The following describes how to install and use the IBM(R) WebSphere(R) Help System with product or application documentation that has been packaged as Eclipse documentation plug-ins.
This documentation is intended for anyone who has received documentation in the form of Eclipse plug-ins, for example as part of an IBM software product, and wants to view that documentation in a standalone help browser.
The IBM WebSphere Help System is a viewer for displaying product or application information developed as Eclipse documentation plug-ins. The system provides a graphical user interface for browsing and searching online documentation. The help system includes open source software developed by the Eclipse Project (www.eclipse.org) and only works with information that has been packaged as an Eclipse documentation plug-in.
Product or application developers can create their own documentation plug-ins for viewing by their users. To learn about creating and packaging documentation plug-ins, see the Eclipse Project www.eclipse.org.
To install and run the help system, you must have one of the following software environments:
Installing from a package that was downloaded from the
Internet
To install the IBM WebSphere Help System unzip the supplied zip file on to your system, retaining the directory structure. The unzip creates a directory called ibm_help containing the IBM WebSphere Help System and embedded JRE. Please ensure that you have write permission to the ibm_help/eclipse directory.
Installing from a CD
If you have received the help system on a CD, you can run it
from there. Alternatively, to improve performance, copy the contents of
the CD to your hard drive and start the help system from there.
NOTE: If you have
copied the Help system from the CD on to your PC you must ensure that
you have write permission to the ibm_help/eclipse
directory before attempting to start the Help system.
The instructions given here are for starting the help system as a separately installed, standalone application.
To start a the help system from the hard drive,
Windows platform:
Other platforms:
Run the help_start.sh file.
To start a help system from a CD,
Windows platform:
Other platforms:
Run the help_cd_start.sh file.
The help browser opens and the table of contents pane incorporates the documentation plug-ins that were found.
Note: The first time you start the help system, you might have to wait a short time before the browser opens and displays the information center.
When you close the help system browser, the help system processes continue to run in the background. (This enables a much faster launch during subsequent sessions.) You must stop these help system processes when you install documentation plug-ins or update the help system with new plug-ins. Completely shutting down the help system also frees up system memory.
To stop a help system that was started from the hard drive,
Windows platform:
Other platforms:
Run the help_end.sh file.
To stop a help system that was started from a CD:
Windows platform:
Other platforms:
Run the help_cd_end.sh
file.
Note: The help system
uses a web server that is included with the system. The
web server uses a random port to avoid port conflicts among
applications, and by default the listener is disabled. If if you would
this feature enabled, allowing it to serve pages within your
enterprise, start and stop the Help system using the IC_start.bat /
IC_stop.bat files on Windows platforms or the IC_start.sh / IC_stop.sh
files on Linux platforms.
The help system works with any information that has been packaged as an Eclipse documentation plug-in, including IBM product documentation plug-ins. IBM documentation plug-ins are easily identified because they use a common directory naming convention (com.ibm.xxx.doc).
Prerequisite: The WebSphere Help System or an IBM
product
that includes the help system must be installed. To confirm whether you
already have the help system installed, search your file system for a
directory called eclipse\plugins.
To install or upgrade documentation plug-ins, complete the following steps:
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