Configuring the help server to provide local or intranet help

The Help Administration page is available for local help or intranet help configurations. The Help Administration page provides access to all of the tools that you use to administer your help server.

Typically, you set connections and other help options by clicking Help > Preferences in your client help window, as described in Changing help content connections. You can also use tabs on the Help Administration page to view logs, change connections, manage administrator access, and manage proxy network connections. You open the Help Administration page by entering this URL in a browser: http://server:port/help-name/updater/admin.jsp. For example, https://localhost:9443/clmhelp/updater/admin.jsp .

Note: To open the Help Administration page and other help server tools, you must run the client help and leave the help window open while you access the pages in a browser.

If your web browser does not display all the options that are described in this procedure, try another browser.

If you do not choose to use the Help Administration page, you can access most of the tools individually. To access the tools individually, refer to the URLs that are listed in the following table.
Table 1. URLs to help server tools
Help server tool URL Provides
Help content http://server:port/help-name/index.jsp Help contents and the help home page.
About http://server:port/help-name/about/about.jsp Details about the help content, including:
  • The version of the help.war that is installed.
  • The plug-ins that are installed.
  • The version of Eclipse that the help.war is built on.
Remote help configuration http://server:port/help-name/remote/remotehelp.jsp Controls for adding, enabling, and disabling connections for remote and local help. See Changing help content connections.
Network connections http://server:port/help-name/updater/proxy.jsp Network connections and proxy settings.



Accessing tools by forming URLs

If you cannot identify the server, port, and help name, copy a topic link and edit it to form a URL.

  1. In your product client, click Help > Help Contents to open the help window. In some products, the menu options are Help > Contents and Index.
  2. In the navigation pane, right-click a topic and then click the menu item to copy the URL, such as Copy Link Location, Copy Shortcut, or Copy Link Address. The URL is in this format: http://server:port/help-name/topic/plug-in/topics/topic.html
    Note: Leave the help window open.
  3. Paste the URL in a browser. The URL contains your server name, which is typically 127.0.0.1 or localhost. The URL also contains the correct port number for the help that is running.
  4. Remove the topic information from the end of the URL: /topic/plug-in/topics/topic.html
  5. Add the appropriate URL ending for any of the tools, as listed earlier in the table.
Example for identifying the Help Administration URL:
  • Before: http://127.0.0.1:63650/help/topic/com.ibm.help.common.rational.doc/topics/c_overview_rational.html
  • After: http://127.0.0.1:63650/help/updater/admin.jsp