Installation Wizard

Updating from Connect versions predating 2019.1

In order to update PlanetPress Connect to 2022.2 from Connect versions prior to 2019.1 it is first necessary to update the Connect License.
For details on how to upgrade the Connect License see Users of Connect prior to 2019.1

Starting the PlanetPress Connect installer

The PlanetPress Connect installer is supplied as an executable file.

Double click on the executable file and after a short pause the Setup Wizard will appear to guide through the installation steps.

Note: PlanetPress Connect requires prior installation of Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.
For a full list of other prerequisites, see Installation prerequisites.

It is recommended to install and use OL Connect Designer and Server under the same user account. If you install and run OL Connect Designer and Server under different user accounts (for example, install as User1 and run Designer as User2), account permission issues may occur.

Running the Installation with extra logging

The installer can be run with enhanced logging options, if needed.
To do so, run the PlanetPress_Connect_Setup_x64.exe from the command line with one of the following command line options:

PlanetPress_Connect_Setup_x64.exe --verbose
This adds extra debugging style logging to the installation process.
PlanetPress_Connect_Setup_x64.exe --trace
This adds full trace style logging to the installation process. The log file this produces will be very large, as this option logs everything.

Prerequisites Installation

The PlanetPress installer will check for prerequisite technologies as the first step in the installation process. If this check finds some technologies are missing, it will install those technologies, before continuing with the installation.

Welcome screen

After any prerequisites are installed, the PlanetPress installer Welcome screen appears.
Click Next to continue with the PlanetPress installation.

If the installation is an upgrade over a pre-existing Connect installation, the installer will first uninstall the earlier version.

If you would like to retain the usage information from that pre-existing Connect installation, do not select the Remove User data checkbox option.

For information about exactly what data would be saved or deleted, please see Pre-existing User Data.

License Agreement

The next page displays the , which needs to be read and accepted before clicking Next.

Component Selection

After clicking the Next button, the Component Selection page appears, in which the different components of PlanetPress Connect can be selected for installation.

The options are:

Base: The installation files required for any PlanetPress Connect Connect installation. This component is not optional.
Designer: The Designer module (see The Designer) can be installed standalone (with no other installed modules) on as many machines as you like. It does not require a license to run as a standalone designer tool . This allows any number of people to use the Designer for creating jobs, but without production capabilities such as automation and commingling. The Designer module is optional, but it is recommended that it always be installed.
- Messenger: The Messenger Service that allows connection between Designer and PlanetPress Connect Workflow. Recommended for all production installations.
Server: The Connect Server back-end that provides Connect production capabilities such as production content creation (print output, HTML content for emails and web pages), automation, commingling and picking. It is also referred to as the Connect Master Server in Connect clustered environments.
MariaDB Server: A supplied MariaDB database used by PlanetPress Connect.

The database is used for referencing temporary Connect files and for sorting temporarily extracted data, and similar.

Note: When performing an upgrade installation, if the MariaDB version has not significantly changed, then no attempt will be made to upgrade the database content.
If there is a significant MariaDB version change, the database content will be upgraded, so that it will continue to work with the new MariaDB version.

A pre-existing MariaDB, MySQL or Microsoft SQL server (referred to as an external database, in this documentation) could be used instead, for the same purposes. The external database could reside on the same computer or on a separate server.
If you wish to make use of an external database, please make sure the MariaDB option is not selected.

Caution: If you chose not to install the supplied MariaDB database, and instead opt for using a pre-existing (External) database then you yourself must ensure that the External database is accessible to Connect.

Upland Objectif Lune will take no responsibility for setting up database connections to any but the supplied MariaDB database.

See Database Considerations for more information about setting up external databases.
Destination folder: This is the location where Connect components are to be installed.
Use the Browse button to navigate to a folder other than the default, if required.

Note: The installation path cannot contain any non ASCII characters (such as Asian language Unicode characters). Nor can it contain characters that Windows disallows in filenames (such as '?', '>' or trailing spaces).
If an invalid character is entered, the Installation Path entry box will turn red and a description of the error will be displayed in the information area.

The installer calculates how much disk space is required for installing the selected components, along with how much space is available.

Total Required Space : Displays the amount of disk space required for the selected components.
Space Remaining: Displays the amount of space available after installation on the drive currently in the Installation Path.

PlanetPress Connect Service Configuration

The Service Configuration page is for setting the Microsoft Windows Account that the Connect Service component will use.

Log on as: Defines the Windows user account and password that the Connect Server services will use.

Note: The Windows user account must have access rights to all local and network resources required for production, as well as Windows "Log on as a Service" rights.

The Windows user account selection entered here should be recorded for future use, as the Security and Users Settings dialog can only ever be executed through the user account specified on this page.
- Account: The Windows user account that the service uses to login. If the machine is within a domain, use the format domain\username.
  This account must be an existing Windows profile with local Administrator rights.
- Password: The password associated with the selected user.
  
  Use the eye icon to toggle between displaying or masking the password entry.
  The password is not validated for password strength, so any entry is acceptable.
- Validate Account button: Click to verify that the entered account and password combination is correct and that the service is able to login.
  
  Note: This button must be clicked and the user validated before the Next button becomes available.
Start service when installation is complete checkbox: Select this option to have the service start upon installation completion (which is the default).
If unchecked, the Service will start upon machine reboot.

PlanetPress Connect Server Connection

Set the Connect Server Connection internal username and password.

The options available are as follows:

Port: Enter the port to use to communicate with the Connect Server.
By default the Connect Server controlled by the OLConnect_Server service communicates through port 9340.
User: Enter the internal username for connection to the OL Connect Server.
The default username for new installations is olc-user.
Password: The password associated with the selected user.

