Enabling application installation in Lotus Notes

This is something I constantly have to search for when I am installing a Lotus Notes client and want to install something like the IBM Connections Status Updates sidebar plugin.

To be able to install new features into Eclipse (Lotus Notes client) it is necessary to edit the plugin_customization.ini file which is buried in the installation folder of Lotus Notes.

Full details of this procedure can be found here, but for my own benefit if nothing else, here is a shortened version of the instructions to get me to where I need to go.

On the Mac

1. Shut down Lotus Notes
2. Right click on the Lotus Notes icon in the Applications folder and select Show Package Contents
3. Drill down to the /Contents/MacOS/rcp folder
4. Open plugin_customization.ini in TextEdit, or similar.
5. Add the following line of code to the end of the file: com.ibm.notes.branding/enable.update.ui=true
6. Save and close the file
7. Start Notes
8. The Install menu item appears under File, Application

On Windows

1. Shut down Lotus Notes
2. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to \notes install dir\framework\rcp ,e.g c:\program files\ibm\lotus\notes\framework\rcp
3. Open plugin_customization.ini in Notepad, or similar.
4. Add the following line of code to the end of the file: com.ibm.notes.branding/enable.update.ui=true
5. Save and close the file
6. Start Notes
7. The Install menu item appears under File, Application