Packaging EndNote X7

[ianmb]

Does anyone have any experience with packaging EndNote X7?

We created a site installer which seems to work quite well (in the sense of retaining our licence and serial details), but I'm wondering how best to handle updates, and in particular how to disable end user update prompts.

I've contacted Thomson Reuters support but if previous experience is anything to go by I'll get a standard not-very-helpful response.

[jhalvorson · Accepted solution]

I have used Composer for several versions of EndNote. Below are for version 7.2. I think there is a newer update available that I haven't updated my documents for yet.

1. After building the redistributable file following EndNote's instructions, install EndNoteX7 by dragging and dropping from source to /Applications
2. Open the EndNote X7.2 Updater.app to apply the updates
3. Opened the /Applications/EndNote X7/EndNote X7.app a. Skip through opening of a library b. From the EndNote X7 menu, choose Customizer… (This positions all of the files in the proper location so they can be used immediately by the users.) c. Select Services for Mac OS X d. Select Spotlight e. Select Connection f. Select Import Filters g. Selected Output Styles (increases the number of style from 263 to over 4000). h. Click Next. i. Quit application
4. Open Composer 9.65
5. Drag and Dropped /Applications/EndNote X7 to Sources panel in Composer
6. Renamed “EndNote X7” to “EndNote_X7-17.2”
7. Select /Applications/EndNote X7 a. Change Owner = to “root” b. Change Groups = to “wheel” c. Click the gear and Apply Owner and Groups to /Applications/EndNote X7 and all enclosed items

This will create the PKG that can be deployed via Casper Imaging, policy, or Casper Remote.

It does not enable the tool bar within Word. We instruct our user on how to open the EndNote app and use the Customizer menu to add the tool bar.

When an new version is available, I repeat the steps above in composer and offer it in Self Service. The newer PKG installs on-top of existing and it's worked for us. I don't delete the EndNote folder prior to installing because users might save stuff within the EndNote X folder. I have not deployed updated versions via a policy.

[jhalvorson · Accepted solution]

I have used Composer for several versions of EndNote. Below are for version 7.2. I think there is a newer update available that I haven't updated my documents for yet.

1. After building the redistributable file following EndNote's instructions, install EndNoteX7 by dragging and dropping from source to /Applications
2. Open the EndNote X7.2 Updater.app to apply the updates
3. Opened the /Applications/EndNote X7/EndNote X7.app a. Skip through opening of a library b. From the EndNote X7 menu, choose Customizer… (This positions all of the files in the proper location so they can be used immediately by the users.) c. Select Services for Mac OS X d. Select Spotlight e. Select Connection f. Select Import Filters g. Selected Output Styles (increases the number of style from 263 to over 4000). h. Click Next. i. Quit application
4. Open Composer 9.65
5. Drag and Dropped /Applications/EndNote X7 to Sources panel in Composer
6. Renamed “EndNote X7” to “EndNote_X7-17.2”
7. Select /Applications/EndNote X7 a. Change Owner = to “root” b. Change Groups = to “wheel” c. Click the gear and Apply Owner and Groups to /Applications/EndNote X7 and all enclosed items

This will create the PKG that can be deployed via Casper Imaging, policy, or Casper Remote.

It does not enable the tool bar within Word. We instruct our user on how to open the EndNote app and use the Customizer menu to add the tool bar.

When an new version is available, I repeat the steps above in composer and offer it in Self Service. The newer PKG installs on-top of existing and it's worked for us. I don't delete the EndNote folder prior to installing because users might save stuff within the EndNote X folder. I have not deployed updated versions via a policy.

[ianmb]

Thanks, that workflow worked extremely well for us with X7.3.

If you find a way of disabling the update prompts, please let me know. All support could do was direct me to this Windows-specific KB article

[htse]

I did this about a month ago, using this knowledgebase article as a reference, except for the volume licensing part. http://endnote.com/kb/107720

The only thing I did in addition to that was to inject the Cite-As-You Write plug-in bundle into the Word application bundle.

[daz_wallace · Accepted solution]

Hi @htse

When I looked into disabling Endnote update checking for Macs about a year ago, the only method I could find was to add the update check URL into /etc/hosts as 127.0.0.1. That stopped the Macs checking for endnote updates.

This was the script I used, but please test before rolling out:

#!/bin/sh

cp /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.bak

echo "127.0.0.1 download.endnote.com" >> /etc/hosts

exit $?

[ianmb]

@daz_dar Thanks a lot, that seems to work extremely well!

[daz_wallace]

Hi @ianmb You're very welcome! Please let me know if you hear / figure out a better way.

As a side note, we left the support desk Macs without the above 'fix' so as to pick up the availability of updates, so we knew of when to grab and package them for distribution.

Darren

[el2493]

Thanks to @daz_wallace, it's been over 3 years since you posted this and this is still the only way I could find to disable the update window (just confirmed it's working for EndNote X8 18.1). I even called EndNote Support and they said there wasn't any way to disable this.