The purpose of this document is to provide instructions for deploying Collaboration within your FOIAXpress environment.  

The FOIAXpress Collaboration facilitates document reviews with users outside of your FOIAXpress environment. With Collaboration, FX users can send document requests to outside users, and responsive documentation provided in response can be added to your FX Document Management and in subsequent request responses.  

Important Notes for v11.8.0 Upgrades

We’ve made significant changes to the deployment process for Collaboration v11.8.0. These changes apply to new and upgrading customers.

• The inputs.json file used for previous installations CANNOT be used to upgrade to v11.8.0. There is a new file for this deployment included in the installation package. You must use this new file for the upgrade, however you can copy data over from a previously used file to the new one as needed

• If your organization is using the new Document Management features, a few additional configuration steps are required. You’ll need to manually create and configure the PNG cache location (Administration > System Administration > System Settings), and add all the required system jobs to the scheduler (Administration > System Administration > Scheduler Configuration)

FOIAXpress Collaboration Installation Package

The FOIAXpress installation package is a zip file containing all the files needed to install FOIAXpress Collaboration. Your customized installation is driven by the values set in the Inputs.Json file located at the root of directory where the zip file is extracted.

Contact Casepoint support at support@Casepointtech.com for your installation package.

Deployment Procedure

Deploying FOIAXpress Collaboration follows the procedure outlined below. Each step is covered in the subsections in this manual.

1. Download and verify the installation package, then extract the files

2. Update the Inputs.json file with your deployment details

3. Run Install.ps1

Collaboration Installation Prerequisites

Deployment System Requirements

The installation package must be deployed from the application server, which must meet the requirements outlined below:

Install SQL Server Module

Follow the steps below to install the SQL Server Module on the application server:

1. Navigate to the following link: https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/Sqlserver/21.1.18256

2. Under Installation Options, select Manual Download:

3. Click Download the raw nupk file. The SQLserver .nupkg file downloads

4. Locate the downloaded "SQLserver” file, then right click it and select Properties

5. On the General tab, select Unblock, then click Apply

6. Next, edit the “SQLserver” file extension from .nupkg to .zip

7. Extract the .zip package in the downloaded location. After the folder is extracted, remove “sqlserver.” from the folder name:

8. Navigate to C:\ProgramFiles\WindowsPowerShell\Modules and create a folder called SqlServer

9. Copy the renamed .zip folder from the downloaded location to the SqlServer folder created in the previous step (C:\ProgramFiles\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\SqlServer)

Account Permissions

Ensure the following accounts are granted full permissions as outlined below:

The above accounts must have full access to the file share path configured as the file repository location. The following folders will be created by the deployment tool under this file repository location (for on-prem deployments only). For AWS and Azure, the following folders should be manually created in the file repository location before running the deployment tool.  

The following table summarizes the permissions required on the subfolders in the file repository location.

Download the Installation Package

The Collaboration installation package contains the files needed to install FOIAXpress and its associated components. Contact Casepoint support at support@Casepointtech.com for your installation package.

After downloading the package, follow the steps below to unzip the file:

1. Locate the downloaded .zip file, then right click it and select Properties

2. On the General tab, select Unblock, then click Apply

3. Next, unzip the contents of the folder. The contents of the package appear as shown in the following example:

Verify the Integrity of the Installation Package

Steps to verify the integrity of the installation package.

1. Open Windows Powershell ISE

2. Use the command below to verify the integrity of installation package

Test-FileCatalog -CatalogFilePath "<<catalog file path(with extension of .cat) from downloaded artifact>>" -Path "<< folder that should be validated against the catalog file >>" 3. It will show as valid, as shown in the following example:  

About the Installation Package

There are two primary files you’ll interact with during installation:

1. Inputs.json: Drives the installation of the Collaboration components. The file is in a standard json format and needs to remain a valid json file for successful installation

2. Install.ps1: The executable file you will run to deploy the installation package with the parameters configured in the Inputs.json file

Inputs.Json Settings for Installation

About the Inputs.json File

The Inputs.json file located in the root directory of the extracted deployment package zip file drives the installation of the different components of FOIAXpress Collaboration. The file is in a standard json format and needs to remain a valid json file post updates prior to the installation.  

The settings are grouped into sections, each addressing settings which may or may not require configuration, depending on your specific installation. The following subsections in this chapter describe each section of the Inputs.Json file.  

The parent node is the ‘inputs’ section. This section appears as follows:

Each section has parameters you can adjust to configure your installation. An example section is shown below, with an explanation for how it works:

Each (1) Section (“InstallType” in this example) includes various (2) Settings (“New” in this example) to configure.  

For each (A) Setting (“Upgrade” here), you can edit the (B) text in quotations (“N” here to indicate “No”) to configure the settings for your installation. This might include adding a file path, user name, password, or simply a “Y” or “N” depending on the field you are configuring.

The first section under the parent node is the Install Type. See the following section for details on configuring your install type, with the remaining sections following in the order they appear in the Inputs file.

