phpMyFAQ is a multilingual, completely database-driven FAQ-system. It supports various databases to store all data, PHP 5.2.0 (or higher) is needed in order to access this data. phpMyFAQ also offers a multi-language Content Management-System with a WYSIWYG editor and an Image Manager, flexible multi-user support with user and group based permissions on categories and records, a wiki-like revision feature, a news system, user-tracking, language modules, enhanced automatic content negotiation, templates, extensive XML-support, PDF-support, a backup-system, a dynamic sitemap, related articles, tagging, RSS feeds, built-in spam protection systems, LDAP support, and an easy to use installation script.
This documentation should help you with installing and administrating phpMyFAQ.
phpMyFAQ is published unter the Mozilla Public License Version 1.1 (MPL). This license guarantees you the free usage of phpMyFAQ, access to the sourcecode and the right to modify and distribute phpMyFAQ.
The only restrictions apply to the copyright, which remains at all times at Thorsten Rinne and the phpMyFAQ Team. Any modified versions of phpMyFAQ will also fall under the terms of MPL. Any other program, that may only be accessing certain functions of phpMyFAQ is not affected by these restrictions and may be distributed under any type of license.
A commercial usage or commercially distribution of phpMyFAQ, e.g. on CD-ROMs, is allowed, as long as the conditions mentioned above are met.
We decided to use MPL as the licensing model for phpMyFAQ because we feel that it is a good compromise between the protection of the openness and free distribution on the one hand and the interaction with other software regardless of its licensing model. When compared to other licensing models its text is short and easily comprehensible, even for newcomers.
This documentation is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
If you should run into any problems using phpMyFAQ check out our support forums at forum.phpmyfaq.de. There is no support for free by phone or email, please refrain from calling or mailing us.
The phpMyFAQ team offers the following paid services:
If you're interested, just take a look at our support page.
© 2001-2009 by Thorsten Rinne and phpMyFAQ Team under the Mozilla Public License. All rights reserved.
2.a. Requirements for phpMyFAQ
phpMyFAQ addresses a database system via PHP. In order to install it you will need a webserver that meets the following requirements:
You can only run phpMyFAQ successfully, when the PHP directive safe_mode is set to off, further constraints affect the directives open_basedir and disable_functions, which can be set in the central php.ini or the httpd.conf respectively.
In case PHP runs as module of the Apache, you will have to be able to do a chown on the files before installation. The files and directories must be owned by the Apache user.
You can determine which versions your webserver is running by creating a file called info.php with the following content:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Upload this file to your webspace and open it using your browser. The installation-script checks which version of PHP is installed on your server. Should you not meet the requirements, you cannot start the installation process.
In case you have PHP below 5.2.0 installed you cannot use phpMyFAQ 2.5.
phpMyFAQ uses a WYSIWYG online editor. It uses a non-standard feature based on JavaScript implemented in Mozilla Firefox 0.7+ (any platform), Mozilla 1.3+ (any platform), Opera 9.0+ (any platform), Safari 3.0+ (Mac OS X and Windows), and Internet Explorer 6.0+ for Windows, therefore the editor will only work in one of these browsers. You have to enable JavaScript for the Ajax based functions as well.
If you're using lighttpd you have to set the following configuration:
cgi.fix_pathinfo 1
Please unzip the downloaded archive on your harddisk.
You can modify the layout of phpMyFAQ using templates. A description of
how this is done can be found below. Copy all unzipped files
to your webserver in a directory using FTP. A good choice would be the
directory faq/.
Important:
Writing permission for your script is needed in this directory to be able to
configure the file data.php during installation. This is the
case if you're running PHP as CGI or as mod_php with disabled safe-mode. The
installation script will stop when your webserver isn't configured as needed.
It might help to set chmod 777 to the whole phpMyFAQ directory to avoid problems during the installation. If you're running a very restrictive mod_php installation you should keep the chmod 777 for the following files and directories even after the succesful installation:
All other directories shouldn't be world-writable for your own security.
The database user needs the permissions for CREATE, DROP, ALTER, INDEX, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE and SELECT on all tables in the database.
Open your browser and type in the following URL:
http://www.example.com/faq/install/installer.php
Substitute www.example.com with your actual domain name. When the site is loaded enter the address of your database server (e.g. db.provider.com), your database username and password as well as the database name. The datebase must be availible before running the installation script. You can leave the prefix-field empty. If you are planning on using multiple FAQs in one database you will have to use a tableprefix, though (i.e. sport for a sports-FAQ, weather for a weather-FAQ, etc.). Please note that only letters and an underline: "_" can be used as the prefix.
If your PHP was compiled with the LDAP extension you can add your LDAP information, too. You have to insert your LDAP informations, too.
