Configuring network connections and proxy settings

If your environment requires a proxy, you can configure the network connections to permit access to web help from your help server.

About this task

This procedure describes how to access the network connections and proxy settings by using a URL in a browser. In the rich client, you can also access these controls in the help window. Click Help > Preferences. Expand Help and click Network Connections.
Note: If your web browser does not display all the options that are described in this procedure, try another browser.

Procedure

  • To configure your network proxy settings:
    1. In a browser, open the Help Administration page by typing a URL that is in this format: http://server:port/help-name/updater/admin.jsp
    2. Click the Network connections tool. The Proxy page opens.
      Manage Proxy page
    3. In the Network Connections page, enter your proxy server information.
      Table 1. Network Connections Preferences
      Option Description Default
      Active Provider Specifies the settings profile to be used when opening connections as follows
      • Direct provider, all of the connections are opened without using a proxy server
      • Manual setting, the settings that are defined in the help WAR file are used
      • Native provider, the settings that were discovered in the operating system are used. (only available on some platforms)
      Native, if present

      Manual, otherwise

      Proxy entries
      When you use a Manual proxy provider, you configure settings for three predefined schemas: HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS.a Configuration for each schema is displayed in the Proxy entries table. To edit settings for a particular schema, double-click the entry or select the entry, and then click Edit. If you leave the Port field blank, the default port number is used. This table lists the default port numbers for predefined schema.
      Table 1. Proxy entries ports
      Schema Default port
      HTTP 80
      SSL 443
      SOCKS 1080
       
      Proxy bypass Use this table to specify, either by name or pattern, which hosts must not use a proxy. A direct connection is always used for matching hosts. The check boxes in the first column of the table indicate entries that are to be used for the currently selected provider.  
      Table notes:
      1. The SOCKS proxy support in Java™ 1.4 has limitations. Because of these limitations, when a Java virtual machine (VM) 1.4 is used, the SOCKS system properties are not set. The SOCKS proxy might still be used by tools such as CVS when running on a 1.4 VM. However, full SOCKS proxy support, requires a 1.5 (or 5.0) VM.
    4. Click OK.

    Configuring proxy settings with a script

    To configure the proxy settings for multiple computers at the same time, use a script.

    Procedure

    1. On each computer, open the Help Administration page in the Network connections tab, set the Active provider value to Manual.
    2. Create a script to update the help.ini with the proxy settings.
    3. Include the following information in the script:
      -vmargs
      -Dorg.eclipse.ecf.provider.filetransfer.excludeContributors=org.eclipse.ecf.provider.filetransfer.httpclient 
      -Dhttp.proxyHost=proxy_host
      -Dhttp.proxyPort=proxy_port 
      -Dhttp.proxyUser=proxy_username 
      -Dhttp.proxyPassword=proxy_password
      -Dhttp.nonProxyHosts=localhost_or_127.0.0.1
    4. Run the script on the computers that require the proxy information.

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