Why should you build your own FAQ website?
If you provide a service or have a mind blowing product that you sell then you definitely would have some frequently asked questions (FAQs).
FAQs are very valuable for your users and every top notch company would maintain it as a knowledge-base and share it with their users, how about you?
FAQs not only save you time but also shows your professional courtesy of helping your users to figure out some basic details all by themselves.
Today I am going to introduce you to one such framework called phpMyFAQ, which is completely free to use and could in fact add more value to your service.
Features of phpMyFAQ
Below are some of the cool features of phpMyFAQ there is a lot more packed in it,
- You can create unlimited Categories, FAQs and users with groups.
- Responsive Bootstrap Design.
- phpMyFAQ currently supports more than 40+ translations including RTL languages like Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew.
- You can integrate existing OpenLDAP baser user management with phpMyFAQ.
- In built Facebook and Twitter integration.
- In built Revision Control System.
- In built advanced spam protection.
- Backup and Restore your phpMyFAQ with one click.
- Export your FAQs into PDF, XML or XHTML.
- Inbuilt session expiration settings.
- Rating Statistics for your FAQs.
Installing phpMyFAQ
1) Download phpMyFAQ from here, the zip file size should be around 6 MB.
2) Extract the contents of the zip file under: C:\xampp\htdocs\FAQ
3) phpMyFAQ requires ext/fileinfo extension to be enabled, if you haven’t enabled it then you may get the below message when you start the installation.
To enable the extension open your php.ini file and locate the below line and remove the semicolon before the extension, save and close the file.
;extension=php_fileinfo.dll
4) Also ensure the below three folders are created under C:\xampp\htdocs\FAQ
- /attachments
- /data
- /images
5) Restart your Apache Module.
6) Create a database with the name phpfaq in MySQL.
7) Now when you navigate to http://localhost/faq/install/setup.php you should see the installation screen displayed to you.
8) In the left side you will have to provide the database connection setup details, enter the database host name as localhost, enter your mysql username and password (should be minimum 6 characters) and the name of the database you just created.
9) On the right side – Your phpMyFAQ setup area, enter your name, email address, provide a login name and password for your PhpMyFAQ site.
Leave the rest to its defaults and click the Install button.
Note: Your password will be saved with a hash encryption. You can change the encryption type for passwords in config/constants.php.
Once the installation is successful you should see a success message and an optional survey.
Your admin URL is: http://localhost/faq/admin/index.php
Your FAQ Site URL is: http://localhost/faq/index.php
First Things to do
- Login into via admin URL and click on the Administration link in the top right section. You should see the Dashboard section.
- Click on the FAQ Categories and add a New Top Level Category. Now you can add sub categories to your parent category.
- Now go ahead and start adding FAQs by clicking on Add new FAQ record.
You can also add a FAQ glossary. Got some news? Use FAQ news under content tab to share your updates 
