Darren Greene dg49379 at tux dot appstate dot edu 2003-06-20 1.0 2003-06-20 DG First release User documentation for the phpWebSite Poll module

The poll module is basically a one question survey to collect information about users preferences toward a particular subject. So, what type of questions are meant for the Poll module? The ideal type of questions are opinion based such as "How do you like the new site?" or "What is your favorite food?". These questions don't have a right or wrong answer, but are different according to the individual taking the survey. The Poll module allows you to show one question on the homepage of your site and then manages the voting and presentation of the results.

After the poll module is installed, login in as an administrator and access Poll by going to the Control Panel -> Site Content -> Poll.

To create your first poll follow the steps listed below: Login in as an administrator with the permission to add a new poll. Access the Poll module. Click the link called 'New' from the Poll administrative menu. At this point you will be presented with a form to create a new poll. The fields are explained below along with examples. Title - This is not the poll question, but instead a short title that is used as the block title. 0.9.x Question - Put the survey poll question that you would like your users to vote on in this field. How do you like the new site? Options - The options are the possible answers to the poll question. The poll module defaults to showing only one field for an option, but you can have as many answers to your question as you would like by repeatedly clicking the button that says Add Option. Users - Do you want users that are not logged into phpWebsite to be able to cast their vote on your poll? If you choose 'Yes' then only users that are logged in will be able to vote on the poll, and if you choose 'No' then all users will be able to vote regardless of whether they are logged in or not. Active - This option determines whether this poll will be placed on the homepage immediately after it is created. Note that any poll that is currently active will be disabled and replaced by the new poll if set to active. The old poll will not be deleted, just not active. So, choose 'Yes' to make this poll show on the homepage of your site or choose 'No' to create the poll, but not make it visible at this time. Allow Comments - Select 'Yes' if you would like this poll to allow users to post comments regarding the poll, or else choose 'No' to disable comments. The user comments will appear on the 'Poll Results' section. Your new poll should now be successfully created after you click Submit

If you wish to change or delete an existing Poll then follow the steps below: To access the Poll module to update a poll you must be logged in as an administrator of Poll. Once you have access the Poll module, click the link 'Show Polls' from the Poll administrative menu. You will see a listing of all the polls that have been created. Select the Poll you are interested in choose from one of the following options: Edit - By choosing this option you will be presented with the same screen that was used to create the poll, but the form will be filled in with the text and options for this poll. Note: When editing a poll, if you choose to make a poll active, then any poll that is already active will be deactivated. The poll module only allows one poll to be active at a time. Delete - This will remove the poll from the Poll module.

You can only view the results of the currently active poll, which will be displayed on your site's homepage. The Poll itself will show a count of the total users who have voted on the poll and how many users have submitted comments regarding the poll. To view results of each of the answers to the survey questions, click the link 'View Results' from the active poll on the homepage. Each answer has associated with it a bar graph representing the number of votes the answer has received as a percentage of the other answers.