eXo Platform 3.5

## 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.

## Regular user

### View details of Answers

After accessing Answers, the left pane is hidden by default. To toggle the left pane, click on the Action bar. 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. Here, you can also preview the attached image, or download the attached files.

`See also`

- Search

- Print

### Submit a question

The Answers application allows you to raise your questions on any issues and helps you find the best answer.

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

Or, go into the category that you want to submit questions, 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:

i. Give details to your question into the Details field.

ii. Select your desired language in the Language drop-down list.

iii. Enter your email in the valid format, such as username@abc.com into the Email form.

iv. Attach different-typed files to your question by clicking the Attach a file link. The max size for the attachment is 20Mb. To remove the attached files, click the corresponding Remove link next to the file attachments.

3. Click Save to complete submitting your question.

A message will inform that your question has been added successfully.

If you submit a question to the moderated category, a message informs that your question needs to be approved before being displayed in that category.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Edit a question

- Answer a question

- Comment on a question

- Send a question to others

- Discuss a question in forum

- Rate a question

#### Edit a question

Regular users can only edit their own questions.

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

The first way

- Right-click the question that you want to edit, then select Edit from drop-down menu.

The second way

- Click a question, then select as below.

2. Make changes on 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 accept your changes.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Submit a question

- Comment on a question

- Send a question to others

- Discuss a question in Forum

- Rate a question

### Answer a question

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

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

The first way

- Right-click the question you want to answer, then 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 answer (optional). If this answer 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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Submit a question

- Edit an answer

- Vote for an answer

#### Edit an answer

Regular users can only edit their answers.

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

2. Make changes on your selected answer.

3. Click Save to accept your changes.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Answer a question

- Vote for an answer

### Comment on a question

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.

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, then 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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Submit a question

- Answer a question

- Send a question to others

- Discuss a question in Forum

- Rate a question

### Send a question to others

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

1. Follow one of these following ways:

The first way

- Right-click the question that you want to send, then select Send from the drop-down menu.

The second way

- Click your desired question, then 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

Add CC/Add BCC allows you to send this message to multiple receivers. Use Add CC if you want all receivers to refer to this message. Use Add BCC if you want all receivers to get this message but cannot see email addresses of other receivers.

If the submitted question has been existing in another language, you can select your desired language from the Language drop-down list. If you change the language, the question's subject and the message content will be changed accordingly.

The users with email addresses in the To, CC and BBC fields will receive this message. The receivers can click the here link in the content of the message to view the question in details in the Answers application.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Submit a question

- Answer a question

- Comment on a question

- Discuss a question in forum

- Rate a question

### Discuss a question in forum

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.

Discuss or view the question discussion

The first way

- Open the question and click on the top right 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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Submit a question

- Answer a question

- Comment on a question

- Send a question to others

- Rate a question

### Rate a question

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.

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 in the confirmation message.

### Note

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

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Submit a question

- Answer a question

- Comment on a question

- Send a question to others

- Discuss a question in forum

### Vote for an answer

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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Answer a question

- Edit an answer

### Watch/Unwatch a category

The Watch feature allows you to keep track of all changes in 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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

### Subscribe to RSS feeds

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

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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

### Edit user settings

When going to user settings, you can:

- Change how Answers will display the entries.

- Manage your subscriptions.

- Change your avatar.

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 want to view its 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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

### View public user profile

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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

### Search

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.

#### Quick 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.

Details:

Item | Description
--- | ---
| The question has been answered.
| The question has not been answered.
| The category containing your entered keywords.
| Click this icon to go into a question or a category.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Advanced search

#### Advanced search

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.

- Search in both categories and entries/questions by deselecting the categories or entries from the "Search in" drop-down menu. This form is set by default.

- Search in categories by selecting Category from the drop-down menu. You will do a search with some specific criteria to find expected categories. Search results will only include categories.

- Search in entries/questions to find your expected questions, answers or comments by selecting Entries from the drop-down menu.

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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Quick search

### Print

Print all questions with their answers of a category and 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.

Print details of a question

1. Click your desired question.

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

3. Select the Print to start printing.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

## Moderator

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 content (editing or removing if necessary), approve or activate answers, and more. The moderator has the category-specific role.

### Manage categories

Moderator 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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Add a new category

- Edit category properties

- Delete a category

- Move a category

- Export/Import a category

#### Add a new category

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

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.

Details:

Field | Description
--- | ---
Asterisk (*) | This mark next to each field means that it is required to enter values in the field.
Category | The name of the category.
Order | The order of the category which must be in the numeric format.
Restricted Audience | Select specific users/groups to be restricted from the category.
Moderate New Questions | Check this option if you want moderate all newly posted questions before they are viewable.
View Question Authors | Check this option if you want information of the question poster to be shown.
Moderate Answers | Check this option to moderate all answers before they are viewable.
Moderator | The moderator of the category.

2. Do the same as the Step 2 of adding a new category in the Forum application.

3. Click Save to complete.

#### Edit category properties

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

2. Select .

3. Edit the properties.

4. Click Save to accept your changes.

#### Delete a category

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

2. Select from the drop-down menu.

3. Click OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

#### Move a category

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.

#### Export/Import a category

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

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.

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.

