Docs.sun.com Blog

You may have noticed something new on www.sun.com recently, the
innovative "Recommendations for You" component (we call it the
"carousel") at the top right of most pages. This is the latest
manifestation of the Sun Machine Learning Engine (Project "SMILE"),
Sun's own predictive analytics system.

We're adding the carousel to docs.sun.com in order to expose our
visitors to personalized offers such as free white papers, webinars, and
downloads that you might not otherwise see. We hope you find this new
service helpful and beneficial in surfacing relevant content from Sun's
vast web properties.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: Are you recommending specific documentation on docs.sun.com?
  
  A: No, these are offers of content outside docs.sun.com that may be of interest to you.


• Q: So why is this on docs.sun.com?
  
  A: Our site gets a lot of visitors, many of whom are current Sun
  customers. It's important to Sun's business (and our customers) to
  expose as wide a range as possible of potentially valuable
  solutions, products, services, training, and promotions. 


• Q: On what do you base the recommendations?
  
  A: For return visitors, we base recommendations on your visit history
  to Sun web sites. For new visitors and those who opt out of data
  aggregation, recommendations are based on the contents of the web
  page(s) you are viewing. As we base recommendations on anonymous
  cookies, your experience may vary if you use different computers and
  browsers.


• Q: Can I opt out of having my web visit history recorded?
  

  A: Absolutely, Sun takes your privacy seriously. To opt out of (or into) data aggregation for recommendations, visit the Privacy Navigation page. 



• Q: What if I don't want to see the recommendations?
  
  A: At the top of the carousel, click the "X" or "Close Recommendations"
  to close it -- it will stay closed for the duration of your visit.
  (When you start a new browser session, it will open again so you can
  see the latest content and recommendations.)

If you have any questions or comments about this new feature, please
send us your feedback to dsc-customer-feedback@sun.com

Thank you,

Sue Kober
Program Manager 

After going into hiding for a couple of years, the Buy button has reappeared on docs.sun.com, thanks to the work of dsc engineer Mimi Tam.

The Buy button appears on only a select number of titles. (The selection made by documentation managers based on dsc use data for individual titles.)

As in the past, most of the available titles are from the Solaris documentation collection, but the list also includes the first hardware manual as print-on-demand from
docs.sun.com. That would be the Sun Fire X4500/X4540 Servers
Installation Guide, a document that used to ship in the box with the
server. To reduce waste, save money, and eliminate the hassle of
unwanted printed documents,  customers now can order a printed copy via docs.sun.com.

As well as the Sun Fire X4500/X4540 Servers
Installation Guide, the list of available titles includes:

• Solaris CIFS Administration Guide
  


• Solaris Trusted Extensions Administrator's Procedures


• Solaris Trusted Extensions Configuration Guide


• Solaris Trusted Extensions Developer's Guide


• Solaris Trusted Extensions Label Administration
  


• Solaris Trusted Extensions User's Guide
  


• Solaris ZFS Administration Guide
  


• System Administration Guide: Basic Administration
  


• System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems
  


• System Administration Guide: Solaris Printing


• Your First Cup: An Introduction to the Java EE Platform
  

When you have a chance, take a look at one of these documents and see how the Buy button is working these days.

Want to find info more quickly on docs.sun.com? 
Try the "Search help" button on the right side of the search bar. You
will find quick, concise directions for searching only on doc titles,
searching only within a specific doc, and using specific search syntax
for better hits. Happy hunting!

Please let us know your suggestions for improving Search, or any other feature of docs.sun.com.  Just click the [+] Feedback icon to send a message.

Submitted by: Jenny Redfern 

You have been redirected to our new site, which reflects some of the many changes we have made at docs.sun.com over the past 5 months! We have been busy making docs.sun.com your resource for Sun Documentation.

Just a few months ago (December 2008) we had the release of Docs 4.3.0. This release is the culmination of work to up-date Docs.sun.com to a look and feel that is in-keeping with Sun.com, and make it a more useful and engaging experience for our users.

There are two main aspects to this:

1. The homepage is now hosted in Starlight.

2. The content behind the homepage is now presented using WxD global asset components.

The end result is a massively improved user experience, and a new publishing model for the homepage. Take a look: http://docs.sun.com

In March 2009 Docs.sun.com release 4.3.1 was successfully deployed.

Key deliverables for this release include the following:

1) Support publications and display for Hugarian, Dutch and Polish books.

2) Publication of Rich Media contents.

3) Return of the Search within Collection function.

4) Added API method to return product nodes & UUIDs for a specified collection or book.

5) Publication CLI to ask for confirmation when doing assignments to products already have contents to ensure no accidental overwritten of existing assignments.

6) Add product names to RSS feed links to make it clear to users what product feeds they are selecting.

