Feedback on HP Documentation Website

[Hemanth Gurunath Basrur]

Hello folks,

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

Thanks,
Hemanth

[Pete Randall]

Hemanth,

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


Pete

[Mark Greene_1]

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

[Helen French]

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.

[Steven E. Protter]

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

[Patrick Wallek]

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.

[Jeff Schussele]

Ditto

Jeff

[Marco Santerre]

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)

[Keith Bevan_1]

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

[Uday_S_Ankolekar]

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.:)

[Paula J Frazer-Campbell]

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

[Hemanth Gurunath Basrur]

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

[John Payne_2]

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

[Judy Traynor]

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.

[Karthik S S]

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

[Geoff Wild]

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

[Jeff Schussele]

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

[Bill Hassell]

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.

[malvin drakley]

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

[Hazem Mahmoud_3]

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

[I.Delic]

Hi,

I Agree with the majority. The docs there are very useful but sometimes i have difficultly to find thinks i need.


Idriz

[Sanjay Kumar Suri]

Dear Hamanth

The docs site has empowered the end user. It contains lot of stuff which I felt was only privy to HP support engineer.

Sugesstion:

1. While showing a drill down page, the site should as well display the traversed path.

2. Can the site also include all the training material provided by HP in its training programs?

Thanks. Happy new Year.

sks

[Steve Lewis]

In addition to everything else said above, some of the HTML files are pre-style-sheet HTML, which is a shame because it limits readability. It would be good if they could all have the same font and layout standards, by inserting a style sheet reference in all the HTML pages. Make it similar to the top page and it will be fine.

[Mic V.]

I think it's great that you have the documentation online. I also like the fact that PDF files are provided.

Unfortunately, I have to agree that it can be hard to find information if you don't already know where to look.

Also unfortunately, the HTML viewer drives me crazy. I really wish that HP provided a single HTML for a document (typically the smaller ones) or a tar/bundle of HTML files for the others. I really like HTML format better, but I want something I can download and use as needed. I don't really care about the HTML navigation buttons, I just want something I can download and grep. :)

Thanks for asking.

Mic

[Sunil Sharma_1]

Hi,

It's lovely and very useful site.

it's batter if we have some catlogue whihc should tell about all manual and there code number.

so search may not be required.

Sunil