Selecting Help in a custom SAS® Management Console plug-in returns "HTTP 404 Page Not Found"


Note: You must install the associated hot fix before completing the steps outlined in this SAS KB article.

Problem

When you click Help in a custom SAS Management Console plug-in, an "HTTP 404 Page Not Found" message is displayed.

This article applies only to organizations that use custom SAS Management Console plug-ins.

Configure Custom Plug-In 

After you install the hot fix, configure your custom plug-in to include a getHelpUrl() method that returns the URL for your plug-in documentation.

Here is an example getHelpUrl() method:

public String getHelpUrl() {  
   return "https://your-docs-site.com/plugins";
}

For security reasons, the URL must use HTTPS. Plain HTTP URLs should not be provided.

If you want to provide Help documentation, complete the following steps after modifying the plug-in:

  1. Recompile the plug-in JAR file.
  2. Redeploy the file to the following location: <SAS_HOME>/SASManagementConsole/plugins/
  3. Restart SAS Management Console.
  4. Verify the behavior as described below.

If you do not want a Help on menu item to be displayed, modify the example above to return null or an empty string (""). In that case, the Help menu item is hidden automatically.

Verification Steps

To verify that the behavior is correct, do the following:

  1. After deployment, open SAS Management Console.
  2. Select your plug-in, and then click the Help menu.
  3. Verify that Help on <PluginName> behaves as expected:
    • opens your documentation site in a web browser (successful configuration)
    • does not appear at all (expected behavior if getHelpUrl() returns null or an empty string)