Use the eye icon to toggle between displaying or masking the password entry.
The password is not validated for password strength, so any entry is acceptable.

Note that prior to PlanetPress Connect version 2020.2, only one user account could be configured on a Connect Server. The default username was ol-admin and the default password was secret.

Database Configuration

The Default Database Configuration page appears if the supplied MariaDB module was selected for installation in the Product Selection screen. It defines the administrative root password for the MariaDB server as well as which port it uses for communication.

The installer will automatically configure the Connect Server to use the supplied password and port.

Port: The port on which MariaDB will expect requests to come though, and through which it itself responds.
A check is run to confirm whether the specified TCP\IP Port Number is available on the local machine. If it is already being used by another service (generally, an existing MySQL or MariaDB installation), the number is highlighted in red and a warning message is displayed.

Note: The MariaDB database controlled by the OLConnect_MariaDB service communicates through port 3306 by default.
Root password: Enter the password for the 'root', or administration account, for the MariaDB server.
Use the eye icon to toggle between displaying or masking the password entry.
We recommend that the password be at least 8 characters long and contain at least one of each of the following, even though password selection strength is not enforced by the installer:
- a lower case character (a, b, c ... )
- an upper case character (A, B, C ...)
- a numeric digit (1, 2, 3 ...)
- a punctuation character (@, $, ~ ...)
For example: "This1s@K"

Note: When updating from an earlier Connect version, the appropriate MariaDB password must be entered or the update will fail.

If the password is subsequently forgotten, then MariaDB must be uninstalled and its database deleted from disk before attempting to reinstall.

Allow remote client access checkbox: Click to enable external access to the MariaDB server.

Note:
This option is required if MariaDB Server will need to be accessed from any other machine.

It will also be required if the MariaDB database is on a separate machine to this PlanetPress Connect installation.

Tip: This option may represent a security risk if the machine is open to the internet.

We heavily recommended that your firewall is set to block access to port 3306 from external requests.
Username: Enter the MariaDB user name that will be associated with OL Connect.
The default username for new installations is olconnect.
Password: The password associated with the selected user.

Use the eye icon to toggle between displaying or masking the password entry.
The password is not validated for password strength, so any entry is acceptable.

Configuring External Database Connection

The Database Connection page appears if the supplied MariaDB module was not selected for installation. This page is for setting up the connection to an existing External database.

System: Select the database type to use for thePlanetPress Connect Engine. Currently only MariaDB, MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server are supported.
Host: Enter the IP Address or alias of the server where database resides.
Database Instance Name: Enter an existing Microsoft SQL Server's instance name.
This option only applies to existing Microsoft SQL Server instances, and not for MariaDB or MySQL.
Note that the MS SQL Server instance name must meet Microsoft's requirements.
Port: Enter the port on which the database server expects connections.
For MariaDB and MySQL, this is 3306 by default.
For Microsoft SQL Server it is 1433 by default.
Schema: Enter the name of the database into which the tables will be created.
The standard Connect schema name is "olconnect" by default.
Username: Enter the user account of a user with database administrative rights. Administrative rights are required since tables will need to be created/modified/dropped in the database.
If accessing a database on a different machine, the server must also be able to accept non-local TCP connections and the user account must also be configured to accept remote connection.
For example, the "root" MySQL user entered as root@localhost is not allowed to connect from any other machine than the one where MySQL is installed.
Password: Enter the password for the above user account. For MySQL the appropriate password must be entered or the Connect installation will fail.
Encrypt Connection checkbox: Check to enable encrypted connections to the external database.

The secure connection to MySQL is for the "olconnect" schema.
Note: It is not in the scope of the Connect installer to configure the MySQL database Server to accept SSL connections. This must be done prior to the installation of Connect.

By default, the connection will not verify the server certificate (verifyServerCertificate=false), which would allow connecting to a server using a self-signed certificate. If such a certificate is required, then this setting can be changed after installation within the Database Connection preferences (which can be accessed from either the Server Configuration Settings tool, or the Preferences window).
Test Connection button: Click to verify that the information provide into previous fields is valid by connecting to the database.
Note: This test does not check whether the remote user has READ and WRITE permissions to the tables under the objectiflune schema. It is solely a test of database connectivity.

Ready to install

This page confirms and lists the installation selections made.

If components have been selected which have a shortcut associated with then (Designer, Server) then you will presented with the option to Create desktop shortcuts. Select if you wish for desktop icons to be created.

Click Install to start the installation itself. This process can take several minutes.

Installation Finished

This screen describes a summary of the components that have been installed.

Configure update checks checkbox: This option is enabled by default. It causes the Product Update Manager to run after the installation is complete. This allows configuring PlanetPress Connect to regularly check for entitled updates.
Note: this checkbox may not be available in the event that an issue was encountered during the installation.

When ready, click the Finish button to close the installation wizard, and initialize the Product Update Manager, if it was selected.

The Product Update Manager

If the Configure Update Check option has been selected, a message will be displayed after clicking “Finish” in the setup. The message details the information that needs to be sent back to Upland Objectif Lune in order to determine when/if the software needs updating.

Click “Yes” to install or open the Product Update Manager where the frequency with which the updates can be checked and a proxy server (if required) can be specified.

Note: If the Product Update Manager was already installed by another Upland Objectif Lune application, it will be updated to the latest version and will retain the settings previously specified.

Select the desired options and then click OK to query the server and obtain a list of any updates that are available for your software.

Note that the Product Update Manager can also be called from the “Objectif Lune Update Manager” option in the Start menu.
It can be uninstalled via Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features.

Product Activation

After installation, it is necessary to activate the software. See Activating a License for more information.

Before activating the software, please wait 5 minutes for the database to initialize. If the software is activated and the services rebooted too quickly, the database can become corrupted and require a re-installation.