Public Forum, Private Tickets, and FAQ

[Mark Hansen]

I'm working through the demo, but probably quicker if I just ask if you then xenForo is a good solution for what we need.

(1) Public forum where people can have discussions about our product (moderated).
(2) Private Ticket system, where users of our product can ask a question in a non-public way, and we can respond to them (also privately). Ideally, we'd get an email alert whenever a ticket is submitted.
(3) Read Only FAQ where we post common questions. Ideally, we'd be able to promote a thread from the Public forum on to the FAQ.

Seems obvious that xenForo is great at #1. How about #2 and #3?

 

[Jeremy]

The first one is possible.
The second one is sort of possible if you disallow users from seeing others threads and allow it for your staff. And your staff watches the forum. If you want an actual ticket system, there is no built in functionality.
The third one is possible with revoking permissions in a forum. Promoting could be moving a thread from one forum to another. An actual "FAQ" type system is not default with the software.

 

[Mark Hansen]

Thanks. Any examples out there of FAQs done in xenForo that I could take a look at?

The third one is possible with revoking permissions in a forum. Promoting could be moving a thread from one forum to another. An actual "FAQ" type system is not default with the software.

 

[mistypants]

Thanks. Any examples out there of FAQs done in xenForo that I could take a look at?

There is an FAQ add-on available: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/iversia-faq-manager.1413/
Here's the developer's demo: http://www.rpgfix.com/faq/

 

[Russ]

Just to chip in on the support tickets,

We've done a little customizing on http://pixelexit.com/

Basically set the permissions as @Jeremy mentioned, allow users to only read/respond to their own threads, allow staff to view all/reply to all.

We then use Prefixes for Priority of the tickets(Low,Medium,Sales,Solved) ect...

Next we have Nodes as Tabs(@Jake Bunce ) add-on to show the unread counter for the tickets, so when a user signs in if we respond to their ticket it'll show the amount of unread tickets they have right in the navigation bar.

Finally... we got bored one day and set some conditionals for the thread_view/thread_create basically setting if there in the certain node #(support tickets) it would change some of the phrases from like... Create Thread -> Create Support Ticket, remove polls from support ticket area ect...

Little leg work and it's a functioning support ticket system + free

 

[Mark Hansen]

Thanks - cool plugin.

There is an FAQ add-on available: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/iversia-faq-manager.1413/
Here's the developer's demo: http://www.rpgfix.com/faq/

 

[Mark Hansen]

Thanks - that's cool.

 

[Alteran Ancient]

We put together a custom FAQ page on my site - you can take a look at it here. This particular method doesn't use any add-ons to work (merely uses the XenForo Pages system) and all fits on a single page.

There are many different ways to achieve what you want here. How you implement it is completely up to you.

 

[Mark Hansen]

Thanks for the link. Looks pretty similar to what we want to do.

We put together a custom FAQ page on my site - you can take a look at it here. This particular method doesn't use any add-ons to work (merely uses the XenForo Pages system) and all fits on a single page.

There are many different ways to achieve what you want here. How you implement it is completely up to you.

 

[Mike Edge]

@Micheal also has a support helpdesk addon. Both at free and paid levels.

 

[Alteran Ancient]

Thanks for the link. Looks pretty similar to what we want to do.

I can pop you the source if you want it. Not that you can't get that already, of course.

 

[Mark Hansen]

How do you make the pages work like that (open/close). Mine just looks like this:

We put together a custom FAQ page on my site - you can take a look at it here. This particular method doesn't use any add-ons to work (merely uses the XenForo Pages system) and all fits on a single page.

There are many different ways to achieve what you want here. How you implement it is completely up to you.

 

[Jeremy]

That is the proper look for pages in the node list. The effect you are looking for is using an accordion type JavaScript widget. jQuery has a few.

Note that in XenForo, you need to define all the content HTML when you create them.

 

[Mark Hansen]

Oh, I see - they put their entire FAQ in a single XenForo Page using JQuery and HTML/CSS.

What does this mean?

you need to define all the content HTML when you create them.

 

[Jeremy]

When you create a page, it asks for the Page's HTML. That needs to be defined by you. Alteran Ancient styled and placed the page as you see on their link.