I learned from my friend that e107 is a promising open-source contents management system (CMS). It received very favorable comments as well as ever increasing supports from the community in recent few years. I once was a fan of PostNuke and then Mambo. He commented that the project activity of PostNuke has reached a very low level. For Mambo and Joomla, their communities are too commercialized. Xaraya and Typo3 are too complicated, while PhpNuke is not secure enough.

I am interested in finding a CMS that is simple and good enough to build a basic school website. One of my requirement is that it should use PHP and MySQL. The features I am looking for include simple mechanism to add and organize contents, good layout and usability for visitors, and support for Chinese language. From my initial and brief checking, it seems that e107 is a good candidate for me to take a closer look of it.

The following are three PHP scripts for creating and maintaining web-based Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) systems. They are all free of charge and can use MySQL as database in the backend. I also try to google them to see if there are any example websites that make a good use of them.

phpMyFAQ: It is an open source FAQ system using PHP and available for many databases. The following lists a few example websites that I found by googling the term “powered by phpMyFAQ”.

• DRM SDK - powered by phpMyFAQ 1.6.1
• Xtreme Internet Help Desk - powered by phpMyFAQ 1.6.2
• faq.phpwcms-docu.de - powered by phpMyFAQ 1.6.2

ODFaq: It is a PHP script that allows you to manage frequently asked questions. Users can create, edit, and delete entries using a user-friendly web based interface. The following lists three example websites that I found by googling the term “powered by ODFaq”. It may be a good option for some special needs of FAQ systems.

• Digital Space :: FAQs - powered by ODFaq v2.1.0
• Computer Services at the College of Family and Consumer Sciences - powered by ODFaq v2.1.0
• Liquid Frog FAQ’s - powered by ODFaq v2.1.0

Lethal Penguin’s FAQMasterFlex: It is a free, database-driven web-based application for creating and maintaining Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on your web site. The following lists a demo provided by Lethal Penguin.

• FAQMasterFlex - Powered by Lethal Penguin.

Which one is the best you ask? I would say it depends on your needs. phpMyFAQ features a community-based FAQ system; users can both take and give in the growing of the FAQ knowledge base. It also provides many other features such as statistics about most viewed questions. ODFaq features like a company’s FAQ system for its customers and has a professional user interface on viewing and printing of web pages. Lastly, FAQMasterFlex has a different interface using popping up of small window for viewing FAQs. It may be a good option for some special needs of FAQ system.