KnowledgebasePublisher is an opensource knowledge base software, FAQ software, or just content manager about any other type of article that you want to publish on your website. It’s so easy to use that you can be managing knowledgebase on your website right from your own web browser.

What is Snap Preview Anywhere? Snap Preview Anywhere enables anyone visiting your site to get a glimpse of what other sites you’re linking to, without having to leave your site. By rolling over any link, the user gets a visual preview of the site without having to go there, thus eliminating wasted “trips” to linked sites.

My testing in WordPress:

Snap Preview Anywhere Website

Find A Way in Hong Kong

All About Hong Kong Primary Schools

If you are also interested in instructional blogging, here is a good website: Instructional Blogging Best Practices and Case Studies by Learning Technologies Center of University of Arizona.

• FormSpring - Make Online Forms for Free; The easy way to build, host and process online forms.
• JotForm -It is the web based WYSIWYG form builder. With it, you can design forms to use somewhere else and let the JotForm server collect the data for you.
• Sidewalk - The easiest way to gather and analyze customer information; Create custom forms in a matter of minutes. Then, place them on your Web site with a simple copy and paste. When people fill out your new Web form, Sidewalk automatically saves and organizes the information for you.
• StarterBase - It lets you create, organize, and share data on the web. With starterbase, you can create a quick and easy CRM system, and create customer feedback forms, among many other things useful for a startup.
• The Blue Form - It is the process automation service for creating and managing online forms in your organisation. It allows complete control over the form workflow, allowing you to select approvers, and keep track of the form after it has been filled-in.
• The Form Assembly - It lets you create and process web forms, and collect responses.
• Wufoo - It is an online tool that helps you build and host online forms. You can create a mailing list, a contact form, a marketing survey or even a complete customer management system.

• Keep your sentences short
• Prefer active verbs
• Use ‘you’ and ‘we’
• Choose words appropriate for the reader
• Don’t be afraid to give instructions
• Avoid nominalisations
• Use positive language
• Use lists where appropriate

Take a look at this website: Plain English Campaign. You can appreciate the values and benefits of using plain English. If you do not know what plain English is, read the Free guides on How to write in plain English.

• Flickred - by WP Designer - Live Demo
• Beach House - by Beach House - Live Demo
• Brajeshwar - by Brajeshwar.com - Live Demo
• WPAndreas07 - by Phoenixrealm - Live Demo
• LivingOS-Alpha - by Living Open Source - Live Demo 1, Live Demo 2
• Unsleepable - by Ben Gray - Live Demo

Step 1: Open a Putty session and type the following commands:

wget http://www.activecollab.com/files/0.6/activeCollab.zip

unzip activeCollab.zip

cp -r activeCollab /var/www/

cd /var/www

chown -R www-data activeCollab/

cd activeCollab

chmod -R 766 cache/

chmod -R 766 config/

chmod -R 766 public/

Step 2: Create MySQL database and database user. I use ‘activecollab’ as the database name, ‘acdbuser’ as the database username, and ‘******’ as the database password’. Type the following commands with the existing Putty session.

mysql -u root -p

Enter password: ******
mysql > create database activecollab;
mysql > grant all privileges on activecollab.*
to 'acdbuser'@'localhost' identified by '******';
mysql > exit

Step 3: Open a web browser and type ‘http://yourdomain.com/activecollab/install’ as the URL. Follow the instructions. You need to input the database name, username, and passowrd you decided earlier.

Please be reminded that the following steps are what I did to make phpMyAdmin installed and password protected on my web server. They are by no means perfect. There should be a number of different ways to complete the same task.

Step 1: Find a URL to download a phpMyAdmin-2.8.2.zip from here. I use http:// superb-west.dl.sourceforge.net /sourceforge /phpmyadmin /phpMyAdmin-2.8.2.zip. After that, type the following commands from the Ubuntu Server.

wget http://…/phpMyAdmin-2.8.2.zip

sudo unzip phpMyAdmin-2.8.2.zip

sudo cp –r phpMyAdmin-2.8.2 /var/www/

sudo mv /var/www/phpMyAdmin-2.8.2 /var/www/pma

sudo chown –R www-data /var/www/pma

Step 2: Create a file named config.inc.php by the following command. Type the content for it and press Ctrl-x then y then Enter to save the file.

sudo nano /var/www/pma/config.inc.php

<?php
$i = 0;
$i++;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = 'localhost';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['extension'] = 'mysqli';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['connect_type'] = 'tcp';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['compress'] = false;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] = 'root';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = '********';
?>

Step 3: Create a file named .htpasswd by the following command. Type the content for it and press Ctrl-x then y then Enter to save the file. Replace ***** with the appropriate passwords. The first one is the password for the root of the Ubuntu server. The second password is for entering the phpMyAdmin.

sudo htpasswd -cm /etc/apache2/.htpasswd mysqladmin

Password: *****
New password: *****
Re-type new password: *****
Adding password for user mysqladmin

Step 4: Create the .htaccess file. Type the content for it and press Ctrl-x then y then Enter to save the file.

sudo nano /var/www/pma/.htaccess

AuthUserFile  /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
AuthName  AccessToPMA
AuthType Basic
require user mysqladmin

Step 5: Configure the Apache2 by creating a file in the directory /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/pma

<Directory /var/www/pma>
     AllowOverride AuthConfig
</Directory>

Step 6: Reload the Apache2 with the following command.

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload

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.

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.

Hong Kong University Departments (Chinese Name: 香港各大學學系)

I used the WordPress engine, together with the WordPress plugin Ultimate Tag Warrior and the WordPress theme Blog.txt, to build a website that furnishes a crsip overview of Hong Kong university education. The website records 215 academic departments of 7 Hong Kong universities, and tags each departments with appropriate labels. It also provides links to all academic departments of Hong Kong universities, and directs users to some relevant web search and information about them.

Yes, I used WordPress blogging engine not to blog, but to provide a directory service in a different and interesting way. The following lists useful materials that I read during the website development.

• Get Your Feet Wet with WordPress by Tim Ziegler (1 June 2006)
• WordPress Category Templates (from WordPress Codex)
• WordPress Template Tags (1.5)
• WordPress Templates and the “is” Functions (by Boren.nu)

Since I used WordPress engine doing nothing about blogging, I also empty the WordPress Update Services so that the website would not automatically notify any site update services when I inputted data into the database.

Having getting my feet wet with WordPress, I am now quite familiar with it.

• I asked: Which country cares more about Hong Kong? Google Trends said: Singapore.
• I asked: Which country cares more about Hong Kong Universities, Hong Kong schools, or Hong Kong colleges? Google Trends said: Singapore.
• I asked: Which country cares more about Hong Kong house? Google Trends said: Singapore.
• I asked: Which country cares more about Hong Kong food and Hong Kong shopping? Google Trends said: Singapore.
• I asked: Which country cares more about Hong Kong company? Google Trends said: Nigeria and Singapore.

One reason I can guess for this fact is that Internet connectivity in Singapore should be very good compared to other countries that are also interested in Hong Kong. Any more reasons about it?

Previous related posts: Which University in Hong Kong has the biggest website?