Viewing documentation offline

You can download product documentation that is shown online to your computer and view it offline.

Before you begin

Find and download the product documentation that you want to view. WebSphere® Application Server documentation is available for download from the https://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/webserver/appserv/library/ server. Liberty documentation is in the liberty directory, https://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/webserver/appserv/library/liberty/.

Documentation for other WebSphere Application Server versions and products is also available on the server:

The server also supports FTPS, for example ftps://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/webserver/appserv/library/. Instead of downloading files from a browser, you can download files with FTP download software.

About this task

For documentation in PDF format, you can view the file in a PDF reader.

For documentation in HTML files that are stored in compressed (.zip or .jar) files, you can view downloaded documentation in several ways:

  • View individual HTML files in a browser. You can download product documentation from the server, extract the downloaded compressed ZIP or JAR file, and view the HTML files individually.
    Tip: Documentation files with a .jar extension such as com.ibm.websphere.wlp.core.doc_9.0.0.jar are ZIP files with a .jar extension. You can use an unzip utility to extract the .jar file contents to directly access and view the HTML files. Or change the .jar extension to .zip to access the HTML files without extracting the compressed file contents.

    Some product documentation files contain site maps or table of contents. For example, the com.ibm.websphere.express.doc_7.0.0.zip file has a site map in the htmlnav.html file in its doc.zip file. After you extract the doc.zip file contents, you can view the htmlnav.html file in a browser to see the Express 7.0 documentation table of contents and link to individual HTML files.

  • View all HTML files for product documentation in Eclipse or in WebSphere Developer Tools for Eclipse.
  • View all HTML files for product documentation in IBM Knowledge Center Customer Installed (KCCI). KCCI is a web application archive (WAR file) that runs on a Liberty or WebSphere Application Server server. For this option, you must have a license for Liberty or WebSphere Application Server to get the KCCI WAR file and you must deploy the KCCI WAR file to a server.
  • View all HTML files for product documentation in Knowledge Center for z/OS if you have z/OS 2.2 or later.

View documentation locally in Eclipse or WebSphere Developer Tools

Before you begin

Note: With the release of Java 11, you can install SimRel 2018-12 as the first release of the Eclipse IDE that officially supports the new feature.

Procedure

  1. Install Eclipse or WebSphere Developer Tools for Eclipse. You can get Eclipse from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/. You can view documentation locally with either Eclipse or WebSphere Developer Tools.
    For example, complete the following steps to install Eclipse for Java EE Developers (Oxygen) on Windows.
    1. Go to https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/eclipse-ide-java-ee-developers/oxygen2 and download an Eclipse IDE to a temporary directory on your computer. The IDE has a name such as eclipse-jee-oxygen-2-win32-x86_64.zip.
    2. Create two directories on your computer, eclipse_oxygen and eclipse_workspace.
    3. Install Eclipse Oxygen to C:\eclipse_oxygen. Extract the IDE eclipse-jee-oxygen-2-win32-x86_64.zip file into the C:\eclipse_oxygen directory.
  2. Install Java SDK 8 on your computer.
    Tip: If your computer has a WebSphere Application Server Version 9.0 or Version 8.5.5 installation, you likely have Java SDK 8 installed. Those products use Java SDK 8. For example, the Java SDK 8 installation on Windows is IBM 64-bit SDK for Windows, Java Technology Edition, Version 8. If you already have a Java SDK 8 installation, write down the path to the javaw.exe file.

    The following pages have IBM Java SDK 8 downloads or installation instructions:

  3. If you downloaded from the server a ZIP file that contains several documentation JAR, ZIP, or directories, extract that downloaded ZIP file into a temporary directory. The extracted JAR, ZIP, or directories are plugins.

    For example, the com.ibm.websphere.wlp.core.doc.zip file on the server liberty directory contains mainly .jar files. The com.ibm.websphere.wlp.core.doc_9.0.0.jar file is the English WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core documentation plugin. The com.ibm.websphere.wlp.core.doc_9.0.0_de.jar is the German WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core documentation plugin. Liberty documentation has German (de), Spanish (es), French (fr), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Chinese Simplified (zh_CN), and Chinese Traditional (zh_TW) plugin translations. These plugins were used for a previous version of the documentation at https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSD28V_liberty/com.ibm.websphere.wlp.core.doc/ae/cwlp_core_about.html. The other extracted files provide Javadoc, glossary, server configuration and feature (autogen) documentation, and message plugins.

