T3 FAQ

Frequently asked questions about T3-Faq plugin
  1:What is the T3-Faq plugin ?
  2:What's new ?
  3:How to install ?
  4:Categories System
  5:Html Export
  6:Maintain Instructions.
  7:Styles specifications.
  8:Members can submit questions
  9:Comments and Rattings
  10:Asked & Edit Flags
  11:Navigation
  12:Header Notices
  13:BBcode and Smiles Parsing
  14:What about the new Configuration Panel?



1 : What is the T3-Faq plugin ?
T3-Faq plugin is a new faq-knowledgebase plugin with easy configuration and smart structure to support unlimited levels of categories and subcategories.

Features :
     * Unlimited levels of categories and subcategories.
     * Easy and smart edit of categories and Q:A
     * Protection from deleting by accident a category that contains Q:A
     * Smart category navigator.
     * All phrases are in the language file.
     * Easy skinning.
     * BBcode and Html parsing.
     * Let your members ask questions.
     * Comments and rattings for every Q:A
     * Powerfull configuration
     * Header Notices
     * Search in answers
     * Template based export of faq

*Q:A = Question:Answer
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Updated: Sunday 22nd of October 2006 07:29 PM Submitted by: Tefra

2 : What's new ?
Version 2.5 Speed Fighter
------------
- Pre-Parsed BBcodes in anwsers. In some cases over 400-600% performance improvement.
- Added Question counters for categories, -1 query in categories list.
- Added Comments counter for questions, -1x query in questions list.
- Added Ratings Average for questions, -2x/3x queries in questions list.
- Added 4 new maintenance modes to support the new version.
- Added 2 new modules for the main page, most commented and most rated.
- Adopted jquery for the main ajax call, hopefully now it will work for everyone.
- Updated various code blocks. Nice and Clean.
- Updated Template files is now as simple as possible.
- Replaced sort options with a form, more easy to use.
- Fixed various small bugs everywhere.

Version 2.2
------------
- 20 new configuration options added.
- Configuration is transfered over a file based system. (I am really proud of this)
- Introduced ajax functionality in some areas (beta).
- Added image verification in Submit new question.
- Added sort options in category view mode
- Added new block to display similar Q&As (beta).
- Added a switch style option. (New rev style).
- Added "asked" flag.
- Added a reads counter for each Q&A.
- Added a template driven export function to a standalone html.
- Added mass move and delete of Q&As.
- Added pfs and sfs links to texboxer extension
- Added search function
- Added alias for qa's
- Added pagination in category view mode
- Added group rights per category
- Added build-in installation and upgrade functions (no more phpmyadmin visits)
- Fixed header notices bug.
- Fixed textboxer extension preview bug.
- Updated skin to include new features and improve look and feel.
- Updated category navigation to break in columns.
- So many bug fixes and code improvements.

Version 2.1
------------
- Cleaned up the admin section.
- Cleaned up the textboxer extension of the plug.
- Added functionality for the more bbcode.
- Recent q:a in the main page.
- Counter of the q:a next to the categories.
- Added "updated flag" and "reset update flag".
- Added header notices for q:a that need validation.
- Added many new settings to customize the look and the feel.

Version 2.0
------------
- Adopted the seditio category system to reduce queries (respect to Olivier).
- Added BBcode and smiles parsing.
- Textboxer 2.0 intergration (respect to Arkkimaagi).
-- Added option to select between html and bbcode parsing just like in sed pages.
- The front-end is rewritten from scratch.
-- Better navigation easier skinning.
- Removed all my style craps from admin section.
- Added option to allow members submit questions.
- Comments and Ratting for Q:A's
- Many small improvements here and there.

Version 1.01
------------
- Fixed two hardcoded phrases
- Added the master category icon tag in skin file
- Added russian lang file (thanks Centuriones)

Version 1.00
------------
First stable release
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Updated: Saturday 19th of April 2008 11:43 AM Submitted by: Tefra

3 : How to install ?
The instructions from v2.2 are always the same.

- Always backup your database.
- Uninstall older version.
- Delete all old files just in case i have made a major change.
- Upload the entire contents of the 'upload/' folder to your web server. (in the root)
- Reinstall the plugin.
- Open the admin backend of the plugin admin.php?m=tools&p=faq and follow ALL the upgrade links.
- Make sure to re-check your settings, for any changes.

If it's a fresh install just visit the admin backend and the system will install the tables automatically.

To access the plugin use this: http://yourdomain/plug.php?e=faq
The plugin back-end is in the tools section in your admin-cp


This upgrade method is introduced in T3 Faq v2.2 and you can use it to upgrade even from the first initial release.