When using multiple FAQs you need to install them independently into different directories (e.g. faq1/, faq2/. faq3/ etc.). In addition you can enter your language, default here is English. Furthermore you should register your name, your email address and - very importantly - your password. You must enter the password twice and it have to be at least six places long. Then click the button "install" to initialize the tables in your database.
You can enter the public area of your FAQ by entering
http://www.example.com/faq/index.php
into your browser's address field. Your FAQ will be empty and presented in the the standard layout.
To configure phpMyFAQ point your browser to
http://www.example.com/faq/admin/index.php
Use the username admin and your selected password for your first login into the admin section.
Some variables that doesn't change regulary, they can be edited in the file inc/constants.php. You can change the
2.e. Notes regarding the search-function
The boolean fulltext-search will only work with MySQL and if there are some entries in the database (5 or more). The term you are looking for should also not be in more than 50% of all your entries, or it will automatically be excluded from search. This is not a bug, but rather a feature of MySQL.
2.f. Automatic content negotiation
To set the default language in your browser you have to set a variable that gets passed to the web server. How this is done depends on the browser you are using.
Edit -> Preferences ->
Navigator -> LanguagesSystem preferences -> International -> Language
File -> Preferences -> LanguagesLinux/*BSD versions 5.x and 6.x:
File -> Preferences -> Document -> Languages
Tools or View or Extras -> Internet Options -> (General) Languages
If you're able to edit the php.ini file, please check that the variable file_upload = On is set; otherwise the file upload will not work for the attachments. You should disable the safe_mode because it will cause trouble when you're trying to upload files or if you want to use the user tracking.
2.h. Enabling mod_rewrite support
Apache Webserver
If you want to enable the search engine optimization you have to rename the file _.htaccess to .htaccess in the root directory where your FAQ is located. Then you have to activate the mod_rewrite support in the admin backend in the configuration page. You also have to edit the path information for the "RewriteBase".
IIS Webserver
If you want to enable the search engine optimization you have to rename the file _httpd.ini to httpd.ini in the root directory where your FAQ is located. Then you have to activate the mod_rewrite support in the admin backend in the configuration page.
lighttpd Webserver
If you want to enable the search engine optimization you have to copy the rewrite rules in the file _lighttpd.conf to your lighttpd.conf. Then you have to activate the mod_rewrite support in the admin backend in the configuration page.
If you're entered the correct LDAP information during the installation you have to enable the LDAP support in the configuration in the admin backend. After this action phpMyFAQ reads the full username and email address from LDAP and fills this information automatically into the input forms in the public frontend.
Not every (X)HTML tag is supported by the PDF export. Currently we're supporting the following tags in the PDFs:
Currently phpMyFAQ doesn't support UTF-8 in PDFs.
2.k. Firefox and IE7 search plugins
phpMyFAQ 2.5.x provides search plugins for Mozilla Firefox 2 and later and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and later based on the OpenSearch specification. Every user in the frontend can install it. With an installed search plugin you can search through the phpMyFAQ installation with the search box in upper right corner of Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer.
phpMyFAQ implements a static solution ID which never changes. This ID is displayed next to the question on a FAQ record page. You may think why do you need such an ID? If you have a record ID 1042 it is now possible to enter only the ID 1024 in the input field of the fulltext search box and you'll be automatically redirected to the FAQ record with the ID 1024. By default the numbers start at ID 1000 but you can change this value in the file inc/constants.php. You can also change the value of the incrementation of the static IDs.
phpMyFAQ 2.5 performs these three checks on public forms:
The IP/Network addresses can be added or removed in the configuration panel in the administration backend. If you want to add banned words to phpMyFAQ, then you have to edit the file inc/blockedwords.txt. Please add only one word per line.
Upgrading to phpMyFAQ 2.5.x is possible from the following versions:
If you're running an older version of phpMyFAQ we recommend a new and fresh install.
3.a. Upgrading from phpMyFAQ 1.6.x
Upgrading from 1.6.x to 2.5.x is a really major upgrade. Please make a full backup before you run the upgrade! Nevertheless the update from phpMyFAQ 1.6.x to the current release is fairly simple. First you have to delete all files except:
Open the following URL in your browser:
http://www.example.com/faq/install/update.php
Choose your installed phpMyFAQ version and click the button of the update script, your version will automatically be updated.. You have to update some of your template files due to the new, enhanced template engine.
3.b. Upgrading from phpMyFAQ 2.0.x
Upgrading from 2.0.x to 2.5.x is a major upgrade. Please make a full backup before you run the upgrade! Nevertheless the update from phpMyFAQ 2.0.x to the current release is fairly simple. First you have to delete all files except:
Open the following URL in your browser:
http://www.example.com/faq/install/update.php
Choose your installed phpMyFAQ version and click the button of the update script, your version will automatically be updated. You have to update some of your template files due to the new, enhanced template engine.
