Chapter 22: Making documents available to the network

Table of contents

Chapter 22

Making documents available to the network

SCOhelp uses an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) server (scohttp(ADM)) to find and display HTML (HyperText Markup Language) documents in the SCOhelp window.

This means that you can write your own documents and make them available to your local network and that you can configure one machine on your local network as a document server for the other machines. You do this by creating HTML documents and making them accessible to scohttpd.

This chapter describes how to serve documents to the network and how to configure one system as a help document server.

See also:

Using a homepage to serve documents to a local network

To serve documents to a local network (assuming you have already created them) you must: 

  1. Create a homepage.

  2. Configure scohttpd to serve your homepage to the local network.
Home pages are special HTML documents that SCOhelp displays at startup (if help is started from the desktop icon or from a UNIX command line). Home pages provide hyperlinks to any document that you want to make available to your network.

To create a homepage, use a text editor (for example, emacs or vi) to create your own HTML document (see Chapter 3, ``Writing HTML documents'' in Using Help) or customize the sample homepage in Using Help found in /usr/lib/scohelp/XHelp/sample.html.

After you have created your homepage, configure the help server (scohttp) to use it.

To configure the help server, complete the following steps:

  1. Log in as root.

  2. Move your homepage to your document root (the directory you want to make available to the network). By default, the document root is /usr/lib/scohelp. If you want to use the default directory, move your new homepage to /usr/lib/scohelp and skip to step 12. If you want to change the default directory, complete steps 3 through 11.

    WARNING: If you want access to the SCO Documentation Library, do not change the document root. To use your own homepage while retaining access to the help library, move your homepage to /usr/lib/scohelp and skip to step 12.

  3. Change directories to /var/scohttpd/conf.

  4. Open srm.conf.

  5. Find the line defining DocumentRoot. This is the directory out of which you serve your help documents. The line resembles the following: 
       DocumentRoot /usr/lib/scohelp

  6. Change this directory to the new name. For example, if you want to serve documents from the directory /usr/local/documents, you would add the following line: 
       DocumentRoot /usr/local/documents

  7. Save the file and exit.

  8. Open access.conf.

  9. Find the following line: 
       <Directory /usr/lib/scohelp>

  10. Replace this directory pathname with the one used by DocumentRoot in srm.conf. In the above example, this line would be the following: 
       <Directory /usr/local/documents>

  11. Save the file and exit.

  12. Change directories to /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults.

  13. Open ScoHelp and search for the following line: 
       *homeDocument:                       http://localhost/dochome
    Change *homeDocument to reflect your new homepage. For example, if your new homepage file is called myhome.html, the line would look like this. 
       *homeDocument:                       http://localhost/myhome.html

    NOTE: If you change the homeDocument resource and still want access to the Help library (/usr/lib/scohelp/dochome.html) on your homepage, make sure you create a hyperlink to dochome.html on your new homepage (there are also links to the library on the Navigate menu and the toolbar).

  14. Save the file and exit.

  15. Start and stop the help server (scohttp) by issuing the commands:

    scohttp stop
    scohttp start

  16. To test your configuration, issue the command:

    scohelp

    SCOhelp should start with your new homepage displayed in the SCOhelp window.

See also:

Configuring a help document server system

By default, all SCO graphical systems have a help library (located in /usr/lib/scohelp and /usr/man) and a help server (scohttp). Because the document set is quite large (over 40 MB), you may want to use one machine as a help server for the other machines on your local network.

To do this, configure scohelp(XC) on client Systems to use scohttp(ADM) (the help server daemon) on the help document server system. This section explains how to set up help server systems.

The configuration process assumes that you have installed and are running TCP/IP and that you have installed the SCO documentation components on the machine you want to use as a help document server system.

To configure a scohelp client system to use a remote help server, see ``Using scohelp with a remote help server'' and ``Using context-sensitive help on a document server system''.

To learn more about help or the help server, see



CAUTION: If, at any future point, you update all or part of your SCO server or client systems, you may create an incompatibility between the documentation version and the release number of the installed software. The amount of incompatibility will vary depending upon the changes in the software updated.

For more information on installing or configuring TCP/IP or the help server or document set, see:

Using scohelp with a remote help server

To use SCOhelp with a document server, you must configure SCOhelp to use the server, and then make sure that context sensitive help will work.

See also:

Configuring SCOhelp to use a remote server

To configure scohelp on a given SCO system to use a remote help server, complete the following steps.