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Updated: Tuesday 22nd of April 2008 02:41 PM Submitted by: Tefra

4 : Categories System
Since version 1.01 T3-Faq plugin adopted the categories system with cache that seditio uses. With this feature the extra queries to get categories information have been reduced a lot. The new system made the construction of categories and unlimited level subcategories very easy with the paths. To manage your categories open the T3 Faq Admin Backend.

What you see there is the a table with 6 rows.
Row #1 Delete a category
Row #2 Path
Row #3 Title
Row #4 Number of Q:A's
Row #5 Rights
Row #6 Actions


Delete a category:
By clicking that link you will delete the selected catagory. Make notice that if the category contains any qa's for safety reason you can't delete the category.

Path:
This setting controls the order of the categories. This path is a simple and efficient way to manage your categories, it's a hierachical system. A path code is made of alphanumerical values separated by "." (dots). As sample the master category is Cat1 and have a path set to "3". The plugin will "guess" that a category with a path starting by "3" do belong to the category Cat1. And so on with the nested level, we could have a level path-ed : 3.1.3.4.7

An image is a thousand words


Note that the paths are sorted by alphanumerical order

Title:
This is pretty easy to understand it's the name of our category that it will show in lists and pages

Number of Q:A's:
That's pretty easy too. It's the number of Q:A's that our category contains. The arrow next to the number is the actual link to our category.

Rights:
By following that link you will be able to change the rights for every group in your site
The plugin actually uses only the read and the write rights the rest are not currently used. The read right will grand a user group to see and read the Q:A's of a cateogory. The write right will grand a user group to ask a question in the selected category. If a user group has no read rights then the members of that group will not be able to open the plugin and if a user group has no write rights then the members of that group will not be able to ask a question.

Actions:
There are two links there. The first is to edit the selected category and the second is to manage the Q:A's in that category.


You can mass update your categories by changing the fields for each category and hitting the update button.
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Updated: Monday 20th of November 2006 09:02 PM Submitted by: Tefra

5 : Html Export
This started like a very personal request. This feature gives you the opportunity to export all the Q&As from a category in a html file. The best thing about this feature is that it is template driven. In the default package you will find two premade templates. One is based on T3-Desing.com site of course and the other is based on the installation manuals from Neocrome.net. You can make one for yourself but make sure you are changing only the layout and the css.

How to use ?
   - Open the export part of the admin back-end
   - Choose the category you want to export.
   - Select the desired template.
   - Select if you want to include the <head><body> tags.
   - Select if you want to include the css of the template
   - Click the export!
   - On the same page you will find all the exported faqs with options to delete, open one or just purge all.

By default the templates are in the folder plugins\faq\inc\templates and the exported faqs are located in the folder plugins\faq\inc\exports.

These paths can change from the config.php file.
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Created: Sunday 19th of November 2006 08:33 AM Submitted by: Tefra

6 : Maintain Instructions.
The core of this plugin is heavily tested before any release but anything can go wrong. That is why from v2.2 there is a new part in the admin back-end the "[Maintain]". From this section you can:

   - Reset all categories rights *
   - Allow write right for quests **
   - Reset edit flag for all Q&As
   - Reset asked flag for all Q&As
   - Reset all Q&As authors
   - Update Categories Counters
   - Rebuild Ratings Counts
   - Rebuild Comments Counters
   - Force the cached anwsers to rebuild.

* In case you messed around or the upgrade from v2.1 to v2.2 didn't go very well this will save your life. It is also vital when you add new groups to flush the categories rights
** Very dangerous option it could lead to very bad situations that T3 can't be held responsible. It was requested though...
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Updated: Friday 18th of April 2008 06:36 PM Submitted by: Tefra

7 : Styles specifications.
From version 2.5 you can forget the "styles". From version 2.5 there are only 3 options for questions list:

- Show Answers.
- Show Answers, with ajax.
- Don't Show Answers.

Selecting the 2nd and 3rd options seems the best, but selecting to show by default the answers in questions list will be super faster than what you have been used to. In some cases during development i saw 400-600% performance improvement.

One Category, 450 Questions with fairly big bbcode answers.
Settings: no pagination, yes comments and ratings, yes categories counters.

Load Time Before: 2.7 seconds.
Load Time After: 0.51 seconds.
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Updated: Friday 18th of April 2008 06:49 PM Submitted by: Tefra

8 : Members can submit questions
In T3-Faq v2.0 there is an option to let your members ask questions. By default the plugin set the members group able to add questions. You will have to edit the plugin rights manually if you want to change that. When a simple member submits a question it won't appear in the faq until you answer the question and validate the new Q:A. User have the option to select the most appropriate category but for some reason people always love to post things in wrong section so check carefully that part before you validate the Q:A.

