[_ck_]

I am pleased to announce a new bbPress Polls plugin.

Your members can now add polls to their topics, or optionally you can allow *anyone* to add a poll to *any* topic, within a specified time period (hours) since the topic was started.

bb-Polls allows single answer or multiple answer polls.

No template edits of any kind.

There are no additional db tables added, it uses bbpress topicmeta only. Only one entry is created per poll, regardless of size or options (this allow very easy cleanup if desired for some reason).

This is a *very* early beta, however should be functional except for:

1. missing admin menu (coming soon – edit plugin directly)

2. missing administrative editing of existing polls.

3. missing some visual tweaks (plural case, etc.)

4. missing some more deluxe options (poll ending time, etc.)

5. missing multi-language support (coming soon)

If you can live with these limits and would like to help test and give me some useful, constructive feedback, please download:

http://ckon.wordpress.com/files/2007/08/bb-polls.txt?v010

(rename .txt to .php, install, activate, start a new test topic)

The beta is set so only moderators and above can create/see the polls. This will allow you to test without disturbing visitors.

Please note the visual styles may be WAY off for the default template or your own template. Unfortunately I am using a very customised template. You’ll probably have to edit the built in css which is kept clearly at the top. (the default styles will be fixed soon when I get a chance to do a trunk install this week)

Upcoming features include the ability to display all polls and the ability to display a poll anywhere within bbpress templates.

ps. I need to know if this works as in in the trunk version – I don’t see why it wouldn’t but you never know…

[Null]

Some questions:

Vote, more then 1 option possible option? (max setting like classic (just 1 option possible) 2 options, 3 etc

If a topic is deleted, does it clean-up the poll as well? (since a real deletion isn’t happening in bbPress, this wouldn’t be a problem for now)

What happends if a poll is deleted? (but topic still excists)

Who can vote? All? Members?

If a topic is closed, automaticly close voting aswell?

Results are in horizontal bars? Perhaps option to show them like a pie (or even vertical bars) Even better if a user can choose this when seeing the results:

Option result 1: ===============

Option result 2: =====

Option result 3: =========

Show as bars | Show as pie

Would like to see a demo, cause can’t test this at work

Greetz

[_ck_]

Installing it will definitely answer all your questions.

Many answers are yes. The current options near the top will give you an idea.

I designed it from the start to allow votes on multiple selections or single section – the poll creator can decide.

bbpress cleans up the topic meta on its own, so if the topic is deleted in theory the meta is deleted (but bbpress doesn’t really delete topics yet, it just flags the differently)

you can decide if polls close with the topic or not

you can also decide if the poll is shown on each page of the topic or just the first

only members can vote – I do not have any plans to implement non-member voting, it defeats the purpose and makes the code much more complex

Eventually I will do more than horizontal bars which will make a higher load (I am sure I can find an existing easy library). Bars are currently done in pure CSS which makes it lightning fast and completely customisable with colours and even rounded corners with images.

[Null]

A nice, I will give this a go in the weekend!

[_ck_]

Since I can’t edit the first post here I’m just going to use my wp blog for updates:

bbPress Polls plugin

v0.11 is a bug fix:

http://ckon.wordpress.com/files/2007/08/bb-polls.txt?v011

[mazdakam]

i download it and activate it but nothing happened in frontage do i need do more things?!

[_ck_]

Make sure you are using v0.11 and then post a new test topic.

The default setting is polls can be added to topics no more than three hours old (adjustable).

You must be logged in as a moderator or higher to see the poll options or poll results for the beta. This is to prevent other members from seeing your testing & configuring.

[_ck_]

v0.13 adds better level control and a few other tweaks

note that default settings are now set to everyone can view, any member can vote, only moderator+ can add

(you can edit these of course, but just a caution)

http://ckon.wordpress.com/files/2007/08/bb-polls.txt?v013

[howtogeek]

Testing it now…

[howtogeek]

It works!

You should really change the default colors to something compatible with bbPress… it’s easy to change them, but still.

Very good work otherwise… I’ll play with it some more.

