topic Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website in Operating System - HP-UX

Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Hemanth Gurunath Basrur — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 10:39:18 GMT

Hello folks,

Can you please give your feedback about the HP Technical Documentation Website - http://docs.hp.com?

Thanks,
Hemanth

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Pete Randall — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 10:41:38 GMT

Hemanth,

Very useful, even extremely valuable, but very difficult to find what you need.

Pete

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Mark Greene_1 — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 10:43:33 GMT

The search engine is a bit quirky. Doesn't seem to support quotes or +/- ala google, so it may take few tries to find what you want. There's quite a bit out there, so it's definitely worth the effort to deal with.

mark

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Helen French — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 10:47:10 GMT

I agree with Mark and Pete. It has a lot of useful information, but the search engine is not very good. The search will give you the one which you don't need. But if you use it very often, you will learn how to use it properly.

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Steven E. Protter — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 10:48:29 GMT

I think docs.hp.com is a great site.

A complaint: We post links to docs here in itrc threads all the time. HP moves the document and the link goes bad. What HP should do is migrate the click to the new location of the document.

That only takes two lines of html code.

SEP

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Patrick Wallek — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 10:50:36 GMT

I wholeheartedly agree that the site is VERY VERY useful. There is tons of documentation there.

I also wholeheartedly agree that it can be very difficult to find exactly what you need.

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Jeff Schussele — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 10:53:12 GMT

Ditto

Jeff

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Marco Santerre — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 11:00:05 GMT

I too find it very useful, though difficult to find anything.

I'd also like to add that if HP is going to have one repository for its manual, that it would be nice if it would include all docs for all products (eg. Openview as well)

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Keith Bevan_1 — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 11:10:57 GMT

Hemanth,

I have used it infrequently so a bit difficult to give a fair reflection on the site. That said, I did find the content very informative and usefl, when eventually located.

Site is probably guilty of holding too much information making it difficult to locate.

Keith

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Uday_S_Ankolekar — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 11:30:08 GMT

Hemanth,

I find it very very useful. Little patience needed while looking for the documents he/she wishes to refer. Search engine is also needs little perfaction. Over all it's "The" place for any documentation related to HP.
HP's knowledge base site is also has very useful documentations. I refer knowlege base for any troubleshooting purpose but for any new implementation I refer doc site.
I have a question to you .. whay's your feedback about this site.:)

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Paula J Frazer-Campbell — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 11:47:49 GMT

Hi

Good site, but as said before search can be poor, I would love a search within a search on this site as well as the forum site.

Paula

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Hemanth Gurunath Basrur — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 12:02:36 GMT

Hello Uday,

Here goes my feedback.

The look & feel of the http://docs.hp.com Website has improved and looks good. It does contain wealth of information about HP-UX products. Besides, the Website provides documentation in various languages.

Yes, I agree that the search engine has to be improved. Also, when I search for a particular HP document on some other search engine, say Yahoo, the results does not show the document from docs.hp.com. No idea, why?

Regards,
Hemanth

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

John Payne_2 — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 12:48:56 GMT

The docs there are very useful. I have to concur with what others have said. Sometimes (for me just sometimes) it is a little difficult to find what you want, but you get what you are looking for, life is sweet...

John

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Judy Traynor — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 15:17:18 GMT

Break it out by OS version to start with, and provide a refined search function under that.
I have never had a problem finding something that I need there, but honestly, do not look there very much.

I would be interested in seeing links that date back to the 9.x OS, and 10.20, as we support some programs that still run that old stuff.

The document on NFS, for example is different on 10.20 as 11.00, and varies across the platforms.

Refining the search Criteria (sysadm, developer, general user, just browsing) so that the hit scores reflect the target audience would be a winner, IMO

Thanks.

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Karthik S S — Sat, 20 Dec 2003 09:47:43 GMT

It is simply a GREAT site ... I feel if they can integrate the Product specific documents under docs.hp.com it will really be useful.

All the product specific information libraries are available under http://hp.com/products/../../XYZ.html

For instance XP512 specific docs are available at,
http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/products/disk_arrays/highend/xp512/infolibrary/index.html

which makes an ordinary person like me difficult to search. Instead everything should be put under the same tree - docs.hp.com.

-Karthik S S

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Geoff Wild — Sat, 20 Dec 2003 13:38:30 GMT

We use it a lot at work.

It's well laid out and the searching actually works!

The "high availability" section is a must for any one using MC/ServiceGuard.

Thanks...Geoff

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Jeff Schussele — Sat, 20 Dec 2003 13:57:10 GMT

Hi Hemanth,

Ok, since you seem to want quantity over content.

Yes - It's an invaluable resource, to the extent that I don't even keep hard copies anymore.

BUT - the search engine NEEDS a ton of work!
I know the optimal patterns, but I seriously doubt the novice user does. And manual searches flat-out suck. For EX tell me - quickly - where is the APA manual or how do I construct the proper search? And the SD-UX manual? There are NO direct links to these & numerous others from the "main" pages!!
Fix this nonsense & you'll be miles down the road to Optimum City.

My $0.02,
Jeff

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Bill Hassell — Sat, 20 Dec 2003 14:33:01 GMT

docs.hp.com has always been a welcome change from 'purchase only' manuals in the past. However, some documents have been moved to docs.hp.com from a legacy location never to be found again. The most notable is the loss of the white papers that were located in /usr/share/doc. For example, what happened to the very useful proc_mgt.txt white paper? A search through the ITRC Forums will show that a large number of questions concerning memory and process management are posted every month, all needing the three docs: proc_mgt.txt, mem_mgt.txt and mem_wndws.txt. The only way to find these useful docs is to know the partnumber, something is impossible to know without reading the document.

What is needed is a white paper table so these useful docs can easily located. Alternatively, the docs need a special tag called white-papers o searches for common words will be limited to just the whaite paper category.

And just a not for the tech writers: most of the white papers are identified as 10.xx and have not been updated for several years. Sorting through the dates on the files show the vast majority are 1997, the rest are scattered between 1998 and 2001. These forums are the best resource to locate inadequate documention areas.

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

malvin drakley — Tue, 23 Dec 2003 11:41:49 GMT

I agree with virtually all the replies. When you find the thing you want it's fine, but boy can you struggle to find your way through the masses of links. I find that the quickest way is to post a question on the forum for the documentation you require and someone somewhere in the past has bookmarked it for themselves and can give the right links. So that is what I am doing now as well, my "favourites" are increasing in size daily.
malvin

Re: Feedback on HP Documentation Website

Hazem Mahmoud_3 — Tue, 23 Dec 2003 11:53:25 GMT

Agree with the majority. Once you get to the documentation, it is a great resource. It seems that most of the complaints (and I would agree) is that it is hard to find it initially.

A recommendation:
Put a small piece of documentation or note (in the search area for example) on how to perform good searches that will help you find what you need. Just a guide on good searching practices. Maybe even allow people to contribute on their methods:)

-Hazem