A couple of years ago I blogged about Installing the SQL Server 2014 Language Reference Help from disk.
With SQL Server 2016 things changed significantly: we have the new Help Viewer 2.2, which is shipped with the Management Studio setup kit.
However, despite all the changes in the way help works and is shipped, I am still unable to download and install help content from the web, so I resorted to using the same trick that I used for SQL Server 2014.
This time the URLs and the files to download are different:
- Point your browser to http://services.mtps.microsoft.com/ServiceAPI/catalogs/sql2016/en-us
- Download the Language Reference Files:
If you’re a PowerShell person, these three lines will do:
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://packages.mtps.microsoft.com/sql_2016_branding_en-us(1bd6e667-f159-ac3b-f0a5-964c04ca5a13).cab" ` -OutFile "sql_2016_branding_en-us(1bd6e667-f159-ac3b-f0a5-964c04ca5a13).cab" Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://packages.mtps.microsoft.com/v2sql_shared_language_reference_b4621_sql_130_en-us_1(83748a56-8810-751f-d453-00c5accc862d).cab" ` -OutFile "v2sql_shared_language_reference_b4621_sql_130_en-us_1(83748a56-8810-751f-d453-00c5accc862d).cab" Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://packages.mtps.microsoft.com/v2sql_shared_language_reference_b4621_sql_130_en-us_2(ccc38276-b744-93bd-9008-fe79b294ff41).cab" ` -OutFile "v2sql_shared_language_reference_b4621_sql_130_en-us_2(ccc38276-b744-93bd-9008-fe79b294ff41).cab"
- Create a text file name HelpContentSetup.msha in the same folder as the .cab files and paste the following html:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head />
<body class="vendor-book">
<div class="details">
<span class="vendor">Microsoft</span>
<span class="locale">en-us</span>
<span class="product">SQL Server 2016</span>
<span class="name">Microsoft SQL Server Language Reference</span>
</div>
<div class="package-list">
<div class="package">
<span class="name">SQL_2016_Branding_en-US</span>
<span class="deployed">False</span>
<a class="current-link" href="sql_2016_branding_en-us(1bd6e667-f159-ac3b-f0a5-964c04ca5a13).cab">sql_2016_branding_en-us(1bd6e667-f159-ac3b-f0a5-964c04ca5a13).cab</a>
</div>
<div class="package">
<span class="name">v2SQL_Shared_Language_Reference_B4621_SQL_130_en-us_1</span>
<span class="deployed">False</span>
<a class="current-link" href="v2sql_shared_language_reference_b4621_sql_130_en-us_1(83748a56-8810-751f-d453-00c5accc862d).cab">v2sql_shared_language_reference_b4621_sql_130_en-us_1(83748a56-8810-751f-d453-00c5accc862d).cab</a>
</div>
<div class="package">
<span class="name">v2SQL_Shared_Language_Reference_B4621_SQL_130_en-us_2</span>
<span class="deployed">False</span>
<a class="current-link" href="v2sql_shared_language_reference_b4621_sql_130_en-us_2(ccc38276-b744-93bd-9008-fe79b294ff41).cab">v2sql_shared_language_reference_b4621_sql_130_en-us_2(ccc38276-b744-93bd-9008-fe79b294ff41).cab</a>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
- First, set the Help Viewer to open help from the local sources:
- Then select the “Add and Remove Help Content” command:
- This command opens the Help Viewer and asks for the content to add.
Browse to the file you created in step 3.
Click “Add” on all the items you wish to add to the library. In this case you will have only 1 item.
When done, click the “Update” button.
- Unfortunately, during the installation phase of the library item, something crashes and the installation won’t proceed until you tell it to ignore or report the error.
- Despite the crash, everything works as expected and you will find the topic installed in your help library:
Here it is, nice and easy. Hope it works for you too.
