Deploying Services to Office Users

Deployment methods

Every research service available on a client computer is defined by a group of registry settings. Therefore, installing or deploying a research service involves adding those registry settings on the client computer. There are several methods by which an administrator can accomplish this:

• Use a registry (.REG) file. Create a registry file (possibly by exporting the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\Research\Sources key and subkeys from the Registry Editor on a computer where the services are configured as planned) and distribute the registry file to users. Users need to run the registry file to register the services by adding the settings on their local computers.

• Use a script or setup program. Create a script or setup program that writes the required registry settings and distribute the program to users. Users need to run the program to register the services by adding the settings on their local computers.

  

  Figure 1. A Visual Studio .Net 2003 setup program for registry settings.

• Use a disk image. Include the registry settings in the disk image used to configure users' computers.

• Use the wizards in the Microsoft Office 2003 Resource Kit. Use the Custom Installation Wizard when installing Microsoft® Office 2003, or the Custom Maintenance Wizard when Office is already installed, to deploy the registry settings to users' computers. For more information, see the "Deployment" section of the Office Resource Kit Web site.

• Set up Arbitrary Discovery Servers. Organizations can configure an arbitrary discovery server, which will prompt users when a new service is available. Up to five arbitrary discovery server pointers can be configured on a client computer. With these pointers in place, Office 2003 will frequently check whether new services are available and, based on the autoInstall attribute in the discovery packet returned to the client by the server, either notify the user or automatically install the new services. For more information, see Configuring Service Discovery.

Important  Although we talk about registering a research service, the normal registration process registers a research service provider, along with the research service or services that the provider chooses to register on the user's computer. While the provider (through logic in the Registration method) can programmatically select which services to install, the user does not have an equivalent option in the Research task pane user interface to select or exclude individual services at the time of registration. In some cases, the provider may choose to install services, but not to activate them, by setting their Display setting to "Off." The user can activate or deactivate services at any time, from the Research Options dialog box.

Installing a service for all users of a computer

If you install research services under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry key instead of under HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Office 2003 modifies its normal procedure for the initial installation of services. Before contacting Microsoft's discovery server and any registered discovery servers and installing default services from those sources, Office finds these keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and copies them to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, with the result that the services specified by the administrator are installed for the current user. This process is called "propagation." For more information, see "How to Control the Installation of Default Services" in Controlling Service Installation Options.

Typical registry settings

The following screen shots display typical provider (Figure 2) and service (Figure 3) registry settings for the Factiva News Search research service available from Dow Jones and Reuters.

Figure 2. Typical provider registry settings.

Figure 3. Typical service registry settings.

For more information, see Registry Settings Overview.

Note  A translation service uses some service settings in a special manner. For more information, see Building a Translation Service.