Staging help files locally for P4V, P4Admin, P4Merge

If the host for the Helix Core client, P4V, P4Admin, or P4Merge, does not have internet access, the client cannot access the help files by default. However, you can stage the help files locally.

Staging location types

The following types of staging locations are known to work:

  • A file system local to the client host (or locally accessible). This could be a share mapped to a local drive letter on Windows, or a remote Linux file system mounted locally. This shared file location is not cross-platform because you can only specify one path.
  • A UNC share accessible to the client host. This is only applicable to Windows clients.
  • A website accessible to the client. This can be made cross-platform provided every client platform has access to the website.

Procedure

To stage help files locally:

  1. Download the help files, which has p4vsuite_en-help.zip for the compressed archive. The exact location of this file varies depending on the version of P4V. For example, the r23.2 location on the Perforce filehost is for the 2023.2 release.

  2. Unzip p4vsuite_en-help.zip to the required staging location.

    The staging location must be accessible to the client, either as a file path or a URI.

    Following are examples for each type of staging location:

    • Local client file system on Windows: C:\p4vsuite_en-help
    • Local client file system on Linux: /var/www/html/p4vsuite_en-help
    • UNC share: \\myserver\myshare\p4vsuite_en-help
    • Web server - if you type this URL into a browser, it lists the "perforce" folder that is a subfolder of p4vsuite_en-help:
      http://mywebserver/p4vsuite_en-help

  3. On the Helix Server, set the P4V.Help.URL property, which is case sensitive.

    Examples for setting the URL for each type of staging location:

    • When staging from a local file system on Windows:

      p4 property -a -n P4V.Help.URL -v C:/p4vsuite_en-help/

      Note the use of forward slashes (/) as path separator, not backward slashes (\) as expected on Windows.

    • When staging from a local file system on Linux:

      p4 property -a -n P4V.Help.URL -v /var/www/html/p4vsuite_en-help/

    • When staging from a UNC share (note the use of forward slashes (/) as path separator, not backward slashes (\)):

      p4 property -a -n P4V.Help.URL -v file://myserver/myshare/p4vsuite_en-help/

    • When staging from a Web server:

      p4 property -a -n P4V.Help.URL -v http://mywebserver/p4vsuite_en-help/
  4. Start P4V and go to Help > P4V Help to test if accessing the files works. You can also test for P4Admin and P4Merge.