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Solaris 7 (SPARC Platform Edition) Installation Library

Getting Started

To view online documentation using the AnswerBook2 system, you need an HTML 3.2-compatible browser (such as HotJavaTM, Netscape NavigatorTM, or LynxTM), and access to a documentation server (a URL that identifies a machine on which the document collections are installed and which runs a web-based server to deliver them to you). For more information, choose from the following:

For detailed information about using the AnswerBook2 product or administering a documentation server, use the AnswerBook2 Help once you have a documentation server to access.

Do I Need to Install Anything?

The following table indicates what you need to do or install to provide specific AnswerBook2 functionality.

Table 8-1 When and What to Install
 If you want to do this... Then do this...
 View online documentation from your desktop (any platform, any operating environment).Start a web browser and enter the documentation server's URL (for example, http://imaserver:8888/). See "Launching the AnswerBook2 Viewer".
 Automatically launch a web browser with the appropriate server URL from your desktop.If you are running the Solaris 7 operating environment, identify a documentation server and select the AnswerBook2 option from the CDE Help menu or the OpenWindowsTM Programs menu. See "Launching the AnswerBook2 Viewer".
 Enable your system (machine) to deliver (serve) documentation.Install the documentation server software from the Solaris 7 Documentation CD. See "Installing Documentation Server Software".
 Add documentation from the Solaris 7 Documentation CD or other locations to your document server.The document administrator is the only user authorized to perform this function. See "To Install Document Collections Onto the Server".

Launching the AnswerBook2 Viewer

The system launches a web browser with the URL for the document server if you are running the Solaris 2.6 (or later version) operating environment and you either:

The system determines the web browser to launch by searching your path and launching Netscape NavigatorTM or the first web browser it finds. For information on how the system determines the URL for the documentation server, see "Finding a Documentation Server".

You can also access the AnswerBook2 product from any HTML 3.2-compliant web browser. Start your web browser and enter the appropriate documentation server URL. For example, if your system administrator installed an AnswerBook2 documentation server on the system imaserver using the default port number, you would type the URL: http://imaserver:8888/

Viewing Information

Once you have launched the AnswerBook2 viewer, you click on underlined text (depending on how your browser is configured to display its links) to navigate to a book or chapter. For more information about how to navigate through the AnswerBook2 system, see the AnswerBook2 Help.

Finding a Documentation Server

When you launch the AnswerBook2 viewer from the Solaris operating environment, the software displays a list of collections installed on the default documentation server. The default server is identified using the following mechanisms in this sequence:

  1. If you have defined the environment variable AB2_DEFAULTSERVER the AnswerBook2 viewer launches using the URL defined by that variable.

    For example, you might have the following line in your .cshrc file:


    setenv AB2_DEFAULTSERVER http://imaserver.eng.sun.com:8888/

  2. If the machine from which you initiated the AnswerBook2 function is a documentation server, the AnswerBook2 viewer launches using the URL: http://localhost:port

    Where port is the port number on which the documentation server is running and defaults to 8888.

  3. If your document administrator has registered the AnswerBook2 server with FNS (Federated Naming Service), the AnswerBook2 viewer uses the URL of the registered server.

If you have no document servers available and you have Internet access, you can also access Sun's master document server at: http://docs.sun.com/