Identifying the contents of help plug-ins

Every plug-in requires a file called plugin.xml to identify the plug-in contents to the z/OSMF help system.

About this task

This file includes the following items:

The table of contents file that contributes to the navigation for the help plug-in.
The name, ID, and the version of the help plug-in.
The index file for building the Index view.

Procedure

To create the plugin.xml file for your help plug-ins, follow these steps:

Create a new Extensible Markup Language (XML) file called plugin.xml.
Make the following XML declaration the first two lines of the file:
```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<?eclipse version="3.0"?>
```
Add the root <plugin> element and specify the following attributes for the help plug-in:
name

For the panel help plug-in, the name that will be displayed in the z/OSMF navigation area for your application followed by the word task.

For the message help plug-in, the range of message IDs included in the plug-in.

id

Name of the folder that contains the panel or message help contents.

version

Version of the help plug-in.

provider-name

Name of your company.
For example, the plug-in identification metadata for the Incident Log task can be as follows:
```
<plugin name = "Incident Log task" 
        id = "com.ibm.zosmfincidentlog.help.doc" 
        version ="2.1" 
        provider-name = "IBM">
```
Within the context of the <plugin> element, create an <extension> element with a point attribute value of org.eclipse.help.toc. Then, within the context of the <extension> element, create a <toc> element to declare the table of contents file.
```
<extension point="org.eclipse.help.toc">
   <toc file="toc.xml" primary="true" />
</extension>
```
If you indexed your content, within the context of the <plugin> element, create an <extension> element with a point attribute value of org.eclipse.help.index. Then, within the context of the <extension> element, create an <index> element to declare the index file.
```
<extension point="org.eclipse.help.index">
   <index file="index.xml" />
</extension>
```
Close the <plugin> element.
```
</plugin>
```

Example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<?eclipse version="3.0"?>

<plugin name = "Incident Log task" 
        id = "com.ibm.zosmfincidentlog.help.doc" 
        version ="2.1" 
        vendor-name = "IBM">

  <extension point="org.eclipse.help.toc">
    <toc file="toc.xml" primary="true" />
  </extension>
  
  <extension point="org.eclipse.help.index">
    <index file="index.xml" />
  </extension>

</plugin>