Chapter 2. How To Use Answers?

Before using the features in Answers, you should get familiar with the Answers interface. Once you have logged in and accessed Answers, the interface looks like this:

The Status pane displays information of the currently viewed category, including the total number of open questions, pending questions and the total questions.
The Categories pane lists all categories in the hierarchical system. With one click on your desired category, you will be directed to the Answers viewing pane.
The Breadcrumb bar is to navigate between categories and sub-categories easily. This bar also includes the search box with simple and advanced options.
The Action bar is to add categories, questions, and to manage questions, import, export, print, and do settings.
The Answers Viewing pane displays all questions and information about score and the number of answers of each question in the selected category.

Remember that this interface may look different for each user group. Some actions for advanced users will not be shown in the interface when you log in as a regular user.

The following table summarizes actions which each user group can execute in Answers.

Features Description Administrator Moderator Owner User Guest
View details of the Answers application See all categories in Answer and their activated questions, details of a question (its content, its answers, uploaded files, image preview).

Download attachments Download attachments included in questions or answers.

Submit a question Submit a question with an attachment in multiple languages.

Send a question Send a question via email.

Print Print all questions with their answers of a category and of its sub-categories, or print details of a question.

Search Simple and advanced searches for a specific category or question.

Watch/Unwatch a category Watch a category to receive email notifications on new questions or any changes. If you do not want to receive email notifications any longer, unwatch the category.

RSS Subscribe by RSS.

View user profile View the profile of a specific user: questions, answers or comments.

User settings Define user preferences: Sort type, Sort by.

Comment on a question Give opinions on a specific question in multiple languages.

Vote Vote for questions and answers by rating stars.

Discuss in forum Discuss a question in the forum. When a question is discussed, it becomes a topic in Forum.

Manage a category Add, edit, delete and move categories.

Export Export answers in the format of a .xml or .zip file to back up data.

Import Import data into Answers from a .xml or .zip file.

Moderate a question Add or edit a question in multiple languages, delete and move questions.

Answer a question Give an answer for a question in the rich text format.

Edit an answer A question could have multiple answers in multiple languages that can be edited separately.

Activate/Deactivate a question Activate/inactivate a specific question. Inactivated questions are hidden and regular users cannot view.

Approve/Disapprove a question Set the approved/disapproved status to a specific question. The disapproved question is hidden in the Approve mode and normal users cannot view the unapproved question.

Activate/Deactivate an answer Set the activated/inactivated status to a specific answer. The inactivated answer is hidden and normal users cannot view the inactivated answer.

Approve/Disapprove an answer Approve/disapprove a specific answer. The disapproved answer is also hidden and regular users cannot view.

Promote a comment to answer Promote a comment to be an answer of a question.

Initialize Answers Create a category and assign the moderator role.

Set properties of Answers Define basic properties (for example, Order Type, Order by, Notify content, theme, icon) and advanced properties (for example, enabling RSS, vote, comment) and more.

Set up the FAQ portlet Add and configure the FAQ portlet on the page.

Note

Owners are those posting questions or answers. Actually, they are regular users but can perform some extra actions on their questions or answers.

After accessing Answers, you can see all categories in the left pane. To view details of a category, simply left-click it to open its details in the right pane.

Here, you can view all activated questions of this category, some basic information of questions, such as authors, scores, number of answers.

To view details of a question, simply click it to open its details, including its content, answers and comments, uploaded files, preview the attached image, or download the attached files and images as shown below:

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The Answers application allows you to raise your questions on any issue and help you find best answers.

To submit a question:

1. Right-click the category/sub-category where you want to submit your question and then select from the drop-down menu;

Or go into the category that you want to submit question, then click on the Action bar.

The Submit question form appears as below:

2. Type your question into the Question field.

In this form you can also:

3. Click Save to complete submitting your question.

A message will appear informing that your question has been added successfully. If the moderation option was ticked when your selected category was created by the owner, there will be a message informing that your question needs to be approved before being displayed in that category.

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Regular users can only edit their own questions.

To edit a question:

1. Open the Edit question form by following one of these ways:

The first way: Right-click the question that you want to edit and then select Edit from drop-down menu.

The second way: Click a question, then select as below:

2. Make changes to your question. You can add more or remove the language options, attach files, approve or disapprove the question and its answers.

3. Click Save to save all the changes.

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A question may have multiple answers and each can be moderated separately.

To answer a question:

1. Open the Answer question form by following one of these approaches:

The first way: Right-click the question you want to answer and select Answer question:

The second way: Open a question, then click Answer.