Updating phpMyFAQ 2.5.x is fairly simple. Via FTP copy all new files from the phpMyFAQ package except:
Open the following URL in your browser:
http://www.example.com/faq/install/update.php
Choose your installed phpMyFAQ version and click the button of the update script, your version will automatically be updated.
You can find the changed files between the 2.5.x versions in the file docs/CHANGEDFILES.txt.
3.d. Modifying templates for phpMyFAQ 2.5.x
The 1.4.x and 1.5.x templates are partly compatible with phpMyFAQ 2.5.x, so you have to edit them and add some new placeholders for example for the captcha support and some other improvements. The 1.6.x and 2.0.x templates are mostly compatible with phpMyFAQ 2.0, if your layout is completly based on CSS, you only have to change the .tpl files listed in docs/CHANGEDFILES.txt. If you need help to integrate phpMyFAQ into your website feel free to contact us.
The phpMyFAQ frontend has a quite simple default layout. The header has the main links for the advanced search, add content, ask questions, open questions, help and contact. On the left side you see the main categories, the instant response page and the sitemap. You can also change the current language of the FAQ, use the search form or the login box if you have a valid user account. On the right side you see a list of the most popular FAQ records, the latest records, and the sticky FAQ records. On the pages with the FAQ records you'll see the other records of the current category and the tagcloud if you're using tagging.
As written above there's a select box for changing the current language. If you're visiting a phpMyFAQ powered FAQ, the current language will be the one you're browser is usring or the language which was selected by the administrator of the FAQ. If you change the language you'll see the categories and records of your chosen language. If there are no entries in this language you'll see no entries. If you're switching to languages with right to left text direction (for example Arabic, Hebrew or Farsi) the whole layout will be switching according to the text direction.
On the start page you can subscribe to three RSS feeds with the news of the FAQ, the most popular FAQs, all records per requested category and the latest records available in the FAQ. On the page with the open user questions you can subscribe to the RSS feed with these questions. All feeds are valid and compatible to the RSS 2.0 specification.
On the page with the advanced search you have more possibilities to find an entry. You can search over all language if you want to. It's alos possible to search only in one selected category. Additionally the link for the OpenSearch plugin is below the main search box. At the bottom of the search box you'll see a list of the most popular search terms.
The Instant Response is an Ajax-powered page with direct access to the whole FAQ database and the page will return the search results while you're typing into the input form. For performance reasons only the first 10 results will be displayed on the page.
On the Add FAQ page it's possible for all users to add a new FAQ record. The users have to add a FAQ question, select a category, add an answer, and they have to insert their name and e-mail address. If the spam protection is enabled they have to enter the correct captcha code, too. New FAQ entries won't be displayed and have to be activated by an administrator.
On the ask question page it's possible for all users to add a new question without an answer. If the question is submitted, phpMyFAQ checks the words for the question and will do a full text search on the database with the existing FAQs. If we found some matches the user will get some recommendations depending on the question he submitted.
The users have to add a question, select a category, and they have to insert their name and e-mail address. If the spam protection is enabled they have to enter the correct captcha code, too. By default new questions won't be displayed and have to be activated by an administrator.
This page displays all open questions and it's possible for all users to add an answer for this question. The user will be directed to the add content page If the spam protection is enabled they have to enter the correct captcha code, too.
On every FAQ record page there's a select box for languages and a button to translate an existing FAQ record to another language. The translating user will be directed to a special add content page with the original entry and a stripped down WYSIWYG editor component. If the spam protection is enabled they have to enter the correct captcha code, too.
Please do not forget to add also a translated category, otherwise you won't be able to activate the translated entry.
On every FAQ record page there's a direct link to digg.com there you can submit the FAQ entry.
For better usability there are some helpful links below every FAQ record. If the administrator added tags to the records they will be displayed next to five (or more) related articles. The related articles are based on the content of the current FAQ entry. On the right side you'll see links to all entries of the current category and the complete tag cloud of the whole FAQ.
On the left column of the default layout the users of the FAQ also have the possibility to register themselves. The user generated accounts are unactived by default and the administrator has to activate them.
The administration of phpMyFAQ is completely browser-based. The admin area can be found under this URL:
http://www.example.com/faq/admin/index.php
You can also login in the public frontend and after the successful login you'll see a link to administration backend, too.
If you have lost your password you can reset it. A new random password will be generated and sent to you via e-mail. Please change it after your successful login with the generated password.
