%ISHCONV Macro: z/OS

Converts user-defined, item-store help to HTML help files.
Default: LATIN1

Syntax

%ISHCONV(ishelp='libref ',
ishref=libref-member,
exphlp='filename',
htmdir='pathname',
<charenc='encoding'>);

Required Arguments

ishelp='libref '
specifies the libref of the catalog in which the user-defined item-store help is located.
ishref=libref-member
specifies the member of the libref that contains the item store. Note that unlike the other option values, the libref member name is not specified in single quotation marks.
exphlp='filename'
specifies the name of the target file in which %ISHCONV export places the exported data. This data is used as input in the DATA step to create the HTML structure of the user-defined help. This file is created if it does not currently exist.
htmdir='pathname'
specifies the pathname that contains the user-defined item store help that was exported with %ISHCONV. This name needs to be a valid UFS directory path. This path is created if it does not currently exist. Any parent directories that do not exist in this specification are also created.

Optional Argument

charenc='encoding'
specifies the character encoding for HTML output files. If the CHARENC argument is omitted from the %ISHCONV macro, the default value of CHARENC is LATIN1. The encoding value must be valid for the SAS PUT statement.

Details

The SAS %ISHCONV macro enables users of SAS 9.2 for z/OS to convert the contents of user-defined item store help to HTML format. After the item stores are converted to HTML, they can be used with the remote browser, which is the default Help system for SAS 9.2 for z/OS.
SAS accesses user-defined HTML help the same as it did item store files. SAS checks for help files that were created at customer locations, and uses those files before it uses files supplied by SAS. The HELPLOC system option indicates the order in which the browser is to use the help files. It specifies that help files created by customers are to be used before the files that SAS provides. For more information about how the HELPLOC option specifies the order in which to access files, see HELPLOC= System Option: z/OS.
When the %ISHCONV macro is run on the specified item-store help, the libref for the item-store help is opened. Then, the user-defined help is exported to the file that is specified in the macro call.
The file containing the exported data is then read, and the appropriate files are allocated and created with the base directory path that you specify for the htmdir parameter of the macro invocation. The files are converted to HTML and subdirectories are created as they are needed. The subdirectories are populated with files according to the exported item-store data.
After you have converted your item-store files to HTML, use the HELPLOC option when you start SAS to specify the location of your new user-defined help files:
HELP HELPLOC://dirname/filename
Replace //dirname/filename with your specific filepath information.

Example: Coding the %ISHCONV Macro

The following example contains sample specifications for the parameters of the %ISHCONV macro. MYLIB is the user ID of the person who converts the item-store help files to HTML. ASCII is the default encoding.
ASCII Encoding (LATIN1)
%ishconv(ishelp='MYLIB.MYHELP',
         ishref=HELPDOC,
         exphlp='/home/mylib/ishconv_export_ascii',
         htmdir='/home/mylib/ishconv_dir_ascii');
EBCDIC Encoding (OPEN_ED-1047)
%ishconv(ishelp=MYLIB.MYHELP,
         ishref=HELPDOC,
         exphelp=/u/saswxg/ishconv_export_e1047,
         htmdir=/u/saswxg/ishconv_dir_e1047,
         charenc=open_ed-1047);
The following list contains explanations of the parameter specifications:
MYLIB.USERHELP
the name of the catalog that contains the item store.
HELPDOC
the name of the member that contains the user-defined help.
exphlp
the filename reference in which the exported help contents are placed for parsing into HTML format.
htmdir
the directory path in which the user-defined help resides in an HTML format.