2. Enter your answer into the Answer field.

3. Select/Deselect the Approved and Activated checkboxes if you want to approve this question (optional). If this question is in the category that requires moderation, the Approved checkbox will be selected by default.

The Activated option enables your answer to be shown or hidden. By default, an answer is always shown.

4. Click to link the question to reference entries (optional).

5. Click Save to submit your answer.

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Regular users can only edit their answers.

To edit an answer:

1. Click on the top right of the answer that you want to edit.

2. Make changes to your selected answer.

3. Click Save to save all the changes.

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You can leave comments on a question when you are not sure about the answer, or want to give your ideas. Then, the moderator can promote your comment to answer if necessary.

To leave a comment:

1. Follow one of these following ways:

The first way: Click the question you want to leave comments, then select the Comment button.

The second way: Right-click a specific question and select Comment from the drop-down menu.

2. Type your answer in the text-input field.

3. Click Save to finish.

Note

Comments can be written in different languages. If a question is posted in multiple languages, it can also have comments in multiple languages.

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When you find a question interesting, you can share it with others easily. Regular users cannot send pending questions.

To send a question to others:

1. Follow one of these following ways:

The first way: Right-click the question that you want to send and select Send from the drop-down menu.

The second way: Click your desired question and select .

2. Enter the receiver's email address into the To field.

3. Select the display language for the question content. English is set by default.

4. Click Send.

Note

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This feature is not enabled by default. Only Administrators can activate this feature.

When you want further discussion on a question rather than getting quick replies from Answers, you can make that question posted in Forum as a new topic. The topic created in Forum will have the same title and content as your question in Answers. All the comments will become posts in that topic. Once there is a new reply in that Forum topic, your question in Answers will be updated correspondingly.

To discuss or view the question discussion:

The first way: Open the question and click on the top left of the question pane.

The second way: Right-click a specific question and select Discuss in forum:

The topic posted in Forum needs to be approved by the Administrators or Moderators before you can view it. To go to that topic, right-click the question title and select Discuss in forum from the drop-down menu again.

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If you want to evaluate the quality of the question, you can use the intuitive rating feature provided by Answers to the five-star scale with the ascending level from the left to the right.

To rate a question:

1. Open the question which you want to rate.

2. Click the star on the top left of the question content.

After being rated, the vote statistics will be updated.

3. Click OK on the confirmation message.

Note

Each user can only rate a question once. Rating is not available to anonymous users.

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You can vote for an answer that you find interesting and useful.

If you think the answer is good, click the thumb-up icon. If you think the answer is not good, click the thumb-down icon.

Note

You cannot vote for an option twice but changing your voting is possible.

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The Watch feature allows you to keep track of all changes in a specific categories. You will get all the updates via mail notifications if you enable the watch function on a category.

To watch a category, right-click a category in the categories list and select Watch from the drop-down menu. For the Administrator/Moderator, the watched category will be marked with .

If you do not want to receive any email notifications about the watched categories, right-click your desired category in the Categories pane, then select Unwatch from the drop-down menu.

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You can get the latest questions in a category by getting the corresponding feed links, then use your favorite RSS client to read.

To get the RSS link of a category:

1. Click the category you want to get the RSS feed.

2. Click the RSS button on the Action bar.

The RSS information page will appear on another tab. Depending on the browser you are using, this page may be displayed differently. Use the RSS link provided in this new page to put in the RSS reader of your choice.

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When going to user settings, you can change how Answers will display the entries, manage your subscriptions and change your avatar here.

To change your user settings:

Click on the Action bar. The Settings form will appear:

Now you can:

Change the display settings:

You can select to display entries by created date/alphabetical order and sorted by ascending/descending type or by popularity.

Manage watches:

1. Click to open the User Watch Manager form:

2. Click the category title if you would like to view details or click to unwatch the corresponding category.

Change your avatar:

1. Click the Update link to open the Upload File form.

2. Locate and upload your desired file.

3. Click Save to save the changes.

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The function is for all users, even when you are not logged in (guest). To view a specific user's profile, click his username. The profile of that user will be displayed:

This form shows the selected user's profile, including the join date and the last login time.

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With the Search function, you can find your desired item, such as categories, questions, answers, or comments easily. In the Answers application, you can do your searches to specific search conditions easily through two types: Quick search and Advanced search.

You can do quick searches easily by entering specific keywords into the Search area. All items containing the text matching your search term will be returned in the Search results form.