After entering your username and password you can log into the system. On the startpage you can see the admin menu on the top, some statistics about visits, entries and comments in the middle of the page. At the bottom of the main admin page you'll see a button for version information. If you click on that button your version of phpMyFAQ will check the latest version number from our website www.phpmyfaq.de. We do not log anything in this process! You can switch the current language in the administration backend and you have an info box about the session timeout.
phpMyFAQ offers a flexible management of privileges (or rights) for different users in the admin area. To search for a certain user just start typing the username in the input form and you'll get a list of hits for usernames. It is possible to assign different priviledges to real people (represented by the term users). Those priviledges are very detailed and specific, so that you could allow a certain user to edit but not to delete an entry. It is very important to contemplate which user shall get which priviledges. You could edit an entry by completely deleting all content, which would be equivalent to deleting the whole entry. The number of possible users is not limited by phpMyFAQ.
Keep in mind that new users have no priviledges at all, you will have to assign them by editing the user's profile. The admin user cannot be deleted, nor can the name be changed.
A user without any permission in the admin section can still get read access to categories and records. You can set the permissions on categories and records in the category and record administration frontends.
phpMyFAQ also offers a flexible management of privileges (or rights) for different groups in the admin area. You can set permissions for groups in the same way like for users described in the topic above.
Please note that the permissions for a group are higher rated than the permissions on a user.
phpMyFAQ lets you create different categories and nested sub-categories for your FAQ. You can also re-arrange your categories in a different order. It is possible to use varius languages per category, too; there's also a frontend about all translated categories. For accessibility reasons you should add a small description for every category. If you add a new category, you can set the permissions for users and groups, and you can bind an administrator to that category. This is quite nice if you want to share the work in your FAQ between various admin users.
You can create entries directly in the admin area. Created entries are NOT published by default. All available entries are listed on the page "edit FAQs". By clicking on them the same interface that lets you create records will open up, this time with all the relevant data of the specific entry. The meaning of the fields is as follows:
You can edit and delete all records as well. Please note that old revisions won't be deleted.
phpMyFAQ lets visitors contribute to the FAQ by asking questions. Every visitor is able to view these open questions in the public area, and may give an answer. If you wish to get rid of open questions you can do so using this section. Alternatively you can take over a question and answer it yourself and hereby add it to the FAQ.
In this straight frontend you can see all comments that have been posted in the FAQs and the news. You cannot edit comments but you can delete them with one easy click.
phpMyFAQ offers the ability to post news on the starting page of your FAQ. In the administration area you can create new items, edit existing news or delete them.
A glossary is a list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. You can add, edit and delete glossary items here. The items will be automatically displayed in <acronym> tags in the frontend.
Below every entry visitors have the chance to rate the overall quality of an article by giving ratings from 1 to 5 (whereas 1 is the worst, 5 the best rating). In the statistics the average rating and number of votes becomes visible for every rated entry. To give you a quick overview entries with an average rating of 2 or worse are displayed in red, an average above 4 results in a green number.
View Sessions
This functions lets you keep track of your visitors. Every visitor is assigned an
id when coming to your starting page, that identifies him during his whole visit.
Using the information gathered here you could reconstruct the way visitors use your
FAQ and make neccessary adjustments to your categories, content or keywords.
View Adminlog
The adminlog allows you to track any actions taken by users in the admin area
of phpMyFAQ. If you feel you have an intruder in the system you can find out
for sure by checking the admin log.
Search statistics
On the search statistics page you'll get a report about which keywords and how
often your users are searching. These informations are splitted into keywords, the
number of searches for this term, the language and the overall percentage.
You can export your contents of your whole FAQ or just some selected categories into four formats:
Using the backup function it is possible to create a copy of the database to a single file. This makes it possible to restore the FAQ after a possible "crash" or to move the FAQ from one server to another. It is recommended to make regular backups of your FAQ.
In phpMyFAQ code and layout are separated. The layout is based on several templates, that you can modify to suit your own needs. The most important files for phpMyFAQ's layout can be found in the directory template/. All original templates are valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional and we don't use tables for layout reasons.
Note: You can change the layout of the admin area using the CSS file admin.css.
6.a. The file template/index.tpl
The default layout of phpMyFAQ is saved in the index.tpl file. This is a normal HTML-file including some variables in curly brackets, serving as placeholders for content.
Example:
<span class="useronline">{userOnline}</span>
The template-parser of the FAQ converts the placeholder {userOnline} to the actual number of visitors online.
You can change the template as you wish, but you may want to keep the original template in case something goes wrong.
6.b. The file template/style.css
All formattings such as fonts and the like can be modified in the CSS-file style.css. The colors are defined in the file colors.css. More info can be found at the official W3C website.
You need an other template design or more XHTML/CSS features? Then write us an email and we can talk about it.
Thank you for using phpMyFAQ! :-)
Author: Thorsten Rinne
Co-Authors: Stephan Hochhaus,
Markus Gläser
Last update: 2009-06-11
© 2001-2009 phpMyFAQ Team
This documentation is licensed under a Creative Commons License.