Information center: Hints for using this documentation
The information center displays the documentation for various releases of IBM WebSphere Application Server. From the WebSphere software Web page you can select and view information about the releases, including additional formats for the information contained in the information center.
What you would like to do?
- Perform searches
- Help yourself or someone else find a topic again -- includes how to bookmark topics
- Identify what is new or changed
- Print the documentation
- Make sure your browser is compatible
- Work offline
- Choose the best approach for finding information -- navigational options
The following descriptions apply to the online information center. The information center is implemented using the WebSphere help system. At times, the WebSphere help system available for download might include new or changed features relative to the online information center. See "Work offline" for more information about downloading the WebSphere help system.
Perform searches
- Performing a basic search - default search
A full text document search is available from the banner of the information center. To perform a search, type your search argument into the Search: text box and click Go.
Every time you use this basic search, the search scope includes all of the topics displayed in the left-hand navigation, even if you previously limited the search scope through the advanced search dialog.
- Changing the search scope - advanced search
To search a subset of the information displayed in the left hand navigation of the information center:
If you return to using the basic search dialog, your search scope changes will revert back to the default scope.
- Display the Advanced Search dialog.
- Type your search expression in the text box in the Advanced Search dialog.
- Select which "books" to search. Here, a book refers to a top-level navigational entry.
- Click the Search button that is located on the Advanced Search dialog.
The advanced search options allow for the following.
Search criteria Search result * any string ? any single character "" exact phrase AND, OR, NOT boolean operators xx AND yy - hits that contain both xx, yy
xx OR yy - hits that contain either xx, yy
NOT xx - hits that do NOT contain xx
book selection check box only books with a check mark will be included in the search
- Finding the location of the topic in navigation
Suppose you select a search result and display the topic on the right side of the information center. Now you would like to see where the topic resides in the left hand navigation. Use the Show in Table of Contents option to make the left-hand navigation open to the location of the topic. Show in Table of Contents is located on the right side of the information center, below the banner.
- Making search highlighting disappear
Suppose you perform a search for "web application" and select the search result named "Using Web applications." When the "Using Web applications" is displayed on the right side of information center, all occurrences of "web application" are highlighted. If the highlighting interferes with your reading the topic, you can do the following. Show the topic in the table of contents, as previously described. In the navigation, click the topic name: "Using Web applications." This will reload the topic on the right side, with the search highlighting removed.
- Toggling between search and navigation
Use the options at the bottom of the navigation area.
To show the navigation (table of contents), use:
To show the search results, use:
Help yourself or someone else find a topic again
Suppose you find a particularly useful topic in the information center. Here are convenient ways to ensure you can find the topic the next time you need it.
- Adding bookmarks
Take advantage of your Web browser capabilities to bookmark (or "Add to favorites") a topic that is displayed in the right-hand frame of the information center.
- Right click anywhere in the right-hand frame displaying the information center topic you want to bookmark.
- Add the bookmark.
- Select Add Bookmark if you are using Netscape Navigator.
- Select Add to Favorites if you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer.
- Finding topics by file name
To find the file name for a particular page in the information center, position your cursor over the title of the topic in the navigation frame. Right-click the title of the topic and select properties. The filename, along with other file properties will be displayed in resulting window. To find the file again, you can use this file name as a search term.
For example, if you pull up the properties window for the Information center: Hints for using this documentation topic, and find the file name is covr_using. To help someone else to find that topic, you can send the person the file name, which the person can enter into the information center search window to locate the topic.
Another method for finding the file name is to hover your cursor over the little recycling icon at the bottom of a topic. "Hover text" will be displayed, including the file name.
- Returning to the welcome page
To view the welcome page for a product edition, click the product edition name as shown in the left-hand navigation. The welcome page is displayed on the right.
To reset the information center to its original state, refresh the browser window containing the information center.
Identify what is new or changed
- Identifying updates to information
To see quickly which topics have undergone a technical content update, view the Site map. The individual topics also contain markers to show updates to entire topics and paragraphs within topics.
Only changes to technical content are identified. Non-substantive editorial changes and general improvements to the layout and usability are not marked.
Time stamps () at the bottom of each topic show you the most recent replacement of a topic. However, they do not necessarily mean that the technical content within the topic has changed. Rather, the time stamps are useful for remembering at what point you printed a page, or comparing your local information center freshness to the online version.