    The names of the plugins are similar to what you see in online documentation URLs. For example, the Liberty Javadoc at https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEQTP_liberty/com.ibm.websphere.javadoc.liberty.doc/com.ibm.websphere.appserver.api.json_1.0-javadoc/index.html is in the com.ibm.websphere.javadoc.liberty.doc.jar file and its plugin name is com.ibm.websphere.javadoc.liberty.doc.

  4. Copy the extracted plugins that you want to view into the eclipse\plugins directory of your Eclipse or WebSphere Developer Tools installation.

    For example, copy com.ibm.websphere.wlp.core.doc_9.0.0.jar to C:\eclipse_oxygen\eclipse\plugins. At minimum, you need to copy the English com.ibm.websphere.wlp.core.doc_9.0.0.jar plugin to the eclipse\plugins directory.

    For translations, you also need com.ibm.websphere.wlp.core.doc_9.0.0_**.jar. If you want to view the Javadoc, glossary, server configuration and feature (autogen) documentation, and messages, also copy the other plugins in com.ibm.websphere.wlp.core.doc.zip to the eclipse\plugins directory.

    You do not need the .properties files for Eclipse or WebSphere Developer Tools. Do not copy the .properties to the eclipse\plugins directory. The .properties files are for KCCI.

  5. Start Eclipse or WebSphere Developer Tools.

    For example, if IBM SDK for Java 8.0.5.10 is installed in c:\jdk_80510, you can run Eclipse Oxygen with that Java 8 and the -clean option from a command line.

    1. Open a command line and move to the Eclipse installation directory. 
      cd C:\eclipse_oxygen\eclipse
    2. From a command line at the Eclipse installation directory, start Eclipse with the -vm and -clean options. 
      eclipse -vm c:\jdk_80510\jre\bin\javaw.exe -clean
  6. When Eclipse starts, select the workspace to use and then click Launch.

    For example, select C:\eclipse_oxygen_workspace or whatever directory that you made for the workspace. Then, click Launch.

  7. In Eclipse, click Help > Help Contents. The documentation that you copied to the eclipse\plugins directory is shown in the contents.

    For example, WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core (All operating systems), Version 9.0 under Contents is the com.ibm.websphere.wlp.core.doc_9.0.0.jar plugin.

    Documentation in Eclipse
  8. To view the documentation in a browser, right-click a file under Contents and select to open in a new window.

    For example, right-click WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core (All operating systems), Version 9.0 > Open in new window.

    If the Eclipse installation is running on a server that other people can access, you can send them the browser URL so that they also can view the documentation.

    To view a translation, add &lang=** or ?lang=** to the end of the URL and press Enter. For example, to view French, use &lang=fr or ?lang=fr. See the Eclipse documentation for specifics on how to view translations.

    If the translation doesn't display in the Eclipse help, use command files to open and close the documentation.

    1. Locate the org.eclipse.help.base_N.N.N.vNNN.jar file within the C:\eclipse_oxygen\eclipse\plugins directory where N.N.N.vNNN refers to the Eclipse version that you downloaded. For Eclipse Oxygen, the file name is org.eclipse.help.base_4.2.102.v20171130-0510.jar.
    2. In the C:\eclipse_oxygen directory, create a file and name it ic_start.cmd. With a text editor, add the following command to the file. Ensure that the -classpath value specifies the path to the org.eclipse.help.base_N.N.N.vNNN.jar file in your installation. Also, specify the listener port for Eclipse. In this example, the port number is 8680.
      java -classpath eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.help.base_4.2.102.v20171130-0510.jar  org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter -eclipsehome eclipse -port 8680 -command start -noexec -clean
    3. In the C:\eclipse_oxygen directory, create a file and name it ic_stop.cmd. With a text editor, add the following command to the file. Ensure that the -classpath value specifies the path to the org.eclipse.help.base_N.N.N.vNNN.jar file in your installation. 
      java -classpath eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.help.base_4.2.102.v20171130-0510.jar  org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter -eclipsehome eclipse -command shutdown
    4. Run the ic_start.cmd file by double-clicking the file name or run the command from a command line. A command window opens and stays open until you run the ic_stop.cmd file.
    5. When the ic_start.cmd file is running, point your browser to http://localhost:port_number/help/index.jsp to start the documentation on your computer. In this example, the URL is: http://localhost:8680/help/index.jsp
    6. To view a translation, specify a language parameter in the URL.
      1. Select a topic within the documentation you want to view.
      2. Right-click on that topic and select to open the link in a new window or tab. The URL for the new window or tab points to a specific documentation topic.
      3. Add &lang=** or ?lang=** to the end of the URL and press Enter. For example, to view French in Eclipse Oxygen, add &lang=fr to the end of the topic URL and press Enter.
      French documentation in Eclipse

