# Using WebLogic Workshop Help

This topic covers the following areas:

- Online and Local Help
- Updating Local Help
- Third-party Help
- Searching Help
- Using F1 to Access Context-sensitive Help
- Help Preferences

## Online and Local Help

The WebLogic Workshop help system is available from two locations:

- online BEA documentation server(s)
- your local disk

When you access the help system from the WebLogic Workshop IDE, the version that is displayed depends on the current user's help preferences. The default value is "BEA Documentation Server".

When you use the WebLogic Workshop Help search feature you are either searching the online content or the local content, depending on which help system you are currently viewing.

You can tell which help system is currently displayed by looking at the help system banner. The banner displays one of:

or

### Switching Between Online and Local Help

To set the help preferences, select Tools->IDE Properties..., then the Help panel. Under "WebLogic Workshop Help Location", select one of the values "BEA Documentation Server" or "Local Disk".

The easiest way to switch between the online and local help systems is to modify the help preference and then "re-launch" the help system by pressing Shift-F1 in the WebLogic Workshop IDE or by using the Help menu on the WebLogic Workshop IDE menu bar.

You may also bookmark the root of either help system.

- The URL of the online help system is:

  http://edocs.bea.com/workshop/docs81/workshop/help/doc/<LOCALE>/core/index.html

  where LOCALE is en by default.

- The URL of the local help system is:

  file://<BEA_HOME>/workshop/help/doc/<LOCALE>/core/index.html

  where BEA_HOME is your WebLogic Platform installation directory (typically /c:/bea on Microsoft Windows systems) and LOCALE is en by default.

## Updating Local Help Content

A snapshot of the WebLogic Workshop help content is is packaged with the WebLogic Platform installer and is copied to your local disk when you install WebLogic Platform. However, the online help content will continue to be updated well after the packaging of any particular WebLogic Platform release.

You may update your local help content at any time by downloading and installing fresh help content from the BEA documentation server. To do so, go to the Product Documentation Download Page.

## Third-party Help

As you use WebLogic Workshop, you will probably install third-party Java controls or IDE extensions. Each of these may be packaged with help content from the Java control or extension's vendor. When you install a third-party control or IDE extension, any vendor-supplied help will be integrated with your local help content. Note that third-party help is not integrated with the online help content.

If the help preference is configured to display online help, the context-sensitive help (F1) capability of the WebLogic Workshop IDE will attempt to locate help for the currently selected entity both online and on the local disk. If you press F1 while on the class name of an installed third-party control, for example, the help system will display content on that control from the local help system if such help is available. Note that the help system that is launched by such an F1 request is displaying local help even though the configuration calls for online help.

## Searching Help

The WebLogic Workshop help system includes a full-text search feature. The feature is implemented differently for the online and local help. The online help uses a server-based search engine and the local help uses a client-based search engine. Thus, the same search performed in the online and local help may yield different results.

Since third-party help is only available in the local help, searches in online help will never yield results for third-party help unless the third-party help is shipped with WebLogic Platform.

## Using F1 to Access Context-sensitive Help

You may use the F1 key to access context-sensitive help in the WebLogic Workshop IDE. F1 help is supported on most entities in Design View, Source View and the Property Editor. The F1 feature will attempt to locate the most specific help available for the currently selected entity. For Java classes, the F1 feature will attempt to walk up the object's class and interface hierarchy and present the first available class topic it encounters.

## Help Preferences

You may configure various aspects of WebLogic Workshop help:

- The browser used to display help may be set in the Tools->IDE Properties... dialog on the Browser panel.
- Several help settings may be configured in the Tools->IDE Properties... dialog on the Help panel, including:
  - whether to use online or local help by default
  - the location of Javadoc for BEA APIs
  - the location of Javadoc for the J2SE and J2EE APIs
  - the location of HTML tag documentation

Related Topics

Search Tips: BEA Documentation Server

Search Tips: Local Documentation Set