AIX Version 4.3 System User's Guide: Operating System and Devices

Chapter 13. Documentation Search Service

Introduction

The documentation search service allows you to search online HTML documents. It provides a search form that you can use from your web browser to type the text you want to find. A search results page displays the results of the search with links to the documents containing the search target words.

Two types of forms are provided: a global search form that shows all the volumes installed on a search server, and a specific search form that just searches a specific set of volumes such as the manuals for an application.

The documentation search service allows you to search documents that have been registered with the search service. Registration is done by the system administrator. You cannot search the internet or any unregistered documents on your search server.

If you write HTML documents at your site, your system administrator can add these documents to the global search form or create specific search forms that just search those HTML documents.

Using the Documentation Search Service

To perform a search:

Open one of the following search forms:
- To open your system's default global search form, do one of the following:
  - Type docsearch at the command line.
  - Open the CDE Desktop Help subpanel. Click on the documentation search service icon (it looks like binoculars).
- To open the global search form for a non-default search server, type:
```
http://<server_name>:[<port_number>]/cgi-bin/ds_form
```
  into your browser's URL field. This opens the global search form to search the documents stored on the server with the name you specified in <server_name>.
  Note: You only need to type the <port_number> if the port is not the standard 80.
  For example, if you want to search the registered documents on a search server named "einstein" and it uses port 80, type:
```
http://einstein/cgi-bin/ds_form
```
  Once the search form for a server appears in your browser, you can create a bookmark that takes you back to the server. Your system administrator can also create a web page that contains links to all the different documentation servers in an organization.
  The AIX documentation is also available for reading and searching at the internet site www.rs6000.ibm.com/aix/library. Note that while this site contains the AIX manuals, it may not contain other documentation installed on your local documentation server.
- Specific search forms are usually launched from search links inside HTML documents. They typically appear on the pages of applications manuals or help files. For example, a "search" link is on each page in the AIX library. Clicking on one of these search links launches a specific search form that allows you to search just the AIX library volumes.
In the Search for: fields, type one or more words to search on. If you type a word into more than one field, click on the and button between the entry fields to select the type of search from the displayed list.
Select the number of matches you want to see on each results page. Click on the 20 items per results page button and select from the displayed list.
Select the volumes you want to search. Click on the checkbox next to each volume name displayed. By default, all volumes are searched unless you specify otherwise.
To start the search, click on the Search button.

The Search Form

This section describes the various parts of the search form.


Search for:	Type one or more words into the Search for: entry fields. Use the radio buttons described below to select the kind of search you want to perform. The search is not case-sensitive and punctuation is ignored. If you type more than one word into a field, a phrase search is performed. This means that all the words in the field must appear as one continuous string within the documents specified as the search target. Depending on how your system administrator configured the search program, very short words, articles (for example, a, an), and common words (for example, the) may be ignored during the search.
and	Select the and button to search only documents that contain words on both sides of the and. For example, `dog` and `cat` in the search field produces a list of documents containing both dog and cat. If either of the two words is not in a document, no match will be found.
or	Select the or button to search any document that contains the search words on either side of the or. For example, `dog` or `cat` in the search field produces a list of documents containing either or both dog and cat.
not	Select the not button to search only documents that contain the word to the right of the not. For example, `dog` not `cat` in the search field produces a list of documents containing dog, but not cat.
Items per Results Page	Click on the Items per Results Page button to select the number of matches that you want to see on each Results Page. If more matches are found than the number you specified, the extra matches display on the next Results Page. To view the next page, press Next Page at the bottom of the Results Page.
Select All	Click on the Select All button to select and search all listed volumes. This is the default selection in the Search Form.
Deselect All	Click on the Deselect All button to unselect the currently selected volumes so that you can select only specific volumes to search.
Search All	Click on the Search All button to select and search all listed volumes. This button performs the same function as the Select All button and only displays if your browser does not support JavaScript or if JavaScript is disabled.
Search Selected	Click on the Search Selected button to search only the selected volumes. This button displays only if your browser does not support JavaScript or if JavaScript is disabled.
Volume #1	Click on the Volume # checkbox to select that document index for searching. Each volume may contain one or more documents.
Language Selector	Click on Language Selector, which appears in the top right corner of the entry fields section, to change the search form to another language. Only languages that have documents registered and installed will show up in the list. If no other languages are available, the selector will not appear. To change languages, click on the language field and select the other language, then click on the Go button.

To cancel the search before it is completed, use your browser's cancel download function.

The Results Page

This section describes the various parts of the Results Page.


Entry Fields	The top of the results page displays the top part of the search form that generated the results list so that you can easily perform another search.
List of Matches	Displays the list of documents that matched the words you entered in the search fields. The stars to the left of each document indicate how closely the document matched the search words. Next to each listed document is its URL. Depending on how the volume was created, the first header in the document may appear after a hyphen to the right of the document title. If you want to read the document, click on the title. The document opens in the browser window. Some browsers allow you to place the mouse pointer over the title, click the right mouse button, and select an Open in New Window choice to open the document in a separate window.
Next Page	Select the Next Page button to go to the next results page.
Previous	Select the Previous button to go to the previous results page.
Start Over	Click on Start Over to take you back to the first search form. Use this if you want to change which documents are being searched. It will also clear the contents of the search text entry fields.

How to Change the AIX Documentation Language

By default, when you open the CDE Desktop icons for the AIX Documentation Search Service or the AIX Base Library, the documents that are displayed appear in the same language as your CDE Desktop.

However, there may be reasons that you want to see the documentation in a language that is different than your desktop language. For example, you may run your desktop in your native language, but the manuals may only be available in English. You can change your documentation language so that documents appear in a different language than that used in your desktop.

Note: These techniques do not affect the language used if you are opening a document or search form from an HTML link inside another document. These techniques only affect the language used for the AIX Documentation Search Service or the AIX Base Library desktop icons.

Note: Make sure there is documentation installed for the language you want to use.

You can change your documentation language by running the following command:

/usr/bin/chdoclang <locale>

where <locale> is replaced by the AIX locale name that will be the new language for viewing and searching documentation. Locale names can be found in the AIX Locale Naming Conventions table.

Note: You must log out and then log back in to see the language change take effect.

Note: If you are using the CDE Desktop, you must also edit your Desktop file $HOME/.dtprofile so that your documentation language setting in your $HOME/.profile file will be read during CDE login. To do this, complete the following steps:
Open your .dtprofile file in an editor by typing:
dtpad $HOME/.dtprofile
Find the line that contains this text:
DTSOURCEPROFILE=true
If there are any # (comment) characters at the start of that line, delete just the # characters, not the entire line. If there are no # characters, you can just close the editor.

Save your changed .dtprofile file.
You are now ready to log out and log back in.

For example, if you want to change your documentation language to Spanish (es_ES), type the following command:

/usr/bin/chdoclang es_ES

Then log out and log back in to your desktop.

After you change your documentation language, you can delete the language setting so that documentation will again appear in the same language as your desktop. To delete your language setting, type the following command:

/usr/bin/chdoclang -d

Then log out and log back in to your desktop.