Level: Introductory Barry Searle, WebSphere Studio Application Developer Migration Team Leader, IBM Toronto Lab
Ellen McKay, WebSphere Studio Application Developer Information Developer, IBM Toronto Lab
29 Jan 2003 This article shows you how to use a simple Eclipse plug-in to add direct links to Web based product support information, as well as local copies of current product FAQs.
Introduction
The IBM ® WebSphere® Studio family of tools is an extensive and sometimes complex development environment. While using it, you may encounter errors or perform tasks that aren't described in the online help. You could call Service and Support for assistance, but often, the answers to your questions already exist in a list of FAQs on the Web. The kind of question you have and the product you have affects where on the Web you need to look for these FAQs.
This article discusses an extension to the WebSphere Studio tools that provides information and facilities to help you work with WebSphere Studio Application Developer (hereafter called "Application Developer") and other WebSphere Studio tools. Since all WebSphere Studio tools are based on the WebSphere Studio Workbench, and the Workbench is based on the open-source Eclipse framework, it's easy to extend the product documentation by using the Eclipse help extension features. The result is a simple Eclipse plug-in, with no code, that adds direct links to major sources of support information, and also adds local copies of some of the current product FAQs. Because it's available using the built-in Eclipse Update Manager, it can be regularly updated with little effort on your part.
You can
download the code sample
com.ibm.faq zip
described in this article. It has been tested with Application Developer Version 5.0 and other WebSphere Studio Tools and works as described, but may not work with future versions of the products. The code is not currently part of Application Developer, but instead is a technical preview of functionality being considered for future versions. If you have suggestions or encounter problems, please e-mail Barry Searle at
searle@ca.ibm.com
.
While the Update Manager aspects of this article are currently available only for Application Developer, the downloadable code sample will work with all Eclipse Version 2 based tools (Site Developer, Application Developer Integration Edition, and so on). Currently, you cannot access updates with any other product's Update Manager (you
may
be able to do so in the future). This article describes how to use the plug-in with Application Developer, although it also provides information on how to download and install the plug-in for other WebSphere Studio products.
Sources of product support information
Product support sites
The first place to search for product support information is in the Application Developer online help. If you don't find your answer there, you can next try the individual product support sites:
FAQs and other support documents
Each of these support sites offers FAQ search tools such as the Application Developer FAQ Search. Some product support sites, such as the WebSphere Application Server support site, also offer tools for searching other document types, including hints & tips, tech notes, solutions, white papers, and Redbooks. Some products have support documents marked with a small key icon , which indicates that you must be an IBM Passport Advantage customer to view that document.
The "Russian-Doll" model of products within products
Let's say you have a problem with Site Developer and have searched the Site Developer FAQs without success. Since Site Developer is contained within Application Developer, your problem might have been reported and resolved within Application Developer, so you should also search that higher-level product. Similarly, Enterprise Developer contains Integration Edition which in turns contains Application Developer, so you should also search the lower-level products for problems encountered in the higher-level products.
Newsgroups
What if you still can't find your answer? The best sources of peer-to-peer information are WebSphere Studio newsgroups. There are product-specific newsgroups, such as:
And topic-specific newsgroups, such as:
To use all of these resources, you could bookmark this article, return to it whenever you have a problem, and go to the various sources of support documents. But this approach is cumbersome. Your search would go much faster if this information were integrated into Application Developer and other WebSphere Studio tools for quick access from the documentation. Our Support Plug-in does this integration for you.
Obtaining the Support Plug-in
The
downloadable file
below contains a copy of the core Support Plug-in
com.ibm.faq.zip
. The following steps show you how to obtain the plug-in so that you can use it with any product:
- Close down WebSphere Studio.
-
Download the plug-in and unzip it into the following WebSphere Studio product directory:
X:\
ws_Installdir
\eclipse\plugins
, where
ws_Installdir
is your WebSphere Studio installation directory.
- Restart WebSphere Studio.
-
The plug-in will automatically be detected and added as a new
Support information
book in the product online help.
