Level: Introductory Inge Halilovic (ingeh@us.ibm.com), Information Developer, IBM
31 Mar 2005 For IBM® Informix® Dynamic Server, Version 10.0, information retrieval from the documentation set has been improved by the addition of an Information Center that contains HTML and PDF versions of the product manuals, a master index, full text search capabilities, and resources for troubleshooting and support. Gain insight into these features and how they can be used effectively to obtain product information.
Introduction
Information retrieval is significantly enhanced in the IBM Informix Dynamic Server, Version 10.0 documentation set. The enhanced documentation set includes:
- Manuals in HTML and PDF format
- Full text search throughout the HTML or PDF version of the documentation set
- A master index in HTML and PDF format
- Topic-based categories for specific tasks
- Troubleshooting and support information
- Documentation notes listed with corresponding manuals
- Links for ordering hardcopy manuals
The Information Center
Another new feature for IBM Informix Dynamic Server, Version 10.0 is the Informix Dynamic Server Information Center. The information center includes the following features:
- Complete IBM Informix Dynamic Server 10.0 and IBM Informix Client SDK (CSDK) 2.90 documentation sets
- Manuals in HTML and PDF format
- Full text search throughout the documentation set
- A master index in HTML and PDF format
- Topic-based categories for specific tasks
- Easy navigation with a navigation tree
- Troubleshooting and support information
- Documentation notes listed with corresponding manuals
- Ability to bookmark specific information
- Product release notes
An information center presents product documentation in an HTML frameset with two panes. The left pane displays either the information center contents (as a navigation tree) or search results. The right pane displays information topics. To move between the contents and search results, click the buttons at the bottom of the left pane.
Figure 1. Information Center
The first category in the Information Center contains overview information and helpful links to service and support. The other topic in this category, "Using the information center," describes how to navigate and search through the information center.
Navigate through categories and topics
As you can see in Figure 1, the Information Center contains multiple categories that describe specific tasks, such as the Getting Started, Administering, Developing and Connecting categories which effectively group the documentation by common tasks. For example, the Administering category contains documentation related to administrative tasks usually performed by system and database administrators. The Developing category contains documentation related to SQL statements, application development, and extending the database server.
While most categories contain complete manuals, some categories contain only the relevant chapters of a particular manual. For example, the Security subcategory under the Administering category contains a manual, the Trusted Facility Guide, plus the "Managing Security" chapter from the Administrator's Guide.
Figure 2. The security category
In addition to the categories views, the complete library is included in the information center as well.
The Complete IDS Library category contains all manuals for Dynamic Server, Version 10.0 and CSDK, Version 2.90. In addition, the documentation notes are included with each manual.
As you follow links in the right pane content, you can use the Show in Table of Contents button (top corner of right pane) to display your position in the navigation tree in the left pane. The topic title for the currently displayed topic will be highlighted in the navigation tree.
Perform a full text search of the HTML files
To perform a text search of all the HTML files in the Information Center, type a search string in the Search field (located above the left pane) and click GO.
The following figure shows the search results for the string "encryption" with percentage rankings for each result. The topic for the highlighted result is shown in the right pane.
Figure 3. Search in the Information Center
Notice that the search uses word-stemming to find not only "encryption," but also "encrypted," and "encrypting."
You can perform a more precise search with the Advanced Search tool. You can limit the categories that are searched, and you can use Boolean expressions and pattern matching to further refine the search. To perform an advanced search, click Advanced Search. In the Advanced Search dialog box, enter a search string, select or deselect categories, and click Search.
If you want to see where a topic is in the navigation tree, click the Show in Table of Contentsbutton (at the top of the right pane).
Troubleshooting and support information
The Troubleshooting and support category in the Information Center provides the following information:
- Web site and solution databases: contains links to relevant Web sites (such as the International Informix User's Group), as well as forms for searching information sources on the Web, including IBM Software Support documents, Informix newsgroups, and the Internet.
- Getting fixes: describes where to obtain fixpacks and how to sign up for email notification of product updates.
- Error messages: lists all Informix error messages that are included in the finderr utility. To search for a specific error message, use the browser Find command, usually Edit -> Find or Control-F.
- Contacting IBM Software Support: describes how to obtain help from IBM Software Support and provides links and phone numbers.
Create bookmarks to individual topics
Because the URL displayed in the address bar of your browser does not change as you navigate
to different topics, you cannot use the browser bookmark function to bookmark a topic. However, you can manually create topic bookmarks using the following steps:
- In the left navigation pane, right-click the category or section title you want to bookmark.
- Choose Copy Shortcut.
- Paste the shortcut into the address bar of your browser.
- Create a bookmark using the browser bookmark function.
Master index
The master index is a linked list of all index entries in the IBM Informix Dynamic Server product manuals. The master index is provided in both HTML and PDF format on the documentation Web site and in the information center.
In the PDF version of the Master Index, entries are displayed by manual, using an abbreviated manual
identifier and a hyperlinked page number for each entry. For example, in the following figure, a "file" subentry is located on page 22-4 of the Administrator's Guide and page A-5 of the Administrator's Reference.
Figure 4. An entry in the PDF Master index
To display the page where the entry is located, click the page number.
In the HTML format of the Master Index, go to an index entry by clicking on the hyperlinked text next to the
manual identifier. If a book contains just one index entry for the term, the term itself is a link. If a book contains more than one index entry for a term, each occurrence in the book is indicated by a hyperlinked number (see below). For example, in the following figure, a single entry for "Gateway Transactions" is found in the Administrator's Reference. The entry "GB18030-2000 code set" is found in two locations in the GLS User's Guide.
Figure 5. An entry in the HTML Master index
To display the page where the entry is located, click the linked text in the entry (either the entry itself, or its number).
Improvements to the Informix Library Web page
In previous releases, Informix documentation was only available on the Informix Library Web page with its
alphabetical listing of manuals. The Informix Library Web page for IBM Informix Dynamic Server, Version 10.0 has the following improvements:
- Link to the Publications Center to order hardcopy manuals and the documentation CD-ROM
- Link to a Web page with a downloadable .zip file of the documentation CD-ROM
- Manuals in HTML format
- Master index in PDF format
- Documentation notes listed with manuals
- Product release notes
- Link to machine notes
Full text search of PDF files on the documentation CD-ROM
You can perform a full text search of all the PDF files on the documentation CD-ROM.
To perform a search of all PDF files on the CD-ROM using Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0:
- Open Acrobat Reader in stand-alone mode.
- Choose File -> Open and select the file searchable_index.pdx from the root directory of the documentation CD-ROM.
- When the search pane appears, type a search string in the top field.
- Choose the searchable_index.pdx as the search location.
- Specify any other search options you want.
- Click Search.
Note: if you have an earlier version of Acrobat Reader, follow the instructions in the online help for attaching an index.
The following figure shows the search pane in Acrobat Reader.
Figure 6. Searching all PDF files
Conclusion
The Informix Information Development team welcomes your feedback! Send comments to docinf@us.ibm.com.
Resources
About the author  | | | Inge Halilovic has been developing Informix documentation for over eight years.
Inge was the documentation lead for the IBM Informix Dynamic Server Version 9.4 and Version 10.0 releases. |
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