In late April 2009 Docs.sun.com release 4.3.2 was successfully deployed.

This release covered a few WxD changes including:

1) Reinstated "expand/collapse all" features on XML book TOCs with a click to the icon.

2) Product trees and XML book TOCs now browsable for non-JavaScript users.

3) Fixed page layout for old documentations with large images which cause fixed width content area to expand beyond the horizontal page width.

4) Reinstated #hic function on the product trees which brought users directly to the product node they selected without any browser scrolling.

We will continue to work on improvements and enhancements at docs.sun.com as we march forward...and of course we welcome your feedback, suggestions always.

Thanks
Sue Kober
Program Manager

When the DSC Engineering Team redesigned the site in early December they took the opportunity to separate the DSC Homepage into a dedicated Content Management System. By doing so this enables more frequent (and thereby more relevant) content updates.

If you want to read more about that project and the technical Web Server 7 config used to perform the passthrough the Sun.com Engineering team have written a blog post about it.

Happy New Year from the DSC Team!

Hello Docs.sun.com Customers,

We are very proud to announce the release of the updated docs.sun.com documentation website!

Based upon feedback we received from a Usability Study, plus additional comments and requests from our customer base; our Engineers at Docs.sun.com began the process of redesigning the site to include a new look and improved functionality.
Key features are:

Standardization

• Alignment to Sun's webdesign  component library yielding more reliable and consistent page rendering across varied browsers/platforms.
• Re-use of common images, javascript, and stylesheets as other Sun websites, which means docs.sun.com will stay up to date with Sun web design standards as they continually improve.

UI Design

• Cleaner, less cluttered design, stronger grouping of related content.
• Removed old, relatively unused links from the Homepage.
• Injection of color.

Search Engine Optimization

• New Google(tm) powered search system.
• Removal of the redundant (and confusing for some users) search box in the page header.
• More metadata allow search engines to show what each page is about in result lists.
• Additional advanced search controls will be added over the next few months.

Navigation/Finding

• Ability for a user to see all documents for a product at once on the new Product Home Pages (Example: The Product Homepage for the M8000 Server- http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/prod/sparc.m8k?a=view).
• Featured/current products are a single click away using the flyout menu bar on the Homepage without requiring navigating through the entire Browse Product hierarchy.
• Meaningful breadcrumb trails during navigation make moving around the product hierarchy easier.

Localization (language switching)

• Language selection controls are now always available on any page.
• Please note that full translation is not yet complete, as of today, but will be in approximately 10 days.

We invite you to visit docs.sun.com and experience these improvements for yourself. We also encourage you to submit feedback and let us know what you think. It is always our first priority to provide an excellent service and your feedback directs us!

Thank you!
Susan Kober
Program Manager  

Recent improvements have been made to docs.sun.com, and more are on the way...[Read More]

Sometimes it is useful to link to content on docs.sun.com, and in large part you can do so without much worry that the link will go away at some point. Almost everything that has ever been published to docs.sun.com is still there, at the same URL that it ever was. However, there are a few things to be aware of when linking, especially to specific content pages inside of books. It is helpful to recognize the type of content being linked to, and the origin of the actual link target identifier.[Read More]

As part of the continuing mission of docs.sun.com to provide easy and straightforward access to Sun Microsystem's technical documentation we are currently working on the next release of the online application, currently called docs.sun.com 4.2.7. This new release contains features that will further improve how docs.sun.com works with search engines and add new controls to the interface for a n umber of frequently requested features.

The 4.2.7 release of docs.sun.com has three main themes:

• Better Searching
• Faster Information Access
• Increased Visibility of Localized Content [See also »]

To achieve these goals, a number of improvements are underway and should begin appearing on docs.sun.com over the next few weeks.

1. Additional metadata is being added to all the pages served by docs.sun.com. This metadata will allow for search systems, including Sun's own Sun Search as well as many other search sites that cur rently index docs.sun.com content, to group and filter hit lists based upon your needs. For example, we will re-introduce the ability to limit search returns to specific collections of documents an d speed up your search activities.
2. A number of requests have been submitted to us asking for the ability to rapidly download content from docs.sun.com, including document collections and sets about the many products that Sun offer s. You'll soon be able to download PDF file sets in zip format that including everything about a specific product, and install them locally for offline access to docs.sun.com content. Additionally, you can keep yourself informed about new content through RSS feeds detailing changes and additions to product documentation.
3. Although docs.sun.com has had a large number of documents in languages other than English for many years, sometimes it can be a bit frustrating get to that content. We are introducing the ability to go from any of the dynamically generated documents on docs.sun.com to translations of those documents using a new menu on content pages.
• Note: Read More about this feature.

Look for these changes to be available in the middle of June, 2008. We continue to strive to make docs.sun.com one of the best product documentation sites on the web and welcome your feedback.