If you have question waiting for validation you will see something like that [8 Faq(s) in validation queues] in both the admin and the front-end.

When you submit a Q:A through from the admin tools section you won't need to validate anything. Moreover when a member ask a question his identity will be saved as the person who asked the question. The main two reasons for that is to give credit to good members or ban some people who like to abuse this feature. Once again when you submit a Q:A through admin cp no identity will be saved as the person who asked the question because you are the admin you don't make question. :-)
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Created: Monday 24th of July 2006 04:50 AM Submitted by: Tefra

9 : Comments and Rattings
This is another new feature of t3-faq v2.0. By enabling the rattings and comments in faq through plugin configuration you and your members will have the option to vote how usefull was the Q:A and make comments if they don't understand something. This is a big feature if you ask me because this is what turns a simple faq into a knowledge base.

There is only one negative thing in enabling the comments and rattings in Faq, the extra queries. You should estimate 2 extra queries for each Q:A, this is how comments and rattings work in seditio. You should also estimate that in the v2.0 of this plugin we have no extra queries to get the categories info, thanks to olivier and his brilliant system of categories with the internal cache.

There is NO negative thing in enabling the comments and ratings from the version 2.5. No extra queries in questions list No extra load time.
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Updated: Friday 18th of April 2008 06:40 PM Submitted by: Tefra

10 : Asked & Edit Flags
When you edit a Q&A you will notice these two options:
   "Reset asked flag"
   "Reset edit flag"

New Q&As can be added through admin cp or they can be asked by the authorized groups. When an admin submits a Q&A through admin cp the asked flag will be set to '0'. When a member of an authorized group asks a question the asked flag will be set to '1'. The only effect of this is at the look of the author under any Q&A.

Example:
   Submitted by: Tefra
   Asked by: Tefra

When an admin selects to reset the asked flag then the user who asked the question will be shown as the Q&A author.

In a similar way the edit flag works for the look of the date hint for any Q&A. With an edit flag set to '0' the date will look like this Created: 2006-10-17 04:39 when the edit flag is set to '1' the date hint will look like this Updated: 2006-10-17 05:16

The edit flag is set to 1 when an admin edits a Q&A and selects not to reset the edit flag.
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Updated: Thursday 30th of November 2006 11:49 PM Submitted by: Tefra

11 : Navigation
Navigation is one of our biggest concerns. We want to make your life and your members life as easy as it can be.

Usually faq or KB scripts are hard to navigate for both admins and users. Even the most popular software has this problem. I can sure name some paid scripts too. In T3 Faq you can navigate quick and easily. The structure is designed to be plain, simple but powerful. Quick administration links, easy category navigation and the best thing is that this script gives you the opportunity to change the look and the fill through the plugin options and the standalone tpl skin file.
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Updated: Sunday 19th of November 2006 08:21 AM Submitted by: Tefra

12 : Header Notices
This was a good suggestion that it's finally added in the version 2.1. The best thing about this is that it doesn't require to add new tags in the header it cooperates with the classic header notices of the seditio. You can configure to enable them or disable them through the special plugin configuration. When header notices are disabled then you can check for Q&As that need validation either on admin back-end or on the front-end of the plugin.

Nobody wants extra queries when there is no need of them.
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Updated: Saturday 27th of January 2007 08:29 PM Submitted by: Tefra

13 : BBcode and Smiles Parsing
Since the v2.0 the answers can be parsed with two modes. BBcodes and html. You can alter this by selecting Parsing method during adding or editing a Q:A. To make the writing of bbcode easier we intergrated the textboxer 2 as the default (and only!) editor. Since the 2.1 version the more bbcode functionality is added.

In the config of the plugin there are options to select if you want or not to parse bbcodes and smilies and new lines in Faq.
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Updated: Saturday 09th of September 2006 06:11 AM Submitted by: Tefra

14 : What about the new Configuration Panel?
T3 Faq had more than 20 configuration options. As development is going on more options are added all the time. Loading the seditio config table with so many data can lead to a performance loss. For this reason it was decided to move the T3 Faq's configuration to a flexible and fast file based system.

The advantages are:
- Less database usage.
- Ability to add many more options.
- No settings loss during updates.
- Ability to reset config settings.
- Better descriptions.

The new configuration panel can be accessed by the admin backend.
Make sure your settings.php is writable. (chmod 666).
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Created: Saturday 27th of January 2007 08:41 PM Submitted by: Tefra