# Display Online Help

You can display IDOL Expert, the IDOL Server Reference, and the IDOL Server Administration Guide by sending an action from your Web browser.

For IDOL to display help, the help data file (`help.dat`) must be available in the same directory as the service instance.

To display help for IDOL

1. Start IDOL server.

2. Send the following action from your Web browser:

       http://IDOLhost:port/action=Help

   where,

   `IDOLhost` | is the IP address or name of the machine on which IDOL is installed.
   `port` | is the ACI port by which you send actions to IDOL (set by the `Port` parameter in the IDOL configuration file `[Server]` section).

   For example:

       http://12.3.4.56:9000/action=help

3. On the help landing page, click one of the following options to open the relevant help:

   Admin Guide | The IDOL Server Administration Guide describes how to configure and use IDOL Server.
   Reference | The IDOL Server Reference contains details of all the actions and configuration parameters that you can set in IDOL Server.
   IDOL Expert | IDOL Expert provides conceptual overviews and expert knowledge of IDOL server and its features and functionality.

   If you are new to IDOL, you can use IDOL Expert to find out more about the different functions that IDOL can perform. Use the IDOL Server Administration Guide to get specific information about configuration and administration procedures. Use the IDOL Server Reference to look up specific configuration parameters and actions.

   The navigation panel for the IDOL Server Reference lists the following options to display reference information:

   Tab | Description
   --- | ---
   Actions | Describes the actions you can send to IDOL. Actions allow you to query IDOL, and to instruct it to perform a variety of operations.
   Configuration Parameters | Describes the parameters that determine how the IDOL operates. Configuration parameters are set in the IDOL configuration file.
   Index Actions | Describes the index actions you send to IDOL. Index actions allow you to index content into IDOL, and to administer the IDOL Data index.
   Service Actions | Describes service actions. Service actions allow you to return data about the IDOL service, and to control IDOL.

Related Topics

- Send Actions to IDOL

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