The Q&A module is typically used in transactions, in connection with a site that has been set up as a Bidder site. It allows interested parties to submit questions to the selling party in a controlled and secure manner, and to permit the selling party to respond to those questions in an organised fashion.
The Q&A admin page is only displayed when the Q&A module has been enabled:
Configuring the Q&A module
The Q&A administrative page displays a read-only view of the Q&A permissions granted to various site users:
As the name implies, the Q&A module is used for asking and answering questions about specific files and folders or about the site/matter in general. In order to see the Q&A module and have any type of access to it, a user must be given access to at least one of the rights listed on this page. Bidder organisations are denoted accordingly.
Users with access to the Q&A module will fall into one of two categories; those involved with asking questions and those involved with answering them. To submit questions, users can have one of these permissions:
- Ask question - Users with the Ask question permission can ask questions but cannot submit them to be answered. Instead, those questions must first be approved by someone else from within the same organisation
- Submit question - Users with the Submit question permission can approve questions asked by others from within the same organisation or they can ask questions on their own which need not be approved by anyone else
For answering questions, users can have the following permissions:
- Reply to question - Users with the Reply to question permission can view and answer questions asked by any organisation.
- View all questions - Users with the View all questions permission can view all submitted questions, answers and replies from any organisation. This permission by itself does not permit the user to answer questions.
Users who are members of Bidder organisations cannot be granted the Reply to question or View all questions permissions.
In addition, you can use the Q&A email field to send users emails when a new question, an answer to a question or a reply to an answer is submitted, following the permissions they have been granted.
After selecting the Q&A administrative module, the Site Administrator has two options:
Edit Q&A permissions
To edit Q&A permissions, click Edit Q&A permissions:
The Edit Q&A permissions screen is displayed:
In this screen, you can determine which users should have which permissions. Once you have set the permissions for each user, click Save to save your changes.
To give all users from a specific organisation the same set of permissions, select the checkbox next to the name of the organisation. All current and future users from that organisation be granted those permissions.
If no user from an organisation is given the Submit question permission, then no questions can be submitted from that entire organisation.
Users who are members of Bidder organisations cannot be granted the Reply to question or View all questions permissions.
Once a user has been granted any permissions to the Q&A module:
- The Q&A tab will be displayed at the top of the page
- The Ask question button will be enabled for them within the Q&A module
- They will be able to access files and folders within the Files module
Manage topics
To manage topics, click Manage topics:
The List of topics screen is displayed:
Click Add topic to add a new topic. The Add topic screen is displayed:
Topics allow for questions to be organised into categories. A user within the answering organisation can be tasked with answering questions assigned to a specific topic. Moreover, questions can be filtered by topic, to make it easy to identify every question assigned to that topic.
Click Save to save your new topic. Every topic name must be unique. Topic names can be edited clicking Edit within the List of topics screen, and all topics can be deleted, except for the default General topic. A topic cannot be deleted if there are questions assigned to it.
Q&A admin
On sites where the Q&A module is enabled, an extra group will be available within User management > Groups:
A user added to the Q&A admin group will have full rights to administer the Q&A module, much like a Site Administrator, however, bidder users cannot be added to this group. If a user is made a Q&A admin, then no organisation in which they are a member can be made a bidder organisation. If this is required, the user must first be removed from the Q&A admin group or the organisation.
Only System Administrators can delete questions.
