Documentation that is fully integrated is easier and quicker
to search for help topics compared with accessing the information
remotely. If you have local documentation that is in one or more plug-ins,
you can integrate it fully with the CICS Explorer® Help Contents. You can
also integrate documentation from another source; for example, you
can include one or more of the CICS®,
or any other, Information Center plug-ins.
Creating a plug-in
The CICS Explorer is built on the Eclipse open source
platform, which provides an extensible integrated development environment.
Using the Eclipse platform, anyone can build tools that integrate
seamlessly with the environment and other tools. The key to the seamless
integration of tools with Eclipse is the plug-in. With the exception
of a small runtime kernel, everything in Eclipse is a plug-in. A plug-in
that you develop integrates with Eclipse, and so with the CICS Explorer, in exactly
the same way as other plug-ins.
When you create a documentation
plug-in, it is fully integrated with the CICS Explorer, and the contents are displayed
in the Help Contents.
You can create your own documentation
plug-in using the Eclipse Plug-in Development Environment (PDE), which
is available in the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
The Eclipse IDE is open source and can be downloaded from the Eclipse
Web site http://www.eclipse.org.
The documentation explains how to get started, and a cheat sheet provides
step-by-step instructions for creating a plug-in.
Integrating documentation plug-ins
You havetwo
ways to integrate plug-ins in the CICS Explorer
depending on how they are packaged:
- Using the software update function
- If one or more plug-ins are packaged in an Eclipse software update
site, you can use the software updates function in the CICS Explorer to access the site and view the
contents. You can then download one or more plug-ins to your local
copy of CICS Explorer.
This method has advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
- If the source plug-in changes, updates an be downloaded automatically.
- After the download, the plug-in is stored on your local machine
and always available.
Disadvantages:
- Downloading can take a long time depending on the number of plug-ins
and their sizes.
- Internet access might be required for remote software download
sites.
- Using a link file
- If you have access to one or more plug-ins either on your local
machine, on a network drive, or on a CD, you can create a file in
the CICS Explorer Links directory
that points to the plug-ins. The plug-ins are integrated when the CICS Explorer starts and they are
displayed in the Help Contents. This method has advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
- Plug-ins can be managed centrally and accessed by multiple users.
- Different directories can contain different plug-ins. For example,
one directory can contain only message plug-ins, and another can contain
messages and CICS RDO plug-ins.
- Multiple link files can be used, each one pointing to a different
directory of plug-ins.
Disadvantages:
- If the plug-in is stored remotely and the network connection is
lost, the documentation cannot be displayed in the CICS Explorer.
- When the network connection to a remote plug-in is restored, the CICS Explorer must be restarted
to show the documentation.