Setting the search scope

When you perform a search, the default is to search only the local help contents. You can expand the search scope to search a remote information center, the Web, or an intranet site with an internal search facility.

Before you begin

To search a remote information center, or the Web, you must perform the search from the search pane in the dynamic Help view. To set the search scope, perform the following steps.

  1. Open the search pane in the dynamic Help view by clicking Help > Search from the workbench menu bar, or by pressing the keyboard help key (F1 on Windows or Ctrl-F1 on Linux) and then clicking the search link at the bottom of the Help view.
  2. Click the Default link below the search field to change the current scope set.
    Search field and link to changing current scope
    The Select Search Scope Sets window is displayed.
    Select Search Scope Sets window
  3. Click New... and the New Scope Set dialog is displayed.
  4. Enter the name by which you want your new scope to be known, for example IBM Boulder information center, or Web search and click OK. The new scope is now displayed in the window with the default scope.
  5. Select the new scope and click Edit to display the Search Scope dialog.
    Search Scope dialog
    By default, the only search type is Local Help, indicated in the left pane of the dialog.
  6. Click New to add a new search engine type, click Info Center or Web depending on which one you are adding, and then click Finish. You now have a second search type in the Search Scope dialog but the URL field is blank.
  7. Add the search URL for the site selected:
    • For an information center, do not include the index.jsp suffix. For example, the URL for the IBM CICS 3.2 information center in Boulder is http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/cicsts/v3r2/
    • For a Web search, enter the search URL for the search engine you are using. Here are the search URLs for some common search engines that you can copy and paste into your search scope:

      Google: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q={expression}&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

      Yahoo: http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p={expression}&fr=yfp-t-501&ei=UTF-8&rd=r1

      MSN: http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q={expression}&FORM=MSNH11

      Click Apply.

    • For an intranet search, enter the search URL for the search engine on your intranet site. If you are not sure what the URL is, you can typically find it using the following method:
      • Perform a search on your intranet site using the text TEST.
      • When the results are displayed, the address bar should contain a string similar to this one: http://your.organisation.com/search/do/search?qt=TEST&x=10&y=12&url=
      • Copy and paste the string into the URL template field in the Search Scope dialog, replacing the search word TEST with {expression} so you end up with this string: http://your.organisation.com/search/do/search?qt={expression}&x=10&y=12&url=.
      Click Apply.
    When you perform a search, your search argument is passed to the search engine in the {expression} value.
  8. Optional. You can limit the scope to certain parts of the information center by clicking Search only the following topics. When you do this, the contents of the information center chosen are displayed, and you can select the ones to include in your searches by clicking the boxes next to the contents.
    Search Scope dialog showing limited scope
  9. Optional. You now have two or three search engine types defined in your new scope, Local Help and Info Center, as shown in the left pane. Any search you perform now will search both the local help contents and the remote information center. If you want to restrict this scope to search only the remote information center, then select Local Help and click in the Enable search engine box to remove the check mark and disable the Local Help search engine.
  10. Click OK to save your settings, and click OK again to save your new scope.
What to do next

The search scope has now been changed to your new scope. To return to the default search scope, click the search scope link, select Default in the Select Search Scope Sets window, and click OK.

Related tasks
Setting help display preferences
Related reference
Help view