For the purposes of this procedure, we assume three things:

CAUTION: This procedure sets helpcli.sco.com to use a remote help server by default. Individual users can override the system default in /$HOME/.Xdefaults files.

  1. Log in as root.

  2. If scohttp is installed and you no longer intend to use it locally, disable scohttp by entering:

    scohttp disable

  3. With your ASCII editor, open /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/ScoHelp.

  4. Find the following X resource definitions: 
       *documentServer:		http://localhost
   *homeDocument:			http://localhost/dochome

  5. Change them to read: 
       *documentServer:		http://helpsrv.sco.com:457
   *homeDocument:			http://helpsrv.sco.com:457/dochome

    NOTE: These settings assume the default resource configuration on the server. For more information about X resources, see Chapter 5, ``Understanding resources'' in the Graphical Environment Guide. For more information on scohelp resources, see the manual page for scohelp(XC).

  6. Log on as root to helpsrv.sco.com and enter scohttp query. If the server is running the output should resemble the following: 
       Scohttp is currently running.
   Scohttp is enabled.
    If it is not running, see scohttp(ADM).

  7. Start help on helpcli.sco.com by entering scohelp at a SCOterm UNIX command line. If the help library appears, you have correctly configured helpcli.sco.com to use the help libraries on helpsrv.sco.com. If it does not, check to make sure you followed the steps correctly.

  8. After completing this procedure, make sure that context-sensitive help works on helpcli.sco.com by pressing <F1> with the cursor in any graphical application. If help for that application appears, context-sensitive help is working. If the an error message or the Documentation Library appears see ``Using context-sensitive help on a document server system''.

Using context-sensitive help on a document server system

For context-sensitive help to work on machines using a help server, a set of configuration files called ``hook'' files must be installed on the local machine (the machine running the application requesting help). Hook files tell SCOhelp which help files to display if it receives a context-sensitive help request. By default, hook files are installed on every system when you install the Online Documentation packages.

If you are using a documentation server, you may not have installed all (or any of) the Online Documentation packages. If you are not sure, or if you have configured a document server and context-sensitive help does not work, complete the following procedure.

For the purposes of this procedure, we assume that the server machine name is helpsrv.sco.com. and the client machine name is helpcli.sco.com.

  1. Log on as root to helpsrv.sco.com.

  2. Change directories to /tmp.

  3. Issue the following hook file archive command:

    arhk -f filename

    where filename is any name you choose.

  4. arhk creates a file in /tmp named /tmp/filename.cpio.

  5. Open an ftp connection to the help client machine using the following command:

    ftp helpcli.sco.com

  6. After you log in, change directories to /tmp.

  7. Issue the following command:

    put filename.cpio

  8. After the file transfer is complete, exit ftp and log in as root on helpcli.sco.com.

  9. Change directories to /tmp.

  10. Make sure that filename.cpio is in the directory and issue the following command:

    cpio -ivd <filename.cpio

  11. cpio creates the appropriate directories and copies the hook files into them.

  12. Verify that the hook files are now in the correct directories using the following command:

    ls /usr/lib/scohelp/*/*.hk

    Your output should look like this: 

       /usr/lib/scohelp/GECG/GECG.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/HANDBOOK/HANDBOOK.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/MailMsgG/MailMsgG.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/NetAdminG/NetAdminG.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/NetConfigG/NetConfigG.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/OSAdminG/OSAdminG.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/VidConfigG/VidConfigG.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/XCalHelp/XCalHelp.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/XDeskHelp/XDeskHelp.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/XEditHelp/XEditHelp.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/XHelp/XHelp.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/XMailHelp/XMailHelp.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/XPaintHelp/XPaintHelp.hk
   /usr/lib/scohelp/XTermHelp/XTermHelp.hk
    If it does, you have successfully transferred the hook files to the client machine.

  13. After completing this procedure, verify that context-sensitive help works on helpcli.sco.com by pressing <F1> with the cursor inside any graphical application.

    If help for that application appears, context-sensitive help is working. If the an error message appears make sure you have configured the client correctly. See ``Configuring SCOhelp to use a remote server'' for more information.

    If the Documentation Library appears, make sure you have completed this procedure correctly, and then make sure that the graphical application you tested is installed on the help server.

    If the graphical application is not installed on the server, install it. Make sure you install the documentation if you are asked.

    If the procedures have been completed correctly and the graphical application is installed on the server system, make sure that scohttp is set up correctly on the server system.

See also: