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 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, 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
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 respective 
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
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
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. Click Save to submit your answer.
See also
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
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 comment in the text-input field.
3. Click Save to finish.
Note
Comments can be written in different languages. However, you only can put comments on a question in multiple languages only when the question has been posted in multiple languages.
See also
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
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
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 right of the question content.
After being rated, the vote statistics will be updated.
Note
Each user can only rate a question once. Rating is not available to anonymous users.
See also
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 both (+1 and -1) for an answer at the same time. By clicking either of thumb icons, your voting will accordingly be changed.
See also
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
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
When going to user settings, you can:
Change your user settings
Click 
on the Action bar. The Settings form will appear.
Now you can:
You can select to display entries by created date/alphabetical order and sorted by ascending/descending type or by popularity.
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.
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
The function is for all logged in users. 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
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:
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
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
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 
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
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.
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.
Managing categories includes the following specific actions:
See also
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:
2. Do the same as the Step 2 of adding a new category in the Forum application.
3. Click Save to complete.
1. Follow one of the approaches described in Manage categories.
2. Select 
.
3. Edit the category properties.
4. Click Save to accept your changes.
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.
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.
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.
In this section, the following topics are covered:
Each question may be displayed in different ways, depending on the preset properties when it is created or edited. 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.
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.
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 questions:
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. Click on the Action bar to open the Manage Questions form.
2. Click 
or 
to disapprove or approve the question respectively.
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. Click on the Action bar.
2. Click or to activate or deactivate the question respectively.
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 click
. Next, click OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.
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.
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/disapprove that answer.
Note
The approved answer is visible to regular users while the unapproved question is invisible.
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.
To delete an answer, click on the top right of the answer content, then click OK in the confirmation message.
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. However, you can only put comments on a question in multiple languages only when the question has been posted in multiple languages.
The administrators have the global role and take care of the entire management tasks.
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:
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
When there are new questions or answers in the category or topic that a user has watched, the user 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 with the watched category.
&questionContent_: will be replaced with the content of the new question.
&questionResponse_: will be replaced with the content of the new question's reply.
&questionLink_: will be replaced with the link for going to new questions.
&answerNowLink_: will be replaced with the link for going to new questions and open a pop-up form which allows you to answer the 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
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
1. Click 
next to the Select a 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
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