Print the documentation
- Finding PDF versions
The PDF versions are recommended if you would like to print multiple topics with the intent of reading the topics in sequence, like a book. The PDF versions are available separately from information center, on the product Library page: www.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/library.html
- Printing single topics
Browser capabilities may be used to print single topics from the information center. To print a topic displayed in the right-hand frame of the information center, first click anywhere in the right-hand frame to register that frame as the selected frame. Then use your browser to print the selected, right-hand frame.
The online version is subject to change frequently. Timestamps () at the bottom of each topic help you keep track of when you printed the information.
Make sure your browser is compatible
- Finding supported browsers
The information center supports Netscape Navigator 6.0 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and higher. In addition, JavaScript must be enabled in the browser. If you use a different or earlier version of a browser, your pages may format differently and some functions might not work correctly.
- Adjusting the font size
A cascading style sheet (CSS) governs the appearance of the information center. However, the text size remains flexible. The text is displayed in the size indicated in your Web browser settings.
The instructions for changing the text or font size vary among browser brands and versions. Consult the browser product documentation for instructions. In Microsoft Internet Explorer, look for the menu choice, View > Text Size. In Netscape browsers, look for the menu choice, View > Increase Font Size.
- Learning about accessibility options
See Accessibility features for accessibility information.
Work offline
- Creating a local information center
You can download the WebSphere help system, the same information center used to display the online WebSphere Application Server documentation. Then you can install various documentation plug-ins to populate your information center with content from WebSphere Application Server and other products. See Creating a local information center for details.
- Finding PDF versions
The PDF versions are another option for browsing the documentation without needing an Internet connection. The PDF versions are available separately from information center, on the product Library page: www.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/library.html
Choose the best approach for finding information -- navigational options
Navigational options arrange and rearrange topics in various ways, in anticipation of your preferences and goals.
Note that although navigation in an information center resembles the table of contents of a book, some parts of the information center navigation are optimized for quick lookup rather than sequential reading.
- All topics by feature
- This part of the navigation is best if you want to read topics in the sequence shown in the left hand navigation. Organized according to technology features supported by the product, it walks you through the entire set of information for a technology such as Web services for J2EE, introducing conceptual background, tasks, and reference topics in the order in which you are likely to need them. For each technology, the documentation spans user roles from Installer, to Developer, to Administrator.
- Reference
- This part of the navigation is best for accessing particular facts, quickly. Like a telephone book, this part of the navigation is not meant to be read sequentially.
- Planning, Migrating, Installing, and other tasks
- These parts of the navigation are best if you know approximately what you want to accomplish. For example, you can browse through entries under Migrating to see the broad range of technology features that can be migrated, and to locate the migration instructions for a particular one. The general pattern for these navigation entries is What you want to do > What you want to do it to, such as Tuning > Servers > Clusters if you want to tune application server clustering capabilities for improved performance.
A topic in this part of the navigation might have nothing to do with the topic immediately proceeding or following it in the navigation, in terms of completing the tasks sequentially. Once you display one of these topics in the right side of the information center, use the links within the topic itself to find closely related tasks, concepts, and reference material in other parts of the information center. If following many links in the right hand frame causes you to feel lost, use the Show in Table of Contents () button. It opens the left hand navigation to the location of the topic you are viewing in the right side of the information center.
See later for more information about these navigational options.
As an alternative to navigating the topic-based information center, note the PDF versions available on the product Library page: www.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/library.html
Here are some scenarios that further illustrate the most effective way to navigate the information center. They assume you have expanded the navigation for a particular product edition within the information center, such as WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment.
You are new to the product and want to find a high level overview and summary of changes. Clicking the name of a product edition at the top level of navigation will display a welcome page containing many links to help you get started. Also consult the Product overview and Scenarios parts of the navigation. Additionally, the Site Map is marked according to which topics have undergone substantive technical updates since their last release. You are looking for an example of how to write an administrative script that configures a JDBC provider. See the many examples under Reference > Scripting. You are studying product security features and wonder what kinds of global security settings are available in the administrative console. Browse the list of Reference > Settings for security related settings, such as global security. You wonder what comprises the application programming model. Anywhere you see Applications in the navigation, such as All topics by feature > Applications, you can click the word to display an overview of the technologies that comprise the programming model. Within All topics by feature > Applications, you will find application programming information, though it is mixed with administrative information. If you are developing applications and then deploying them into a test environment, for example, having this process-oriented view can be handy.
