This moduleAn add-on, or extension, to Drupal to provide additional functionality; written in PHP. is an add-on to the FAQ module that allows users with the 'ask question' permission to create a question which will be queued for an 'expert' to answer.

For more about why this moduleAn add-on, or extension, to Drupal to provide additional functionality; written in PHP. exists, please read "Ask the Expert" or Advice Column.

Viewing of the completed question and answer pair is done by the FAQFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered. moduleAn add-on, or extension, to Drupal to provide additional functionality; written in PHP..

Installation

Normal moduleAn add-on, or extension, to Drupal to provide additional functionality; written in PHP. installation applies.

Settings

In order for this moduleAn add-on, or extension, to Drupal to provide additional functionality; written in PHP. to support multiple experts, it requires that the FAQFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered. moduleAn add-on, or extension, to Drupal to provide additional functionality; written in PHP. be set to "Use Categories."

The settings are on a new tab in the FAQFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered. Settings page. One selects the roles to be considered experts; then one is given a choice of users within those roles to associate with the FAQFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered. categories. The expert role(s) need to be given the "answer question" and "edit faqFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered." permissions.

Note: until one or more experts are set up, the moduleAn add-on, or extension, to Drupal to provide additional functionality; written in PHP. does almost nothing except generate a few warning messages.

Menus

The moduleAn add-on, or extension, to Drupal to provide additional functionality; written in PHP. creates a menu item for "Ask a question" (see "Usage Notes" below). There is an abbreviated version of the FAQFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered. form without an answer field. The category choice is not an actual taxonomy selection, but it looks the same. The node is created without the 'published' attribute.

Blocks

There is a block that will show the unanswered questions to the 'expert' (generally, this requires a separate role). The user who created the question is also allowed to edit it until it's answered. (After that, standard FAQFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered. permissions take over.)

If one is an expert with unanswered questions, those will be shown first. After those have been answered, if the user has asked unaswered questions, those will be shown. Finally, users with "administer nodes" and/or "administer faqFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered." will see all unanswered questions.

Notifications

If notification of question creation is needed, use the Subscriptions moduleAn add-on, or extension, to Drupal to provide additional functionality; written in PHP. set for the appropriate terms (FAQFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered. categories).

Usage Notes

While this moduleAn add-on, or extension, to Drupal to provide additional functionality; written in PHP. does supply an "ask a question" menu entry, I typically disable it and use an FAQFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered. "shortcut" instead (that is, "Ask Nancy" points to "http://www.myexample.com/faqFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered./999").

The other shortcut I use is to set up the taxonomy term description something like the following. This puts an "ask" linkThe technique which points to another page, anywhere on the Internet, from the current page. right at the top of the FAQFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered. page.

<a href="http://nanwich.info" target="_blank">Nancy</a> is a South carolina-based web site builder. She generally uses the content management system (CMS) know as Drupal. She welcomes your questions about web sites and Drupal.<br/>Click here to <a href="/faq_ask/137"><b>ask her a question</b></a>. She will answer as soon as possible.

Since FAQFrequently Asked Question - most web sites get questions; the owner may collect the frequent ones to be easily asnwered. now supports the Taxonomy Image module, I also create a picture of the expert to go with this term. This, however, requires a bit of CSSCascading Style Sheet - a hierarchical means of specifying how to format HTML elements on the page tweaking and, as of this writing, a patch to TI. I will be happy to provide more details upon request.