There is another, better way to get the plug-in if you are working with Application Developer. You can use the built-in Update Manager, which ensures that you get the latest version of the Support Plug-in, and also installs copies of selected FAQs as part of your local documentation.
Update Manager: background information
Whenever Application Developer is running, you can invoke Update Manager by clicking
Help => Software Updates => Update Manager
:
Several views in the Update Manager perspective will then open. The Feature Updates view shows sites that Update Manager will search to try to find product updates:
One of the sites is the Application Developer Discovery site, where product updates and new Tech Previews (such as our Support Plug-in) are made available. You can add other sites, such as sites for third-party Independent Software Vendor (ISV) tools, but in this article we will just use the default Application Developer site.
Using Update Manager to install the Support Plug-in
Within the Feature Updates view, right-click
WebSphere Studio Application Developer 5.0 Support Information
and select
Show Details
. The Preview view is updated to show information on the Support Information (Tech Preview) Plug-in:
Click
Install
, and the Support Information (Tech Preview) feature installation will begin:
Click
Next
, accept the license, and then click
Next => Finish => Install
. The Support Plug-in will be installed and you'll be reminded that you must restart Application Developer so that it can dynamically detect and activate the new plug-in.
Once you have restarted Application Developer and activated the Support Plug-in, then if you open the Plug-in Registry view, you'll see that the Support Core Plug-in has been loaded, along with WebSphere Studio Tools support information (which contains our Search and Problem Reporting information), and Application Developer support information (which contains current FAQs).
Using the Support Plug-in
-
From the Application Developer main menu, click
Help => Help Contents:
A new Support information book is added to the product documentation:
-
To view the contents of the Support information book, click
Support information:
The above example shows a WebSphere Studio tools plug-in, as well as a WebSphere Application Server plug-in, each with their own support contents. Over time, this Support Plug-in Tech Preview
may
be adopted and shipped by other IBM products, although this is neither a statement of plan nor a commitment.
Researching and reporting problems
Selecting the first document,
Researching and reporting problems
, displays detailed information about self-help support information, as well as information on how to report a problem to IBM Support:
Support on the Web
Selecting the second document,
Support on the Web
, displays a page with links to the major support information sites, and includes a form for searching the WebSphere Studio tools FAQs.
Type your search words, select a specific product or version (optional), then click
GO
. Your results will be listed in the browser:
WebSphere Application Server support on the Web
There is also an Application Server plug-in with support information. Click
WebSphere Application Server
to access it. The
Support on the Web
search page looks like this:
How the Support Plug-in extends the Eclipse help system
We mentioned that the Support Plug-in is implemented without any code and you may be curious about how this works. It's fairly simple -- Eclipse can dynamically detect and activate plug-ins upon startup. So if you want to, all you need to do is create your own plug-in that contains your own documentation extension (
com.
mycompany.myfeature
) in the Eclipse
plugins
directory and you're all set. The Websphere Studio tools provide a complete plug-in development and test environment, but even that is not needed for documentation plug-ins. For more details, see the eclipse.org article
Help -- Part 1: Contributing a Little Help (Revised for Eclipse 2.0)
.
Conclusion
This article described a plug-in that extends the Eclipse help system that underlies all of the WebSphere Studio tools. This Support Plug-in provides local copies of Support FAQs, plus information for problem determination, reporting, and remote search. This plug-in can make it much easier for you to locate relevant self-help information and other development information. The article also described how to use the new WebSphere Studio tools Update Manager.
Download | Name | Size | Download method |
|---|
| com.ibm.faq.zip | .1 MB | FTP |HTTP |
About the authors | 
| | Barry Searle
is the Migration Team Leader for WebSphere Studio Application Developer. He is a Professional Engineer who has worked at the IBM Canada Lab for over ten years on various application development tools. Prior to that he has many years of industry experience developing command and control systems and leading complex communications development projects. You can reach Barry at
searle@ca.ibm.com |
|
| | Ellen McKay is an Information Developer for IBM Canada Ltd. She writes online help and publications for WebSphere Studio Application Developer. You can reach Ellen at
ecmckay@ca.ibm.com
|
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