Changing the default help location in Maximo 7.6.x

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Maximo 7.6.0.5 introduced a new help system, which links directly to IBM Documentation instead of building and deploying a help .ear file. This article discusses how to configure Maximo Help to point to a different version rather than the most current version.

A primary reason a user might want to change the specific documentation is the default link to the Maximo 7.6.0.5 and later documentation (formerly Knowledge Center) is not converted. If you link out to documentation from a French language Maximo, the links are converted, however the Maximo documentation remains in English. The initial Maximo 7.6.x documentation is fully converted. Some configurations might be better in certain configurations to have the help default to its locations. Select 7.6.0.5 or later if you want to view the new features or specific documentation in English.

The default location the Maximo Help now links to in the following: http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLKT6_7.6.0.5/com.ibm.mam.doc/welcome.html

To get the default location to point to the core documentation, we want to link to: http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLKT6_7.6.0/com.ibm.mam.doc/welcome.html

The required system properties to configure help are listed in the following screen capture:

• mxe.help.host -  Host is the hostname of the server where the IBM Documentation is hosted.
• mxe.help.maximohelplink - The Help Link is the top-level link (what is appended to the end of the mxe.help.path) property.  This value is stored in a help_products.xml file that is deployed with the maximo.ear.  The top-level help link cannot be modified directly from the system properties.
• mxe.help.path -  Path is the context path to the relevant Documentation.
• mxe.help.port - Port relevant http port.
• mxe.help.protocol  - The relevant Protocol, either http or https.

With the default configured properties as seen in the screen capture, we are linked out to the 7.6.0.5 or later update on the Documentation: http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLKT6_7.6.0.5/com.ibm.mam.doc/welcome.html.

You notice the path has an added value different than our properties and is also not defined directly in our properties: SSLKT6_7.6.0.5.  This value is formed from the com.ibm.mam.doc value in your mxe.help.maximohelplink system property.

To update the path, follow the upcoming steps.

Open your help_product.xml file from the ibm\smp\maximo\applications\maximo\properties\products\features folder, which contains seven tags. The package name can vary, but the package name matches the value in mxe.help.maximohelplink.   

<product>
        <packagename>com.ibm.mam.doc</packagename>
        <name>IBM Maximo Asset Management</name>
        <taxonomy>SSLKT6</taxonomy>
        <appendversion>y</appendversion>
        <feature>Y</feature>
    </product>

For each entry, you would change the taxonomy from SSLKT6 to SSLKT6_7.6.0 and the

appendversion

from y to n.  This value stops the product from appending the current Maximo version and maps the SSLKT6_7.6.0 to

packagename

.

Once updated successfully, you can rebuild and redeploy your Maximo ear file and your Maximo help will now link out to the 7.6.0 core documentation, as well as converted documentation if logged in with another language.

This file is updated with new feature packs, so if installing a new feature pack in a future release, the same change needs to be made.