Creating the table of contents

A table of contents is required to integrate each help plug-in into the z/OSMF help system. Providing a table of contents improves the navigability of help plug-ins and ultimately makes it easier for users to find relevant help information. This topic describes the structure of the table of contents for panel and message help plug-ins.

Panel help plug-ins

To create a table of contents for panel help plug-ins, create an XML file that has the following structure:
Figure 1. Table of contents template for panel help plug-ins
<toc label=“task-name” link_to=“category” topic=“path-to-parent-topic”>
	<topic label=“task-name” href=“path-to-parent-topic”>
			<topic label=“topic-name” href=“path-to-topic”/>
			<topic label=“topic-name” href=“path-to-topic”>
					<topic label=“topic-name” href=“path-to-topic”/>
					<topic label=“topic-name” href=“path-to-topic”/>
					<topic label=“topic-name” href=“path-to-topic”/>
			</topic>
			<topic label=“topic-name” href=“path-to-topic”/>
	</topic>
</toc>

where:

task-name
Name that will be displayed in the z/OSMF navigation area for your application followed by the word task.
category
Path to the category that will contain the help for the task. For more details, see Categorizing help plug-ins.
path-to-parent-topic
Path to and name of the file that introduces the task and its key features. The introductory topic must be the container (parent) for all the other help topics in the plug-in.
topic-name
Name of the topic, which is the label that will be displayed in the table of contents in the z/OSMF help system.
path-to-topic
Path to and name of the file that contains the help content.
Figure 2 provides a sample table of contents for the System Status task.
Figure 2. Sample table of contents for the System Status task
<toc label="System Status task"
 link_to="../com.ibm.zosmfcore.performance.help.doc/izuG00hpPerformance.xml#sysplex"
 topic="izuR00hpSysplexStatusTask.html">
  <topic label="System Status task" href="izuR00hpSysplexStatusTask.html">
   <topic label="Managing system resources" href="izuR00hpSysplexStatusPanel.html">
    <topic label="Adding resource entries" href="izuR00hpAddSysEntry.html">
     <topic label="Add and Modify Entry pages" href="izuR00hpAddModSysPanel.html"/>
    </topic>
    <topic label="Modifying resource entries" href="izuR00hpModSysEntry.html"/>
    <topic label="Removing resource entries" href="izuR00hpRemSysEntry.html"/>
   </topic>
  </topic>
</toc>
When the panel help plug-in is displayed within the z/OSMF help system, it is listed under the specified category and each help topic is nested under the parent topic, as depicted in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Sample table of contents for panel help plug-ins
Screen capture that illustrates the structure of the table of contents for panel help plug-ins

Message help plug-ins

To create a table of contents for message help plug-ins, create an XML file that has the following structure:
Figure 4. Table of contents template for message help plug-ins
<toc label=“message-ID-range” link_to=“category” topic=“path-to-parent-topic”>
	<topic label=“message-ID-range” href=“path-to-parent-topic”>
			<topic label=“message-ID” href=“path-to-topic”>
			<topic label=“message-ID” href=“path-to-topic”/>
			<topic label=“message-ID” href=“path-to-topic”/>
			<topic label=“message-ID” href=“path-to-topic”/>
	</topic>
</toc>

where:

message-ID-range
Range of message IDs included in the message help plug-in.
category
Path to the z/OSMF messages category, which will contain the message help for the task. For more details, see Categorizing help plug-ins.
path-to-parent-topic
Path to and name of the file that is the container (parent) for all of the message help topics. The parent topic should state the following: This topic describes the z/OSMF messages that have a message ID between message-ID-range.
topic-name
Name of the topic, which is the ID of the message.
path-to-topic
Path to and name of the file that contains user assistance for the message.
Figure 5 provides a sample table of contents for messages issued by z/OSMF core.
Figure 5. Sample table of contents for the messages issued by z/OSMF core
<toc label="IZUG0400-IZUG9999"
 link_to="../com.ibm.zosmfmessages.help.doc/izuAllhpzOSMFMessages.xml#core_messages"
 topic="IZUG0400-IZUG9999.html">
  <topic label="IZUG0400-IZUG9999" href="IZUG0400-IZUG9999.html">
   <topic label="IZUG400I" href="IZUG400I.html"/>
   <topic label="IZUG401E" href="IZUG401E.html"/>
   <topic label="IZUG401W" href="IZUG401W.html"/>
   <topic label="IZUG402W" href="IZUG402W.html"/>
   <topic label="IZUG403E" href="IZUG403E.html"/>
   <topic label="IZUG404I" href="IZUG404I.html"/>
  </topic>
</toc>
When the message help plug-in is displayed within the z/OSMF help system, it is listed under the z/OSMF messages category and each message topic is nested under the parent topic, as depicted in Figure 6.
Figure 6. Sample table of contents for message help plug-ins
Screen capture that illustrates the structure of the table of contents for message help plug-ins
Parent topic: Creating help plug-ins