### Moderate questions

In this section, the following topics are covered:

- View all questions

- Edit a question

- Approve/Disapprove a question

- Activate/Deactivate a question

- Delete a question

- Move a question

#### View all questions

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.

#### Edit a question

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 on your question.

4. Click Save to save all changes.

#### Approve/Disapprove a question

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 when approving/disapproving answers:

- All: all approved and unapproved questions are displayed and visible for all users.

- Approved: only the approved questions are displayed while the unapproved questions are hidden.

If you select Approved, the Moderate Question function will determine the unapproved questions to display or not.

Approve/Disapprove a question

The first way

1. Right-click the question title, then select Edit from the drop-down menu to open the Edit form.

2. Select/Deselect the Approved checkbox.

The second way

1. Right-click the question title, then select Answer Question from the drop-down menu to open the Answer form.

2. Select/Deselect the Approved checkbox.

The third way

1. Click on the Action bar to open the Manage Questions form.

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

#### Activate/Deactivate a question

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

The first way

1. Edit a question to open the Edit Question form.

2. Select/Deselect the Activated checkbox.

The second way

1. Go to the Answer form.

2. Select/Deselect the Activated checkbox.

The third way

1. Click on the Action bar.

2. Click or to activate or deactivate the question respectively.

#### Delete a question

There are several ways to delete questions:

The first way

- Right-click your desired question, then select Delete from the drop-down menu.

The second way

- Click on the Action bar, then click corresponding to the question you want to delete.

The third way

- Click your desired question, then select the delete icon. Next, click OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

#### Move a question

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

The first way

- Right-click your desired question, then select Move to from the drop-down menu.

The second way

- Select your desired question, then 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.

### Moderate an answer

In this section, the following topics are covered:

- Approve/Disapprove an answer

- Activate/Deactivate an answer

- Delete an answer

- Promote a comment to answer

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

#### Approve/Disapprove an answer

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

### Note

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

#### Activate/Deactivate an answer

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

### Note

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

#### Delete an answer

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

#### Promote a comment to answer

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.

Leave a comment

1. Follow one of the following two ways:

The first way

- Click the question you want to leave comments, then select .

The second way

- Right-click a specific question, then select from the drop-down menu.

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

3. Click Save to finish.

Promote a comment as answer

Simply 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.

## Administrator

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

### Set up the Answers portlet

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

Configure the Answers portlet

1. Open the page edit mode via one of the following ways:

- The first way

i. Click --> Portal --> Page on the Administration bar.

ii. Click that corresponds to the page containing the Answers portlet in the Page Management page.

- The second way

i. Select a portal that contains a page with the Answers portlet, then open the page.

ii. Hover your cursor over Edit --> Page, then click Layout.

Now, you should be in the Edit mode of the page.

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

4. Make changes in the Answer Portlet form.

In this form, you can:

- Change the display mode

- Customize email notification template

- Enable the "Discuss in Forum" feature

#### Change the display mode

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

- Display: Display all entries in the Answers application for administrators and moderators.

  - All: All entries, including approved and unapproved entries/questions, are displayed in a list when administrators and moderators view.

  - Approved: Only approved entries are displayed in the list when administrators and moderators view.

- Order by: The order to display all questions in the Answers application.

  - Created Date: Entries in the list are displayed to the entries's created date order.

  - Alphabet/Index: Entries in the list are displayed to the alphabet order.

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

- Enable Votes and Comments: Enable votes and comments to be available in Answers. If this checkbox is selected, users can comment and vote in Answers. If not, these functions are disabled.

- Anonymous users may submit questions: Enable anonymous users to submit questions in Answers or not. If this checkbox is selected, anonymous users are entitled to submit questions. If not, they cannot submit questions.

- Enable Automatic RSS: Enable the RSS feeds function to be available in Answers or not. If this option is selected, users can get RSS information in Answers.

- Display Avatars: Enable avatars to be viewed in Answers or not. If this checkbox is selected, the avatar of eXo members are shown in Answers.

- Allow users to post questions in the root category: Enable users to post questions in the root category or not.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Customize the email notification template

- Enable the "Discuss in Forum" feature

- Define the default category for discussions

#### Customize the email notification template

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 the content of the email notification manually or edit the template for each email notification.

- New Question tab: The content of the email notification.

- Edit/Answer tab: The content of the email notification that has been answered or edited.

- Move Question tab: The content of the email notification that notifies about the question that has been moved to another category.

The 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.

&questionLink_: will be replaced by the link for going to new questions.

&answerNowLink_: will be replaced by the link for going to new questions and open pop-up form Answer question.

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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Change the display mode

- Enable the "Discuss in Forum" feature

- Define the default category for discussions

#### Enable the "Discuss in Forum" feature

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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Change the display mode

- Customize the email notification template

- Define the default category for discussions

#### Define the default category for discussions

1. Click next to the Select the forum field 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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Change the display mode

- Customize email notification template

- Enable the "Discuss in Forum" feature

### Set up the FAQ portlet

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 allows you to set the properties to display questions and answers in the View mode.

Configure the FAQ portlet

1. Click --> Portal --> Pages.

The Page Manager page will be displayed.

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 Display 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 FAQ.

By not using Ajax, the FAQ 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.

`See also`

- View details of Answers

- Set up the Answers portlet