Install Type

Use the “InstallType” section to determine if this is a new installation, or an upgrade for an existing system:

Install Components

The “Components” section allows you to determine which components to include with this installation. To include a component with your installation, be sure to assign the component a “Y” value on the corresponding line.:

Application and Scheduler

The “APPANDSCHEDULER” section has settings related to Collaboration application and scheduler installations. A value must be set for all values in this section to successfully install the application:

NOTE: Any files paths specified must have two backslashes where a path in windows explorer requires a single backslash.  

Database Settings

The “DB” section contains the settings for installing or upgrading your Collaboration database. In case of a new installation, an agent account will be created.

File Repository Settings

The “FileRepository” section contains the setting for different file paths used by Collaboration to store files.

4.7 Authentication Settings

The “Authentication” section contains settings needed for FOIAXpress to authenticate using FORMS authentication after the application is installed:

SMTP Server Settings

The “SMTPServer” section contains setting for the application’s mail server:

Configuration

The “Configuration” section contains settings for initial install configuration, setting up the basic details required to log in and get started in Collaboration. This account is the primary administrator account for the application:

Inputs.json Settings for Upgrade

This section discusses the inputs.json settings used when upgrading an existing FX Collaboration. For information on using the inputs.json file, see the About the Inputs.json File section of this manual.

NOTE: Some fields that would be required for a new installation should be left as-is for an upgrade. It is important to not edit or remove these fields as this could compromise the integrity of the inputs.json file. These are described where appropriate in the following sections.

Install Type

Use the “InstallType” section to determine if this is a new installation, or an upgrade for an existing system:

Components

The “Components” section allows you to determine which components to include with this upgrade. If you included a component in your previous installation, be sure to assign the component a “Y” value on the corresponding line:

Application and Scheduler

The “APPANDSCHEDULER” section only requires input in the InstallLocation and BackupLocation fields.  

NOTE: All fields not listed above can remain as-is during an upgrade.

Database Settings

The “DB” section contains the settings for installing or upgrading your Collaboration database.

NOTE: You do not need to edit the AgentAccount fields during an upgrade, these can remain as-is.

File Repository Settings

The “FileRepository” section contains the setting for different file paths used by the FOIAXpress application to store files.  

NOTE: These fields can remain as-is during the upgrade.Authentication Settings

The “Authentication” section contains settings needed for FOIAXpress to authenticate using FORMS authentication after the application is installed. These fields can remain as-is during the upgrade.

NOTE: These fields can remain as-is during the upgrade.

SMTP Server Settings

The “SMTPServer” section contains setting for the application’s mail server. These fields can remain as-is during the upgrade.

NOTE: These fields can remain as-is during the upgrade.

Configuration

The “Configuration” section contains settings for initial install application configuration, setting up the basic details required to log in and get started in the application. This account is the primary administrator account for the application.  (!!) Note: These fields can remain as-is during the upgrade.

6 Install Collaboration

Before you are ready to run the Install.ps1 file, review the steps below to verify you’ve completed all the steps to this point:

• Ensure your system meets the minimum requirements

• Make sure you have connectivity to the servers where the software is being installed

• Download, verify, and extract the Collaboration Installation package

• Configure the Inputs.json file for your installation

Once the above prerequisites are complete, follow the steps below to deploy the Collaboration Installation package.

1. Open Windows Powershell ISE

2. Use PowerShell to navigate to the location where you extracted the installation package

3. Type .\install.ps1 for either install or upgrade

4. If the inputs.json file is in same location as the extracted installation files, simply click enter to execute the installation. Alternatively, if you have file in different location provide this file location, then execute the script.

5. The installation procedure executes. See the following section for post-installation procedures to verify the application deployed successfully.  

Post-Deployment Configuration

After deploying Collaboration either via new installation or an upgrade of an existing environment, please review the following sections to ensure the post-deployment configuration actions are completed.

Set HTTPS-enabled URL

The Collaboration URL requires an HTTPS endpoint.  

NOTE: Use a fully qualified domain name while configuring the HTTPS endpoint in the Collaboration Room URL.Follow the steps below to update the endpoint to HTTPS.

1. Access your FOIAXpress application as an Administrator

2. Click the Administration option from the top toolbar.

3. Under Administration, select the Collaboration Room option to open the Collaboration Configuration screen

4. Locate the Collaboration Room URL field, and update the URL to your HTTPS-enabled URL

5. Click Save to save the changes

Add DNS Binding

For non-public Collaboration environments, you are also required to add a DNS binding to allow Collaboration to function correctly.

Add Binding (Single Server)

If your Collaboration resides on the same server as your FOIAXpress application, you must add a DNS binding to the “hosts” file. Follow the steps below to add this binding.

1. On the application server, locate and open the “hosts” file (C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\)

2. In the “hosts” file, add the text shown below, replacing the highlighted portion with your qualified DNS name for the Collaboration site

3. Save and close the “hosts” file

Add Binding (Separate Collaboration and Application Servers)

If your Collaboration and application reside on separate servers as your FOIAXpress application, you must add a DNS binding to the “hosts” file as described below:

1. On the FOIAXpress application server, locate and open the “hosts” file (C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\)

2. In the “hosts” file, add the text shown below, replacing the part (A) with your Collaboration site’s local IP address, and part (B) with your qualified DNS name for the Collaboration site:

3. Save and close the “hosts” file.