Installing the documentation

About the document plug-ins

The documentation is packaged as Eclipse document plug-ins and must be viewed using the IBM WebSphere Help System. The help system (or viewer) and document plug-in format are based on an open source approach developed by the Eclipse Project. IBM product document plug-ins are contained in folders that follow a consistent naming convention (com.ibm.xxx.doc).

Installing the document plug-ins

To view IBM product documentation in the viewer, you must install new or updated document plug-ins into the eclipse\plugins folder of the IBM WebSphere Help System.  The help system works with any information that has been packaged as an Eclipse document plug-in, including IBM product document plug-ins.

To install document plug-ins, complete the following steps:

  1. Copy the documentation plug-ins folders to the eclipse\plugins folder of the help system.  For example, if you installed the help system to C:\WebSphere Help System, you copy the document plug-ins folders to: C:\WebSphere Help System\eclipse\plugins.

Keep in mind that this must be the eclipse\plugins folder of the IBM WebSphere Help system; you might have additional eclipse\plugins folders on your system.

  1. To see the newly added document plug-ins, start the viewer by following the instructions in the Starting the viewer section below (or shut it down by following the instructions in the Shutting down the viewer section below, and then restart it, if it was running).

Starting the viewer

To start the viewer:

  1. Open the WebSphere Help System folder.
  2. Double-click the help_start.bat file.

Note: It might take a few minutes for the system to start and the document plug-ins to be displayed the first time you start it.

Shutting down the viewer

When you close the viewer by simply closing its window, its processes are still running in the background. This enables a much faster launch during subsequent sessions. However, you must shut down these processes when you install document plug-ins or update the help system with new plug-ins.  Shutting down the viewer when not in use also frees up system memory.  When you shut down your machine, all help system processes shut down.

To shut down the viewer:

  1. Open the WebSphere Help System folder.
  2. Double-click the help_end.bat file.