To use offline Java API Documentation in Eclipse, you need to download it first. The link for Java docs are (last updated on 2013-10-21):
Java 6
Page: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk-6u25-doc-download-355137.html
Direct: http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/6u30-b12/jdk-6u30-apidocs.zip
Java 7
Page: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/java-se-7-doc-download-435117.html
Java 8
Page: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/jdk8-doc-downloads-2133158.html
Java 9
Page:http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/jdk9-doc-downloads-3850606.html
- Extract the zip file in your local directory.
- From eclipse
Window --> Preferences --> Java --> "Installed JREs"select available JRE (jre6: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6 for instance) and click Edit. - Select all the "JRE System libraries" using Control+A.
- Click "Javadoc Location"
- Change "Javadoc location path:" from "http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/" to "file:/E:/Java/docs/api/".
It must work as it works for me. I don't need Internet connection to view Java API Documentation in Eclipse anymore.
Answer from cslraju on Stack OverflowVideos
To use offline Java API Documentation in Eclipse, you need to download it first. The link for Java docs are (last updated on 2013-10-21):
Java 6
Page: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk-6u25-doc-download-355137.html
Direct: http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/6u30-b12/jdk-6u30-apidocs.zip
Java 7
Page: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/java-se-7-doc-download-435117.html
Java 8
Page: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/jdk8-doc-downloads-2133158.html
Java 9
Page:http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/jdk9-doc-downloads-3850606.html
- Extract the zip file in your local directory.
- From eclipse
Window --> Preferences --> Java --> "Installed JREs"select available JRE (jre6: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6 for instance) and click Edit. - Select all the "JRE System libraries" using Control+A.
- Click "Javadoc Location"
- Change "Javadoc location path:" from "http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/" to "file:/E:/Java/docs/api/".
It must work as it works for me. I don't need Internet connection to view Java API Documentation in Eclipse anymore.
For offline Javadoc from zip file rather than extracting it.
Why this approach?
This is already answered which uses extracted zip data but it consumes more memory than simple zip file.
Comparison of zip file and extracted data.
jdk-6u25-fcs-bin-b04-apidocs.zip ---> ~57 MB
after extracting this zip file ---> ~264 MB !
So this approach saves my approx. 200 MB.
How to use apidocs.zip?
1.Open
Windows -> Preferences

2.Select
jrefromInstalled JREsthen ClickEdit...

3.Select all
.jarfiles fromJRE system librariesthen ClickJavadoc Location...

4.Browse for
apidocs.zipfile forArchive pathand setPath within archiveas shown above. That's it.5.Put cursor on any class name or method name and hit Shift + F2
Links to JDK documentation
| Java SE | Download | Web | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27 (future, due 2026-09) | « not yet available » | Javadoc | Project page |
| 26 (future, due 2026-03) | « not yet available » | Javadoc | Project page |
| 25 (LTS) (2025-09, current) | Downloads page | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 24 | Downloads page | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 23 | Downloads page | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 22 | Downloads page | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 21 (LTS) (2023-09) | Downloads page | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 20 | Downloads page | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 19 | Downloads page | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 18 | Downloads page | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 17 (LTS) (2021-09) | Downloads page | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 16 | no longer available | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 15 | no longer available | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 14 | no longer available | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 13 | no longer available | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 12 | no longer available | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 11 (LTS) (2018-09) | Downloads page | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 10 | no longer available | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 9 | no longer available | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 8 (LTS) | Downloads page | Javadoc | Platform home Doc home |
| 7 | no longer available | Javadoc | Doc home |
| 6 | no longer available | Javadoc | Doc home |
Also of interest:
- Release Notes
- History of Java SE versions
- What does Long-Term Support mean? (2021), and related video (2023), by Nicolai Parlog
First, make sure they don't already offer an download in zip form or similar.
Then, make sure you are actually allowed to do this (this may depend on where you live, and on any conditions mentioned on the web site from where you want to pull this).
Then, have a look at the Wget tool. It is part of the GNU system, thus included in many Linux distributions, but also available for Windows and Mac, I suppose.
Something like this works for me:
wget --no-parent --recursive --level inf --page-requisites --wait=1 \
https://epaul.github.io/jsch-documentation/simple.javadoc/
(without the line break; it should be escaped by the \ backslash here).
Look up what each option does in the manual before trying this.
If you want to do this repeatedly, look into the --mirror option.
For downloading other websites, --convert-links might also be useful, but I found that is not needed for Javadocs, which usually have the correct absolute and relative links.
This downloads lots of the same copy of the index.html file with appended ?... names (for the FRAMES links on each page). You can remove these files after downloading by adding the --reject 'index.html\?*' option, but they still will be downloaded first (and checked for recursive links). I did not yet find out how to avoid downloading them at all. (See this related question on Server Fault.)
Maybe adding the right recursion level would help here (I didn't try).
After downloading, you might want to zip the resulting directory to take less disk space. Use the zip tool of your choice for this.
I just started learning Java with the Head First Java book. After downloading the Java SDK (SE 8u5), the book says I need to download the API documentation. I'm on the Oracle site and I'm really confused as to what I'm supposed to be downloading. Java 8 API specifications here is the link to what I'm looking at.
If anyone could help me figure out what I'm supposed to be downloading for the API, that would be awesome!