Installing local HTML help

This topic explains how to install local HTML help when the BMC Network Automation server is in a secured environment and you cannot access the online documentation via a web browser. This topic contains the following sections:

The <BCAN_INSTALL>\public\bmc\bca-networks\extras\ directory contains the bcan-localhelp-<versionNumber>.zip file. The unzipped bcan-localhelp folder contains the following files:

  • README.txt : Text file that contains instructions about how to use the localhelp
  • help.properties: Properties file that must be installed on the BMC Network Automation server
  • bna-html-localhelp.zip: Zip archive containing the localhelp folder that must be installed on a web server
Warning

Do not install the local HTML Help on the web server on which BMC Network Automation is installed. Instead, install the local HTML Help on another local web server.

To install local HTML Help on another web server

  1. Copy the bcan-localhelp-<versionNumber>.zip file located in the <BCAN_INSTALL>\public\bmc\bca-networks\extras\ folder on the computer on which BMC Network Automation is installed to a custom directory on the other web server.
  2. Unzip the bcan-localhelp-<versionNumber>.zip file in the folder you specified in step 1.
  3. In the extracted bcan-localhelp-<versionNumber> directory, navigate to the bcan-localhelp directory.
  4. Unzip the bna-html-localhelp.zip file.
  5. Copy the localhelp directory to the Home directory on the web server.

    For example, on a Windows computer with default Tomcat 7.0 installation, CATALINA_HOME= C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 7.0.
  6. Verify that the localhelp is accessible by browsing to http://<server>:<port>/<path>/localhelp/bna<version>/index.html.
    • <server>: Specifies the name of your web server
    • <port>: Specifies the is the port used by your web server
    • <path>: Specifies optional path information if the localhelp directory is not present in the root of the web server
    • <version>: Specifies the two digit version of BMC Network Automation, for example, "88" for BMC Network Automation 8.8.00

       For example:http://myserver:80/localhelp/bna88/index.html

Note

Local help is implemented by using JSP. Therefore, if you have an IIS server, you must update the web.config file to configure the allowDoubleEscaping parameter because by default IIS does not allow URLs with ‘+’ signs. For details, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942076.

<system.webServer>
 <security>
   <requestFiltering allowDoubleEscaping="true" />
 </security>
</system.webServer>

To configure the BMC Network Automation web server to use local HTML Help

  1. Copy the help.properties file to your BMC Network Automation server's <BNA-DATA> directory.

    For example,
    1. On Windows: C:\bca-networks-data\help.properties
    2. On Linux: /var/bca-networks-data/help.properties

  2. Modify the help.properties file as follows:
    1. Set the helpUseLocal property to true as follows: helpUseLocal=true
    2. Set the helpResolverURL property to your web server. For example:
      helpResolverURL=http://myserver:80/localhelp/bna88/urlresolver.html?product={0}&version={1}&topic={2}&lang={3}
  3. Restart the BMC Network Automation web server.

Note

The following functionality might not be available in the local HTML Help:

  • Navigating to tabs and sorting tables
  • Hyperlinks pointing to sections or headings within a page or another page
  • Expanding and collapsing content

 

Tip: For faster searching, add an asterisk to the end of your partial query. Example: cert*