1. Enter a keyword into the Search field at the right corner of the breadcrumb.

2. Click , or press the Enter key to perform your search.

The Search results window will open with all matching categories and questions as below:

Details:

The question has been answered.
The question has not been answered.
The category containing your entered keywords.
Click this icon to link to a question or details of a category.

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The Advanced Search allows you to do a search with multiple criteria corresponding to the object that is expected to be found. Using the advanced search, you can find questions/categories more exactly.

1. Click on the Search area.

2. Define some search criteria in the Advanced Search form. The criteria may vary, depending on where you want to search.

3. Click the Search button to launch the search. All items matching your criteria will be listed in the search results pane below the Search form that is not similar as that of Quick search.

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To print all questions with their answers of a category and of its sub-categories:

1. Select one parent category from the Categories list on the left pane.

2. Click the Print button on the action bar under the selected category.

3. Click the Print button to accept printing or Close to quit the Print Preview form without printing.

To print details of a question:

1. Click your desired question.

2. Click on the top right of the question pane. You will only see the question and its details.

3. Select the Print button to accept printing or Close to quit the Print form.

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Moderators in Answers manage the content of questions and answers before and after they are posted to a moderated category. The Moderator can read new contents (editing or removing if necessary), approve or activate answers, and more. The moderator has the category-specific role.

Moderators can only manage categories that he moderates.

In this section, you will learn how to manage categories. With a category, you can group all questions of a specific subject into one place.

To perform an action on a category, you can select one of these approaches:

The first way:

1. Right-click a category from the categories list.

2. Select an appropriate action from the drop-down menu.

The second way: If you are already in a category that you moderate, you can perform all actions on this category by clicking on the Action bar, then select an action from the drop-down menu:

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Notice that only Administrators can initialize Answers by creating first categories and assigning to Moderators for each categories. Moderator can only add new sub-categories in a category that he moderates.

To add a new category:

1. Click Category on the Action bar and select Add Category from the drop-down menu. The Add Category form will be displayed.

By default, a category is open for all users without any pre-assigned Moderator. To specify which users/user groups/memberships are restricted from the category or assign the category Moderator, simply enter names of these users/groups/memberships in the Restricted audience/Moderator field manually or you can select one of the respective selectors:

2. Click Save to complete.

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1. Follow one of the approaches described in Manage categories.

2. Select .

3. Edit the properties.

4. Click Save to save all changes.

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1. Follow one of the approaches described in the Manage categories section.

2. Select from the drop-down menu and click OK in the confirmation message.

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1. Follow one of the approaches described in Manage categories to open the drop-down menu.

2. Select .

3. Select the destination category from the list.

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Both functions can be executed on all categories and questions in the Answers home or a specific category in Answers.

To export categories and questions:

1. Click to open the Export form.

2. Input the file name to export.

3. Click Save to accept exporting all categories and questions.

The exported file is in the .zip format and it can be used to import to Answers or keep it as backup.

To import categories and questions:

1. Click to open the Import form.

2. Locate the file to import, then upload the selected file.

3. Click Save to finish.

After being imported, all categories and questions will be displayed in the Answers homepage.

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In this section, the following topics are covered:

Each question may be displayed in different ways, depending on the preset properties when creating or editing these questions. To view all posted questions, click on the Action bar to open the Manage questions form. Here, you can have the overview of all the posted questions in the category you manage.

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1. Select on the Action bar to view all the open questions.

2. Click next to the question that you want to edit and scroll down to see the Edit question form.

3. Make changes to your question.

4. Click Save to save all changes.

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In a category that requires question to be moderated, any new questions will be in the unapproved status and need to be approved before being published.

There are two options for answers: All and Approved.

If you select Approved, the Moderate question function will determine the unapproved questions to be displayed or not.

To approve/disapprove a question, follow one of these ways:

The first way:

1. Right-click the question title and select Edit from the drop-down menu. The Edit form will be displayed.

2. Select/Deselect the Approved checkbox.

The second way:

1. Right-click the question title and select Answer question from the drop-down menu. The Answer question form is displayed.

2. Select/Deselect the Approved checkbox.

The third way:

1. Click on the Action bar. The Manage questions form appears:

2. Click or to approve or disapprove the respective question.

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When a question is activated, it will be displayed and visible for all users to view. If not, it will be hidden and invisible.

