctly. Then everything works great.

When it is run silently InstallShield FAILS to pass the front part of the path to the MSI and the environment variable is set WRONG to:
\products\ExcelAddin

you will notice that after running Spreadsheet Add-in.exe /S /v/qn ALLUSERS=1
that the environment variables are set as follows:
ARBORPATH=\products\ExcelAddin
ESSBASEPATH=\products\ExcelAddin

Then the ADD IN WON'T work at all.
After changing the variables and running the normal RegisterSpreadsheet addin - it worked great!

So here is the final solution:
In a cmd/bat file use the following:

"%~dp0Spreadsheet Add-in.exe" /s /v/qn
SETX ARBORPATH C:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1\products\ExcelAddin /M
SETX ESSBASEPATH C:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1\products\ExcelAddin /M

then each user runs the register spreadsheet add in program and it works great.

If you will be installing this via SCCM and it gets installed as "system" then the shortcuts don't show up in the start menu so you could:
create a shortcut file and place it in your install diretctory
then change the cmd/bat file to look like this:

"%~dp0Spreadsheet Add-in.exe" /s /v/qn
copy /y "%~dp0*.lnk" "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs"
SETX ARBORPATH C:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1\products\ExcelAddin /M
SETX ESSBASEPATH C:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1\products\ExcelAddin /M

Unfortunetly the Oracle forum has a bunch of numbers for usernames so I don't know who to credit for pushing me in the right direction, but if you read this - Thank You!

Looking throught the logfile, generated by installing the MSI, i found out, that there is a custom action called "readEOH" which reads out the path wrong, when installed silent. This causes the wrong environment variables.

I build a transform file, where i changed the following rows in the environment table:

ARBORPATH to [INSTALLDIR]products\ExcelAddin
EPM_ORACLE_HOME to [MIDDLEWARE]EPMSystem11R1
ESSBASEPATH to [INSTALLDIR]products\ExcelAddin
HYPERION_HOME to [MIDDLEWARE]EPMSystem11R1

I deleted all "NewEnvironmentXXX" entries too.

I installed the it with the following command:

msiexec /i "<Path>\Oracle(R) Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in, Fusion Edition.msi" TRANSFORMS="<Path>\MyTransform.mst" /qn /l*v "<Logfile>"

It works, no need to copy shortcuts or anything. Hope that helps.

 

Let me know if you have a solution. Having the same issue.

Your commandline would lead me to believe that the installer exe you are running extracts an MSI file

Spreadsheet Add-in.exe /S /v"/qn ALLUSERS=1"

Anything after the '/v' is passed to the msiexec commandline.

Can you grab the MSI and create a transform for your customisations?
There may be something obvious in the MSI when you look inside it - custom actions or an activesetup that should be enabling the add-in.

Hope that helps,

Dunnpy

Thanks for the reply.
Yes it does extract an MSI but everything I tried failed to work properly when transforming the MSI.
Also since the silent install "works without error" everything should have been good BUT the application didn't actually work.
After combing through thousands of lines in Procmon I still couldn't figure it out.

I had to PUNT and capture it! Not the best solution but sometimes it has to be done. This company was still using WISE which did work to successfully capture the install and acatully let the users run the Add-IN.

Sorry I didn't have better news!

1 more thing for SCCM - since the batch/cmd file will be setting ENV variables it apparently needs to be able to "interact"
Running the program as "hidden" but on the environment tab use"
Weather or not a user is logged on
and
Allow users to interact with this program

then the dang thing sets the env variables properly and it works.
enjoy

Hello ....

i have the same probs with silent install. I have make a tiket by oracle. The Support say's :

Essbase Excel Add-In Silent Installation [ID 1205231.1] [hr] Modified 30-NOV-2011 Type HOWTO Status PUBLISHED In this Document
[size="-1"] Goal
Solution
[hr] Applies to: Hyperion Essbase - Version: 11.1.1.3.00 to 11.1.2.1.102 - Release: 11.1 to 11.1
Information in this document applies to any platform.
Goal Describe the Essbase Excel Add-In silent installation instructions.


Solution To use the Excel Add-In Silent installation follow these instructions:

Use this syntax to launch the silent install:


"Spreadsheet Add-in.exe" /S /v"/qn INSTALLDIR=<installDir> FOR_CURRENT_USER=<user> BINARY=<lang> /l*v >log>"[/align]

Where:
<installDir> - is the installation directory (default value: C:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1)
<user> - use "1" value to install addin for all users or "2" to install adding for the current user only (default value: 1)
<lang> - is the language to be installed. The following values can be used:

"en" - English
"da" - Danish
"bl" - Dutch
"fi" - Finnish
"fr_FR" - French
"de_DE" - German
"it" - Italian
"ja_JP" - Japanese
"ko_KR" - Korean
"pl" - Polish
"pt_BR" - Portuguese (Brazilian)
"ru_RU" - Russian
"zh_CN" - Simplified Chinese
"es_ES" - Spanish
"sv" - Swedish
"zh_TW" - Traditional Chinese
"tr_TR" - Turkish

"/l*v" is a verbose log parameter.
<log> - log file path

For example:

"Spreadsheet Add-in.exe" /S /v"/qn INSTALLDIR=C:\Oracle\ FOR_CURRENT_USER=1 BINARY=ja_JP /l*v C:\FRS_install.log"
[/align]


Related
[hr] Products [hr]

• Middleware > Enterprise Performance Management > Essbase > Hyperion Essbase

Keywords [hr] ADD-IN; EXCEL; EXCEL ADD-IN; INSTALL; INSTALLATION; SILENT INSTALL[/align]

And it Works ......