Installing <Product Name, Version> documentation

This document describes how to install the product documentation plug-ins for <Product Name, Version>.  This information has been packaged as Eclipse documentation plug-ins.

About the product documentation

The documentation is packaged as an Eclipse documentation plug-in and must be viewed using the IBM(R) WebSphere(R) Help System. The help system and document plug-in format are based on an open source approach developed by the Eclipse Project (www.eclipse.org).

Installing new or updated documentation plug-ins

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).

To install or upgrade documentation plug-ins, complete the following steps:

  1. Obtain the documentation plug-ins. For example, you might go to an IBM product Web page to download documentation plug-ins.
  2. Copy the documentation plug-in folders to the eclipse\plugins folder of the directory where the help system is installed. For example on the Windows platform, if you installed the help system to c:\WebSphere Help System, you would copy the documentation plug-in folders to: c:\WebSphere Help System\eclipse\plugins.
  3. To see the newly added documentation plug-in, start the help system (or stop the help system and restart it if it was running).

Starting the help system

If you have installed an IBM product that provides its documentation in the form of Eclipse plug-ins, you can probably start the help system by clicking Help > Help Contents on that product's menu bar. The instructions given here are for starting the help system as a separately installed, standalone application.

To start the help system from the hard drive,

Windows platform:

  1. Open the folder for the Windows platform.
  2. Double-click the WebSphere help start.bat file.

Other platforms:

  1. Open the folder for your platform.
  2. Run the help_start.sh file.

To start a help system from a CD,

Windows platform:

Double-click the help_cd_start.bat file in the root directory of the CD.

Other platforms:

  1. Open the folder for your platform.
  2. 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 few minutes before the browser opens and displays the information center.

Stopping the help system

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:

  1. Open the folder for the Windows platform.
  2. Double-click the WebSphere help end.bat file.

Other platforms:

  1. Open the folder for your platform.
  2. Run the help_end.sh file.

To stop a help system that was started from a CD:

Windows platform:

Double-click the help_cd_end.bat file in the root directory of the CD.

Other platforms:

  1. Open the folder for your platform.
  2. Run the help_cd_end.sh file.

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