~

Our goal at Docs.sun.com is to be “The Place” to go when you need to find documentation. We store more than 20,000 documents on Sun's hardware and software product families./

Our site traffic records show over the past 12 months the number of *weekly unique visitors* to DSC has grown from 115,000 back in May 2007 to 180,000. in April 2008. 56% growth year on year, certainly a significant increase!/

What does this tell us?

We believe its a clear indication that our customers are finding what they need on docs; the application has stabilized and is performing well and we are increasing our level of service to the customer./

As you can read elsewhere on this blog site, we are making improvements to our search capabilities and adding new features to make your experience at Docs.sun.com a valuable one./

On April 8th, 2008 the Proactive Services Team led by Felix Fraters announced the roadmap for the Service Delivery Tools Suite, which is the answer to proactive / reactive service delivery to our connected as well as disconnected customers. The long term plans' to tentatively occur in Q3/FY09 – Q4FY09, most substantial element are the components of C2S2 (Contained Customer Support Suite).

What is C2S2?

• A product suite developed by support services to assist the contained customer and Sun-badged personnel acting as an on-site support staff perform proactive as well as reactive service delivery.
• Provides these disconnected customers and staff with critical functionality that is readily available to the connected customer with network connectivity outside of their own four-walls.
• Enables a one-stop solution which complies to the customer's own security constraints.
• Provides internal knowledge store and tools to adequately support systems and software.
What makes a disconnected customer disconnected? There are varying degrees of disconnected, some of the properties are:
• No external network connectivity back to Sun.
• No outbound transference of digital media
• Inbound transference of digital media is highly controlled physical process (sneaker-net)
• Internally networks of varying security levels are supported and maintained seperately.
• Enormous number of Sun servers supported in these environments.
• Security is paramount to protect the information contained on these mission systems.
What are the elements of C2S2?
• Management Center
• Product Telemetry Processing
• Support Knowledge Store
• Documentation
• Software
• Entitlement Reporting
We are taking Sun to the customer in C2S2!
Posted by Susan Kober @ 01:52 PM PDT

The documentation folks at Sun are pleased you are taking time to give feedback on documents. If you give us your email in the feedback form, you will hear back from a documentation writer. All comments received from docs.sun.com are routed to the writers who own the content. We'll let you know what we are doing with your comment. So far we've received technical corrections, content suggestions, thanks, and, yes, some frustration. We take every comment seriously so please keep sending them our way! So look for the [+] Feedback icons on the top and bottom of each page and let us know what you think!

There was a rather serious problem that developed in the database that supports docs.sun.com and many of the documents that had been published over the last 72 hours were damaged in one way or another. The root cause has been found and corrected. We had to have a brief outage (less than 5 minutes) to apply a patch to the database but at this point we are fairly confident that the data is now valid and any SQL errors that the application was generating have stopped. If you continue to experience problems please let us know through the site Feedback system located on every docs.sun.com system page. Thank you for your continued support. docs.sun.com Engineering

Over the past couple of days, we had an issue with the drop down list for language selection.
This list is controlled by a piece of Javascript.

The issue didn't appear on all platforms.

It turned out that a separate, newly added piece of Javascript interfered with the language list.

Anyhow, yesterday the issue was resolved, and the language selection is now working again.

Apologies if you were inconvenienced.

By the way, you can always change your language settings by modifying the URL.

To change to, say the Japanese user interface, you merely need to append the URL parameter "l=ja", where the "l" is for language.

So, while http://docs.sun.com/app/docs will typically give you the English user interface, by using http://docs.sun.com/app/docs?l=ja, you can access the Japanese user interface.

Other language codes include: en, de, es, fr, it, ko, pt-BR, ru, sv, zh, zh_TW

Note, that while the user interface is available in many languages, not all books are available in these languages.

We have had our share of performance challenges in the past few months, but we have worked on stabilizing the application and we are working on a series of enhancements to make the user experience better. As you can read below, we are rolling out improved search capabilities over the next few weeks and we have future plans to continue to make docs.sun.com the place to go when you need information.

It was and will continue to be our customers who point us in the direction for improvements and enhancements, so we want your feedback,and in order to do that we've improved our ability to process your specific site feedback by implementing a robust third party feedback system.

Look for the [+] Feedback on the top header and at the bottom of the page on all docs.sun pages as this is where we welcome your input.

Your content comments will be automatically routed to the owners of the content. And if there are any problems with PDF downloads or performance, we will be notified right away.

By incorporating this new feedback mechanism [+] we hope to improve the quality of communication, products and services delivered to our stakeholders. Having access to your collective comments and integrating those ideas into our strategic business process is critical to continuous improvement.

So look for the [+] and let us know what you think.