Advanced FAQ

[harmor19]

Some members are asking for a better FAQ system and I hope this is it.

You do not need to access the Administrator Control Panel to add, edit, or delete any FAQ items.
You can use vBulletin's own HTML conditionals and variables when writing your FAQ.
Advanced FAQ uses the WYSIWYG editor (Thanks to MicroHellas for the tutorial).
It parses BBCode, images, HTML, and smilies. It does not automatically add line breaks. You will need to use the break tag (br />).

/* ############### LOG ############### */
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1.0.0 - First Release
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1.0.1
In "Advanced FAQ" you can now search the FAQ items.
Please read the "install.txt" to add the Adv. FAQ menu to the navigation bar (navbar).
Click on the newly created menu to find a input box to type your search string.
---------------------------------------------

/* ################################## */

[harmor19]

This add-on does not come with predefined FAQ items.

[iogames]

Yeah I think this practice it's kind of...

Nice Hack!

[harmor19]

Yeah I think this practice it's kind of...

Nice Hack!
I'm sorry but I don't understand " I think this practice it's kind of".

[DJ XtAzY]

Nice hack! Now i can have mods to add FAQs

[Hornstar]

Okay nice work, but would be good to have the option of using just normal bb code instead of just html

apart from that, nice work.

[JD45]

Nice mod, thank you :up:

[ssandgirls]

Hello, I would like to just be able to allow mods to maintain the existing FAQ, not Admin, will this hack do that also?

or if not, do you know how I can change FAQ to also allow moderators to edit?

[Sofia]

Thanks Harmor :) Installed !

[harmor19]

Hello, I would like to just be able to allow mods to maintain the existing FAQ, not Admin, will this hack do that also?

or if not, do you know how I can change FAQ to also allow moderators to edit?
Right now only admins can manage the FAQ's

[COBRAws]

It would be great so i could still keep using the default faq.php, it has a search engine, plus its the default file for the faqs.

Any way on hacking this around so we can do the same, thru the default faq page? this way its useless IMO

[itsblack]

Sorry, but why not use the vb default faq system? It will be nice, use the default faq system, and plus WYSIWYG editor.

[EnIgMa1234]

Okay nice work, but would be good to have the option of using just normal bb code instead of just html

apart from that, nice work.
you can use BB code, thats the whole point of the WYSIWYG editor. you can use if conditions too.


oh and great hack ---- installed*

[harmor19]

Sorry, but why not use the vb default faq system? It will be nice, use the default faq system, and plus WYSIWYG editor.
It was easier for me to code it from scratch.

[talenak]

*Jumps on the Harmor groupie bandwagon* Installed! *edits sig to remove in search of faq mod*

[AzzidReign]

Nice hack! I've been needing a good FAQ system for my site.

[Lionel]

Very nice. This is much more than just a faq. It can be used to categorize anything. It would be nice if we could also subcategorize.

[projectego]

Very, very nice hack! I could definitely use something like this on one of my boards. Cheers! ;)

[Sofia]

This hack works perfectly and it's very practical. Good & great work, harmor :)

Just two problem : when i add a category and a FAQ, title is "Uncategorized" but it's not important.
And when you add a FAQ, you must use "<br />" to cross a line.

[harmor19]

This hack works perfectly and it's very practical. Good & great work, harmor :)

Just two problem : when i add a category and a FAQ, title is "Uncategorized" but it's not important.
And when you add a FAQ, you must use "<br />" to cross a line.
The only items under the "Uncategorized" title should be FAQ items that were in a category you've deleted. Walk me through your process so I can recreate the problem.

The reason you must use "<br />" instead of having it automatically add line breaks is presentation.

<if condition="!$bbuserinfo[userid]">
Guests
</if>

If line breaks were created automatically you'd have a break before "Guests" because of the conditional.


On a side note... Do you like how it automatically redirects to the form to add a FAQ item after adding a new category?

[harmor19]

In "Advanced FAQ" you can now search the FAQ items.
Please read the "install.txt" to add the Adv. FAQ menu to the navigation bar (navbar).
Click on the newly created menu to find a input box to type your search string.

You must overwrite all the files

[nexialys]

in your screenshot, the $bbuseruserinfo variable is wrong... >> $bbuserinfo is ok

[harmor19]

in your screenshot, the $bbuseruserinfo variable is wrong... >> $bbuserinfo is ok
Thanks.

[talenak]

I haven't installed it yet, waiting a bit while snags are worked out. Does this replace the faq item on the navbar? I don't want both of them there.

[harmor19]

I haven't installed it yet, waiting a bit while snags are worked out. Does this replace the faq item on the navbar? I don't want both of them there.
You'll have to remove the other one yourself. I guess I should write instructions on how to do so.

[RedGTiVR6]

so only admins have access to add faqs with this mod?

[harmor19]

so only admins have access to add faqs with this mod?
Yes.

[RedGTiVR6]

typo:

after adding a category and you're taken to where you would type up the FAQ:

Would you like to activate this etnry?

Should be:

Would you like to activate this entry?

Also, I thought I read where this is a WYSIWYG editor? I just copied and pasted over some information from a FAQ post on our forum and it's all garbeled. No formatting what-so-ever. Is this supposed to be the case? Do I have to also enter in HTML to get it to format correctly?