Under Developing > Task overviews, you will find starting points for working with various technologies, such as Web services. These starting points span user roles, from Developer through Administrator. In the other sections under Developing, you will find all available development tasks organized according to what is being developed.
You can browse Reference > Javadoc for the nuts and bolts of the WebSphere programming interfaces.
You want to pinpoint particular development tasks, such as how to use data access programming interfaces. Expand Developing, then Resources > Data access. The Resources container refers to technologies grouped as J2EE resources according to the J2EE specification. While updating your application to access a database, you need to refer to the Javadoc for com.ibm.websphere.j2c. See Reference > Javadoc. You want to find and read everything there is about Web services support. At this stage, you are more interested in the end-to-end process than pinpointing particular administrative or development tasks. Expand the All topics by feature part of the navigation to show All topics by feature > Applications > Web services. For sequential reading, also consider the PDF versions available on the product Library page. You might wonder how to know to find Web services under Applications. Browse the navigation a little to learn where the various technologies reside. These patterns are repeated consistently throughout the navigation, for easy learning even if they are not immediately intuitive to you. Where did you expect to find a topic? Suggestions for organizing the navigation are invited, using the Feedback link available in every topic.
You need a quick definition of the term "access intent." Click Glossary. You want to find all of the tasks associated with Migrating, independent of the technology features to which they pertain. First, find the activity that you want to do: Migrating. Click the word Migrating for an overview of the task of migration. Click Migrating > Getting started for overviews and general migration information. Expand it to see all of the types of things that can be migrated. Here you will find the tasks for migrating each of these technology features. You want to tune your security configuration. First, find the activity that you want to do: Tuning. Then identify what you want to tune: Security. The entire navigation path is: Tuning > Security. Any information about tuning security will be located here. You wonder what the task of "Assembling" involves. For a description of a navigational entry at the first, second, and sometimes third level, click the navigational entry. For example, clicking the word Assembling displays an overview of the packaging and configuration tasks that comprise assembling an application, in J2EE terminology.
Navigation container details
The left hand frame, commonly called the navigation frame, contains "books", which house the expandable table of contents. The table of contents is revealed by clicking on the "book" of choice. The table of contents for each book is based upon activities, or high level goals, that are to be achieved, including:
- Product overview
- Planning
- Installing
- Migrating
Note: The above mentioned goals are common for customers getting their first taste of the product. Before proceeding into any of the goals mentioned it is wise to be familiar with the content in the product overview section. Once familiarity with the product has set in customers should certainly start planning to set up their environment by visualizing the end product. When the plan has been checked and double checked and is definitely the "plan" for your company, then move towards installing, or in some cases migrating to the latest version of the product.
- Configuring
- Administering
Note: Configuring and administering are goals common to system administrators who regularly tend to systems and provide maintenance regularly. While configuring lends itself more to one time only changes, administering is generally seen as a daily activity.
- Developing
- Assembling
- Deploying
Note: All of these goals are centered around applications and the application lifecycle. Once an application has been developed, it must be assembled, and finally deployed onto the Application Server, where the application can perform the work it was designed to do.
- Securing
- Tuning
- Troubleshooting
Note: Each of these goals is unique in that there is not a common theme, as seen in some of the other groupings of navigation "books". Securing is focused on achieving the highest level of security available for the system. Tuning is applicable to performance and optimizing the entire system, including the individual pieces, to run at a maximum efficiency. Troubleshooting is geared towards users in task failure who want some quick direction to assist in fixing their problem.
Topics
This documentation mentions topics several times, but what is a topic? A topic is an information unit that makes sense even when read by itself. Every topic in the information center fits one of three templates, reflected in the pattern of the topic titles.
- Task topics provide step-by-step instructions for accomplishing a goal. Tasks have titles such as "Installing WebSphere Application Server."
- Concept topics provide background information you might need to understand a task. Concept titles are nouns, such as "Single Sign On."
- Reference topics provide quick access to facts. Reference topics have titles such as "JspBatchCompiler command" for command syntax, or "Class loader settings" for a set of administrative console field descriptions.
Distinguishing among task, concept, and reference topics certainly is not necessary for using the documentation, but can help you understand the navigational options better. The Reference section contains only reference material. All topics by feature contains the entire set of concept, task, and reference topics. The remaining parts of navigation again contain the entire set of concept, task, and reference topics, only organized differently from All topics by feature.