The first way:

1. Go to the Edit question form.

2. Select/Deselect the Activated checkbox.

The second way:

1. Go to the Answer question form.

2. Select/Deselect the Activated checkbox.

The third way:

1. Click on the Action bar.

2. Click or to activate or deactivate the respective questions.

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There are several ways to delete questions:

The first way: Right-click your desired question and then select Delete from the drop-down menu.

The second way: Click on the Action bar and then click corresponding to the question you want to delete.

The third way: Click your desired question and click the delete icon. There will be an alert message, click OK to confirm.

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To move a question:

1. Open the Move question form by following one of two ways:

The first way: Right-click your desired question and then select Move to from the drop-down menu.

The second way: Select your desired question and click .

2. Select the category to which you want to move your selected question.

Note

Only the Administrator can move questions to any areas in Answers.

The Moderator will be checked for permission when moving questions. The Moderator can only move questions to the category where he is also the moderator.

A notification will be only sent to the creator of the question that has been moved.

See Also:

In this section, the following topics are covered:

On the top right of an answer, you will see icons that represent actions you can do on that answer.

Click on the top right of the answer content to approve that answer.

Note

The approved answer is visible to regular users, while the unapproved question is invisible.

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Click on the top right of the answer content to activate that answer.

Note

The deactivated answer is hidden to the regular users while the activated question is shown.

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To delete an answer, click the trash icon on the top right of the answer content, then click OK in the confirmation message.

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This function enables users to log in and give comments on specific questions.

If the comment is considered as the best answer for the question, it can be promoted to the answer.

To leave a comment:

1. Follow one of the following two ways.

The first way: Click the question you want to leave comments and select .

The second way: Right-click a specific question and select from drop-down menu.

2. Enter your answer in the text-input field.

3. Click Save to finish.

To promote a comment as an answer, click on the top right of the comments panel.

Note

Comments can be written in different languages. If a question is posted in multiple languages, it can also have comments in multiple languages.

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The Administrators have the global role and take care of the entire management tasks.

When adding a portlet to a page, you have to configure this portlet to make it work in your desired way.

To configure the Answers portlet:

1. Go to My Space --> Portal Administration --> Manage Page on the Administration bar.

2. Click that corresponds to the answers page:

Now, you should be in the page edit mode:

3. Hover your cursor over the Answer portlet, then click on the quick toolbar that appears.

4. Make changes in the Answer Portlet form.

In this form, you can:

In the Display Mode tab, you can set all the default display properties of the Answers application, including:

The type of sorting entries in the list may be: Ascending or Descending.

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When there are new questions or answers in the category or topic that a user has watched, the use will receive the email notification. In the Email notifications tab, change content of the email notification manually or edit the template for each email notifications.

Followings are variables that you can use in your template:

&categoryName_: will be replaced by the watched category.

&questionContent_: will be replaced by the content of the new questions.

&questionResponse_: will be replaced by the content of the new questions' reply.

These variables are used to load the content dynamically. Thus, you should not edit them. In case the template is changed unexpectedly, you can go back to the default template by clicking . You can use the text editor to format the template as you wish.

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In the Discussion tab, enable/disable the Discuss in forum function in Answers and set the default forum for this function by selecting/deselecting the checkbox.

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1. Click to open the Select a forum form in the Discussion tab.

2. Click a specific category/forum title to select it.

3. Click Save to accept saving changes in the Discussion tab.

Select the category scoping:

In the Category scoping tab, show/hide categories in Answers. The hidden category is not displayed in Answers.

To hide/show any category, simply deselect/select its checkbox and click Save.

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The FAQ portlet can be added to a page for users to view questions and answers quickly and easily.

The Edit Mode of the FAQ portlet enables you to set the properties to display questions and answers in the View mode.

To configure the FAQ portlet:

1. Go to My Space > Portal Administration > Manage Page on the Administration bar.

2. Click that corresponds to the FAQ page in the page list. Now, you should be in the page edit mode.

3. Hover your cursor over the FAQ portlet and click in the quick edit toolbar that appears.

i. In the Displaying Category tab, you can control what categories will be displayed.

ii. In the Edit Template tab, you can use CSS to customize the FAQ template.

This is an example of the FAQ template after applying the new style.

iii. In the Preference tab, you can enable or disable the bookmarkable URLs in Answers.

By not using Ajax, the Answers will generate plain URLs in the links. The added benefit will be bookmarkability and better SEO as the links will be permalinks. Using Ajax, the links will be javascript-based and generate Ajax calls. This should make browsing faster because the whole page is not reloaded.

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