[_ck_]

Yeah I don’t have the default template running anywhere to configure it, lol!

Working right now but will build a test account and do a trunk install tonight so I will be able to change it.

If you have better css, please post.

[mazdakam]

You should really change the default colors to something compatible with bbPress… it’s easy to change them, but still.

i agree with i! vey bad color

[mazdakam]

ya it work for me now!

[_ck_]

I just got a trunk install going.

Wow, yes I will fix the colours right away.

Sorry about that!

That was easy.

Complete colour fix in v0.14

http://ckon.wordpress.com/files/2007/08/bb-polls.txt?v014

Looks pretty good if I do say so myself!

screenshots:

http://xs218.xs.to/xs218/07315/bb-polls-form.png

http://xs318.xs.to/xs318/07315/bb-polls-results.png

Surprised how it looks even better with small fonts.

I use bigger fonts on my custom theme.

Oh and it works great with the newest trunk too.

[mazdakam]

take a look this for style!

http://www.polldaddy.com/

[_ck_]

Since bb-polls is completely css driven, you could actually make it look like any of theirs – with a few hours of work. Background images, submit button images, poll bar images – they all can be applied.

I think I’m doing enough work on the engine though. Someone else can spend the hours to skin it

[howtogeek]

polldaddy really is very nice… and it’s all ajax

[_ck_]

LOL! so why did everyone cry out for a poll plugin then?

Just use polldaddy.

[howtogeek]

Well the problem with polldaddy is that it runs in javascript or flash and doesn’t integrate entirely well with the forum… you won’t want to give everybody the access to add javascript to your forum.

Nice to have a poll feature built into a forum so you can open it up to whoever to make their own polls.

And you’ve done a very nice job so far!

[_ck_]

Ah I see.

Well everyone can work on making it pretty – it’s very easy to do and I’ve laid it out fairly cleanly (css at the top).

As far as ajax, this will be my learning project, I only know the basics. But I have a strange style in that I like simple = better, so I’ll have to do some research. I also want to use the default bbpress javascript libraries unless I can do it somehow without dependencies.

Fortunately I have an idea on how to do it. Don’t hold your breath though, might be a couple weeks or more.

[Null]

ow make the text black (forum black) and not green, cause the hyperlink color is green already…

I also would put the options underneeth each other (the options to choose for single or multy voting)

(sorry I am an usability nerd )

Looks great further, keep up the good work

[_ck_]

Like I said, everyone can edit the CSS and impress me.

We can take the top styles and I can allow admin to change the styles from a selection of defaults.

The polls look *completely* different on my own forums, absolutely nothing like the default styles, even my topic metadata area is 100% different.

[Null]

Hmm kee, though I should release this plugin (when done) based on the default template (most are using that)

[_ck_]

I highly doubt most bbpress installers will continue to use the default template longer than a week or two. It’s a very sterile 1990’s computer room look, green/white, wide & empty. Ugh.

Reminds me of that old school continuous computer paper:

http://www.jwodcatalog.com/imgLg/753000NIB0342.jpg

I can’t wait until bbpress gets some critical mass of users so we have all those thousands of creative wordpress folks slaving away on themes.

---

On a programming note, I’ve got to figure out how to trash the post data that’s sent so when doing a refresh after voting the browser doesn’t nag the member that the post data will be resent (it won’t affect the poll stats if it does but still I don’t want that post data there). Probably have to do a redirect after submit which is a shame as it has to load bbpress twice then.

[howtogeek]

Redirect after submit is a pretty normal way to do things, most frameworks like rails do the same thing.

[mazdakam]

_ck_ you move so fast!

i just play with the css and come but found that you make new one )

so it is now with better style thx but

please insert messages or strings in __() and _e() because it is prepare to fast translation with mo files

and if you put strings in these 2 function i can translate it in 2 minutes and it is good way for internationalistion

i think as you know we need to manage polls in admin area

and ability to select user to poll

and the creator of poll can edit the poll

also it will be very good if in frontpage we can see poll icon insted of [poll]

thanks for your great job