• State Suggested Answer
  • Replies 6 replies
  • Answers 2 answers
  • Subscribers 179 subscribers
  • Views 6093 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

How to install plugins on a RDS server

Walter Blaser

Hi

What is the proper way of installing Studio plugins for all users under Windows Remote Desktop Services?

I installed them the normal way using the "SDL Plugin Installer" and switched to INSTALL mode before running the installer.

However, this did not install the plugins into the profiles of the other users.

I worked around the issue by copying the contents of the "Plugins" folder in APPDATA to every single user profile. But with a lot of RDS users, this is surely not a user friendly way.

Can you please tell me how to achieve this in an easier way?

Thanks and best regards
Walter
Rate translation
×
Suggest better translation
×
Moderator UI
×
  • Get AI Suggestion
  • 0
    Hi Walter,

    I'm not sure there is a proper way, Studio just wasn't designed to work this way. But you may have more success putting the plugins manually into here:

    c:\ProgramData\SDL\SDL Trados Studio\12\Plugins\Packages\

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
    Tell us what you need in our Community Solutions Hub

  • 0 in reply to Paul

    Hi Paul

    Thanks for pointing me to this other folder.
    How would this work? Does it mean that whenever an instance of Studio (for all RDS users) is launched, it will check the contents of this folder, unpack and install the plugins that are in there?
    Is there any documentation on this process?

    I am not sure whether I can still do this on the RDS server after I have already copied the files to the individual profiles' folder.


    Walter

    Add-on:

    I just tested this on a standalone PC and Studio does in fact install the plugin that I have copied to the folder in "Program Data". However, this plugin does not appear in the "Plugins" folder of the user profile.So, how is this meant to work? Can I have both plugins for all users (in "ProgramData" ) as well as plugins for individual users (in the user's profile "AppData")?
  • 0 in reply to Walter Blaser

    Hi Walter,

    I'm no expert but this is what I found in stackexchange, which I adapted a little, and it seems to explain why using ProgramData works:

    ProgramData contains application data that is not user specific.  This data which will be available to all users on the computer.  Any global data should be put in here.

    AppData folder contains configuration settings, downloaded information/files for a particular user.  So, for example any user specific preferences and profile configurations can be stored in the AppData folder.  The AppData folder is further divided into three subfolders (we don't use LocalLow so I removed that description):

    • Roaming - This folder contains data that can move with your user profile from a computer to another.
    • Local - This folder contains data that will not move with your user profile.

    Hope that helps.  I think it might be worth adding an option into the plugin installer for admin installs like this so I'll discuss this with my team for a future update.

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
    Tell us what you need in our Community Solutions Hub

  • 0 in reply to Paul
    Hi Paul

    Thanks. In the meantime, I also did a bit of research and found out that the folder "ProgramData", which was introduced in Windows 7 (or Vista) is basically a link to the "All Users" profile.

    I also did some tests to find out how Studio handles plugins. It seems that plugins are loaded from the "Plugins" (both the common one in "Program Data" and the one in the user's profile) folder every time Studio launches. If you remove a plugin from that folder, it does not load anymore. If you copy a plugin both to the common folder as well as to the user's profile, you will see it twice in Studio (e.g. two entries in the Batch Tasks menu).
    So, my understanding is that installing and also uninstalling a plugin basically only consists in copying or removing the plugin data from this folder.
    This means that I can optimize yesterday's installation on the server by emptying the individual user "Plugins" folders and copying instead all the plugins to the "Plugins" folder in "ProgramData".

    An option in the Plugin Installer to copy the plugins for all users would indeed be very appreciated, mainly by corporate users who need to deploy this for many users.

    Regards
    Walter
  • 0 in reply to Walter Blaser

    Hi Walter,

    I remember that we had the same issues when I worked in a Company Environment.

    The solution actually was the ProgramData Folder, see also the section at the bottom of http://producthelp.sdl.com/kb/Articles/6124.html

    1.New “Per-Machine” Installation Location for OpenExchange Plugins in MSWindows “Program Files” Folder

    For SDL Trados Studio 2014 the following Plugin location, residing in the CommonApplicationData special folder, has been introduced as a per-machine installation location for OpenExchange plugins. This has been added to fulfil a requirement by SDL Enterprise customers to have a choice between per-machine and per-user plug-in locations. It is designed to enable OpenExchange plugins to be accessible from all user/machine profiles

    Per-machine OpenExchange plugins should use this folder:

    ◦C:\ProgramData\SDL\SDL Trados Studio\11\Plugins\Packages

    ◦C:\ProgramData\SDL\SDL Trados Studio\11\Plugins\Unpacked

    Kind regards

    Christine
  • 0 in reply to Christine Bruckner
    Hi Christine

    Thanks a lot for this information, which confirms my findings and especially for the useful KB article, which I must have missed while doing my research.

    Although it is easy for an IT savvy person to copy these plugins to the appropriate folders, I still think it would be great if the "Plugin Installer" would offer the "All Users" installation as an option (the same as many programs do on install when they ask you whether you want to install only for the current user or for all users).

    Beste Grüsse
    Walter