Convert BOL Url to MSN Url

Question

Is the a way to convert a BOL Url to a MSN Url? I've had a search, and looked at the properties of both local and online pages, but cannot see a way to do this.

When posting replies to these forums I would rather post a MSDN/Online Url to a BOL topic, but I normally search or navigate locally as it is much faster (MSDN TOC is slooow), hence I'd like to then convert that Url.

Answer 1

Hi Darren,

The answer is a definitive "sort of and only for some topics".

You can do the following:

1. Get an MSDN URL for any SQL Server BOL topic.  This will become a template URL for future link conversions.

For example, http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms166352(SQL.90).aspx

2. From you local Books Online topic URL, copy just the guid part of that URL (shown below in blue 

ms-help://sql90/scsql9/html/cc84bf70-b04a-47fb-b460-b3759d6481b8.htm

3. Paste the guid into your MSDN template url, replacing just the msnnnnnnn portion.

For example, http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc84bf70-b04a-47fb-b460-b3759d6481b8(SQL.90).aspx

Assuming you save the MSDN URL template somewhere locally, this should be a fairly simple process going forward.

This process will work for any BOL topic except the managed reference topics. Managed reference topics are the Class Library topics (namespaces, classes, etc.) For example, all the topics under the section "Integration Services Managed Programming Reference Documentation"  are managed reference topics.  You can distinguish these topic types by their URL. Instead of a guid, they have a text reference. For example,  ms-help://sql90/dtsref9mref/html/H_home.htm

Hope that helps,

Regards,
Gail

Answer 2

Gail, that is just what I wanted, thanks very much.