Education FAQ

Education FAQ 

Extension key

dv_education_faq

Package name

davitec/dv-education-faq

Version

1.0.3

Author

Davitec GmbH, +Pluswerk Standort Dresden

License

GPL-2.0-or-later

Structured FAQ system for the education sector with categories, search, and optional helpfulness rating.

Table of Contents

Introduction 

On this page

What does it do? 

The Education FAQ extension provides a structured FAQ system for educational institutions. FAQ items are organized by categories and can be searched by visitors. An optional "Was this helpful?" rating allows users to give feedback on individual answers.

Features 

  • FAQ categories for organizing questions by topic (e.g. Admissions, IT, Exams)
  • Rich text answers with full RTE support
  • Search across questions and answers
  • Category filter dropdown populated from existing categories
  • Helpfulness rating — "Was this helpful?" Yes/No buttons per FAQ item
  • Rating storage — Yes/No counts stored directly on the FAQ record, visible in the backend under the "Rating" tab
  • Schema.org markup — Question/Answer structured data for SEO
  • Accordion display with accessible button-based toggle
  • Reset button when search/filter is active
  • TYPO3 v12 LTS and v13 LTS support

Installation 

On this page

Requirements 

  • PHP 8.2+
  • TYPO3 v12.4 LTS or v13.4 LTS

Installation 

composer require davitec/dv-education-faq
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Activate the extension, run database schema updates, and include the static TypoScript template.

Configuration 

On this page

TypoScript Constants 

plugin.tx_dveducationfaq.persistence.storagePid

plugin.tx_dveducationfaq.persistence.storagePid
type

int

Default

(empty)

UID of the sysfolder containing FAQ categories and items.

plugin.tx_dveducationfaq.settings.showRating

plugin.tx_dveducationfaq.settings.showRating
type

boolean

Default

1

Enable or disable the "Was this helpful?" rating buttons in the frontend. Set to 0 to hide them.

Plugins 

  • FaqList (CType: dveducationfaq_faqlist) — Main FAQ display with search, category filter, and accordion. Non-cacheable (POST search).
  • FaqRate (CType: dveducationfaq_faqrate) — AJAX endpoint for helpfulness rating. Returns JSON. Non-cacheable.

Helpfulness rating 

How it works 

Each FAQ item has two integer counters in the database:

  • helpful_yes — number of "Yes" clicks
  • helpful_no — number of "No" clicks

When a visitor clicks "Yes" or "No", a POST request is sent to the FaqRate plugin which increments the corresponding counter and returns a JSON response.

Backend view 

The counters are visible in the backend when editing a FAQ item:

  • Open a FAQ item record
  • Switch to the Rating tab
  • The fields "Helpful: Yes" and "Helpful: No" show the current counts (read-only)

The model also provides computed properties:

  • getHelpfulTotal() — sum of yes + no
  • getHelpfulPercentage() — percentage of "yes" votes

Usage 

On this page

Creating FAQ categories 

  1. Open the FAQ storage sysfolder in the backend
  2. Create a new FAQ Category record
  3. Enter a title (e.g. "Admissions", "IT & Campus", "Exams")

Creating FAQ items 

  1. Create a new FAQ Item record in the same sysfolder
  2. Enter the question and the answer (rich text)
  3. Assign a category

Adding the FAQ plugin 

  1. Create a page for the FAQ
  2. Add the FaqList content element
  3. Set the record storage page to the FAQ sysfolder

The FAQ items are displayed as an accordion. Visitors can search and filter by category.

Evaluating ratings 

To see how helpful your FAQ entries are:

  1. Open a FAQ item in the backend
  2. Go to the Rating tab
  3. Check the "Helpful: Yes" and "Helpful: No" counters

Items with high "No" counts may need their answers improved.