Jim King
faqReadme.txt

For the faq module, two implementations are provided.
Each has advantages and disadvantages over the other.
Both write to the same database for later access by the
faq webpage

PHP Form

A web page with several fields to be filled in for insertion into the
faq database.  The To: field allows a response to also be sent to
the person who asked the question
	Drawback: Since the email is sent from a php webpage,
	access must be limited using the security of the GPA
	program.  This means that the Graduate Director or Committee
	member must have already logged in so that the session
	variables will have been set.

	Advantage: Always functional as long as the webpages are running. 
	Easier to setup initially.

	Usage: After the Director or Committeee member has logged on, s/he
	can access the newfaq.php page and fill in the available fields.

		To: Address of the person who posed the question
		Subject: Provide meaningful message concerning the subject
		Question: Text field where the question is to be retyped.
			This may seem somewhat of an inconvienince, but
			since many questions received may be worded awkwardly,
			it may provide the opportunity to make questions more
			readable or broader.
		Answer: Text field where the answer to the question is provided.
	
	Pressing the submit button will send mail to the specified address
	and the database will be updated with the given information.

Perl Script faq

This variation provides a script which processes an email that arrives into
the mail server provided for the GPA system. It uses the .forward file to
engage the script when an email arrives.  The script looks to see that the 
email is from a valid source, and then parses the body into a question section
and an answer section which are then inserted into the database. 
	Disadvantage: The .forward utility is available only on unix systems.
	In addition, high security mail servers such as smrsh limit what a
	.forward file may execute.  Also, there is more setup required where
	file paths and destinations must be setup prior to use.

	Advantage: Simplifies answering the email. The person who receives the
	original question replies to the sender and makes a carbon copy to the
	faq's address.  The original email may be included or the question
	retyped.  A separating character is put on a line by itself and the
	answer is written on the subsequent lines. Any lines that need to be
	commented out (such as "On Dec.3 so-and-so wrote:") may be commented out
	by putting a '!' at the start of the line.  The perl script will ignore
	that line when writing the question and answer.
 
	Usage: To set up the scripting, the .forward file must have the line

		"|perl /PATH/faqperl.pl"

	included. PATH is the path to the perl script.  In the perlscript
	itself, some values must be set.  
	The character used to divide the email body and the
	character used to comment out lines may be set.  They are '#' and '!' by
	default, respectively. 

World Readable faq webpage:

Both versions now use the same php page to access the database
and format the faq page.  This allows both versions to be put into use
without excluding any questions and answers.

