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Description of DOCTOPIC

Download count: 18 this month, 2605 altogether.

Downloads for DOCTOPIC:
VMARC archive: v-180K

DOCTOPIC - Simple text-only web book server for VM/CMS

Recent changes:

  • 1997-11-22 Handle bookshelves created on other platforms.
  • 1997-10-30 Handle bookshelves created on MVS (using DSN parameters).
  • 1997-10-04 Speed up search by using LOCATE ANYCASE if supported.
  • 1997-10-01 Support bookshelf selection based on words in shelf title.
  • 1997-09-25 Add search function for indexed bookshelf.
  • 1997-09-13 Resolve document numbers using library catalog if present.
  • 1997-09-12 List shelf using BKINDEX file if no BKSHELFx file found.
  • 1997-09-10 Add support for BookManager public library catalog search.
  • 1997-08-15 Add support for displaying index topics.
  • 1997-07-31 LE/370 support fix (corresponding to READ/VM fix GC05334).
  • 1997-07-30 Put IBMBK000 catalog disk first in titles to help IBMers.
  • 1997-07-29 Add support for pure LE/370 environment.
  • 1997-07-29 Add DOCBKISH tool for recreating BKSHELF from BKINDEX.
  • 1997-07-29 Add text on how to use search field when showing contents.
  • 1997-07-29 Suppress PICTURE links (because they are not supported).
  • 1997-07-28 Added book title search facility to DOCSHELF.
  • 1997-07-28 Provide "Forward" and "Backward" links for easier navigation.
  • 1997-07-28 Changed DOCNUMS method so it's now about twice as fast.
  • 1997-07-25 Include book title and copyright header on every topic.
  • 1997-07-24 New DOCSHELF bookshelf interface for hierarchical access.

The DOCTOPIC package provides web access to on-line books stored in BookManager format on CMS disks, using a VM/CMS web server such as Webshare. It extracts each requested topic from the book using functions from BookManager READ/VM (which must be available) and converts it to HTML format for viewing via a web browser. The main functions available when viewing a book are similar to those in the book viewing function of the IBM BookManager BookServer range of products, with some limitations, for example it cannot display pictures.

DOCTOPIC itself normally requires that the book to be displayed is identified by its disk or directory nickname and file name. Books registered in the BookManager public library catalog can also be accessed by file name or document number. A program included with DOCTOPIC can optionally be used to create tables to allow access by document number to books not defined in the public library catalog.

The DOCTOPIC package also includes DOCSHELF which lists the available book disks, the bookshelves on a selected disk or all books within a selected shelf. It can also search the bookshelves for books with titles matching specified keywords. If a BookManager public library is active, it can list books and shelves from the public library catalogs without requiring a specific disk name.

DOCTOPIC requires BookManager READ/VM, a recent level of CMS Pipelines (1.1.9, or the equivalent level supplied with VM/ESA V2) and a VM/CMS web server. The server machine should have a generous virtual storage size to allow processing of large topics (say at least 32M). DOCTOPIC may have other dependencies which I haven't spotted. If you find one, please let me know. See the README file for more details.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please let me know.

Jonathan Scott - IBM Hursley, UK
E-mail: jonathan_scott@vnet.ibm.com