    You can search the documentation. Type a search string in the Search field and click Go. The first time that you search, the indexing takes several minutes to complete. After indexing, searches typically finish within seconds.

View documentation locally in Knowledge Center for z/OS

Procedure

  1. Configure Knowledge Center for z/OS.
  2. Create a subdirectory of /global/kc4z/data/content for the documentation you want to view. For example, for the WebSphere Application Server Liberty for z/OS unversioned documentation, create the /global/kc4z/data/content/wlpzos900 directory. For more information, see Managing product documentation content in Knowledge Center for z/OS.
  3. Download the documentation that you want to view from the server. The downloadable ZIP files contain several documentation JAR, ZIP, or directories. Extract that downloaded ZIP file into the /global/kc4z/data/content subdirectory that you created. The extracted JAR, ZIP, or directories are plugins.

    For example, extract the contents of com.ibm.websphere.wlp.zseries.doc.zip file on the server liberty directory at https://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/webserver/appserv/library/liberty/ into the /global/kc4z/data/content/wlpzos900 directory.

    The com.ibm.websphere.zseries.doc.zip file contains mainly .jar files. The com.ibm.websphere.zseries.doc_9.0.0.jar file is the English WebSphere Application Server Liberty for z/OS unversioned documentation plugin. The com.ibm.websphere.zseries.doc.nl1_9.0.0.jar is the national language, or translated, WebSphere Application Server Liberty for z/OS unversioned documentation plugin. These plugins were used for the documentation at https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SS7K4U_liberty/com.ibm.websphere.wlp.zseries.doc/ae/cwlp_about.html. The other extracted files provide Javadoc, glossary, server configuration and feature (autogen) documentation, and message plugins.

    The names of the plugins are similar to what you see in online documentation URLs. For example, the Liberty Javadoc at https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SS7K4U_liberty/com.ibm.websphere.javadoc.liberty.doc/com.ibm.websphere.appserver.api.json_1.0-javadoc/index.html is in the com.ibm.websphere.javadoc.liberty.doc.jar file and its plugin name is com.ibm.websphere.javadoc.liberty.doc.

  4. Configure the .properties file for your documentation. See Managing product documentation content in Knowledge Center for z/OS.

    The com.ibm.websphere.wlp.zseries.doc.zip file contains 2 .properties files that you can edit and use for Knowledge Center for z/OS. The easier .properties file to use is no_ditamap.properties. For WebSphere Application Server Liberty for z/OS unversioned documentation, set the product value to SS7K4U_liberty and the path value to the directory that contains the plugins, /global/kc4z/data/content/wlpzos900.

    Tip: You can put plugins for all WebSphere Application Server documentation in the /global/kc4z/data/content/wlpzos900 directory and use the no_ditamap.properties file to view documentation for many products.

    The other properties file, SS7K4U_liberty.properties, requires that the /global/kc4z/data/content/wlpzos900 directory contain an as_ditamaps subdirectory that provides product .ditamap files. You can get the files for the as_ditamaps subdirectory from the Liberty_as_ditamaps.zip file or from the Liberty_all_product_doc.zip file on the server. Ensure the SS7K4U_liberty.properties file sets the path value to the directory that contains the plugins. The toc value is already set to the master map.

  5. Configure the KC_taxonomy.ditamap for your documentation. See Managing product documentation content in Knowledge Center for z/OS.

    Ensure that the KC_taxonomy.ditamap contains a subjectdef element for SS7K4U_liberty. The Liberty_properties_files.zip file in the server liberty directory has a KC_taxonomy.ditamap file with subjectdef elements for all WebSphere Application Server products.

  6. Stop and restart the Knowledge Center for z/OS server.
  7. Point a web browser at the http://host_name:9080/zos/knowledgecenter/ URL.