[harmor19]

typo:

after adding a category and you're taken to where you would type up the FAQ:



Should be:



Also, I thought I read where this is a WYSIWYG editor? I just copied and pasted over some information from a FAQ post on our forum and it's all garbeled. No formatting what-so-ever. Is this supposed to be the case? Do I have to also enter in HTML to get it to format correctly?
You need to add the break tag (<br />). I explained why a few posts back.

[RedGTiVR6]

If I wanted to make the editor box larger, how would I go about doing this?

Our site is a very technical site, so large FAQ articles are a given. Trying to edit these articles in the little bitty editor box is a bit difficult.

Also, I've put two articles under the same category. Instead of showing it like this:

Power Supplies
Power Supplies Explained
How to Pick a Power Supply

It shows up like this:

Power Supplies
Power Supplies Explained

Power Supplies
How to Pick a Power Supply

Is this by design? Is there any way I can change this? Can I change the order in which the articles are shown somehow?

[RedGTiVR6]

I thought I can use it, but the complete hack won't work. The PHP itself does not work and I get continuously DB Errors. Never mind. Maybe another release will work :)

This release works fine for me.

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling?

Without any information about the errors you're getting, I don't think the developer can help out.

[harmor19]

If I wanted to make the editor box larger, how would I go about doing this?

Our site is a very technical site, so large FAQ articles are a given. Trying to edit these articles in the little bitty editor box is a bit difficult.

Also, I've put two articles under the same category. Instead of showing it like this:

Power Supplies
Power Supplies Explained
How to Pick a Power Supply

It shows up like this:

Power Supplies
Power Supplies Explained

Power Supplies
How to Pick a Power Supply

Is this by design? Is there any way I can change this? Can I change the order in which the articles are shown somehow?
There are to images https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2010/09/6.gif and https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2010/09/5.gif. Click on the arrow pointing downwards to make the text area larger.

It should group all the items together.

[RedGTiVR6]

There are to images https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2010/09/6.gif and https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2010/09/5.gif. Click on the arrow pointing downwards to make the text area larger.

Ahh!

Thanks for that...didn't realize that's what those were for.

It should group all the items together.

It appears as if there are now two "Power Supplies" categories.

Is there a way I can delete the one that shouldn't be there? I'm not sure how it got there in the first place...

[RedGTiVR6]

one more noteable -

When i go back to edit a FAQ that's already there, the WYSIWYG aspect of the editor is no more.

It's back to the BB/HTML tags.

Is there a reason for this that I can fix on my end perchange or is this an issue with the mod?

[RedGTiVR6]

bump!

Any way to delete categories?

[harmor19]

Click on the category's title.

[RedGTiVR6]

but if I don't have a FAQ in the category, I can't delete it...

so this means I have to create a meaningless FAQ just so I can delete the category.

What would it take to be able to see a list of categories under the "Add Category" link...where you can edit or delete the current categories?

[johnstires]

Does this mod have permissions tied to it? I only want certain usergroups to be able to view the FAQs.

[CMGU]

cheking

[harmor19]

Does this mod have permissions tied to it? I only want certain usergroups to be able to view the FAQs.
All usergroups are allowed to view the FAQ.

[RedGTiVR6]

After using this hack on our forums I'm really quite impressed. Here is our implementation for anyone that is interested (mind you, it's still a vast work in progress, we have so much technical information on our forums I'm just scratching the surface).

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/advfaq.php

Anywho, I'd like to have a way to order the categories and the FAQs themselves. It would also be really cool to show as a table with multiple columns instead of just one with a single column and a bunch of rows. I'm sure this would be fairly easy, I just don't know code well enough to go that far with it.

I've also run into an issue when I try and edit one of the very large FAQs. It tells me that the page cannot be displayed. This faq is incredibly long. As a work-around, I just did everything in word pad and saved it. When I would upload it and see an error, I would go make the change in word-pad then I would delete the FAQ then just create it again. While it did work, it's not a real nice way to have to edit a long FAQ. This is the FAQ to be exact: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/advfaq.php?do=view&advfaqid=34

Also, it seems to me that if I were to click on one of the category titles, I should be taken to another page that is just about items within that category. Right now, it just takes me to edit the category title. If I'm not logged in as an admin, the category titles are not clickable at all, so I guess this is f.a.d. (functioning as designed), but it would be something to consider for a future release.

All in all - an extremely useful mod for our site! Keep up the good work!

btw -as an aside - you might consider updating the mod to reflect the fact that it works with 3.6.7PL1.

[harmor19]

Thank you Jan.

During the summer I don't really like to code but when I get the urge I will try to implement category and FAQ reordering. Making a table is difficult for me so trying to make a table with two columns will be more difficult. If someone wants to create a two column table I will add your name to the copyright.

I don't know what I can do about the long FAQ entries. I think I can load it into memory but I don't know how to do that.

I wanted to have drop down menus for the category titles where you can select "Show only this category", "Edit", and "Delete" but it would ruin the design and mess the table up.

[Murty]

This mod has so much potential, but time just needs to be taken to sort out some issues and add some features to make it easier. Any chance of this happening?

[RedGTiVR6]

agreed!

Any word on this working for 3.7?

btw - it doesn't hold formatting in firefix...only IE7

[RedGTiVR6]

bump?