Highlights of Poll Web Part

Highlights of Poll Web Part

Poll.pngSharePoint offers some basic survey functionality through Survey Lists. These Survey Lists allow you to create branched surveys that can log users who have answered the survey along with their responses, and display the survey results in a bar graph. This functionality works well for multi-branched surveys that require significant time for designing and laying out the succession of questions and responses needed in order to collect large amounts of data on a particular topic. However, many companies also want to streamline their ability to poll users on a single topic and collect data quickly while also providing immediate feedback to the user on the results of the poll with minimal oversight by the survey administrator. Bamboo’s Poll web part enables you to quickly create polls while automating voting response collection and feedback as well as ensuring that you automatically meet polling deadlines.

How to Delete a Poll

How to Delete a Poll

Step Action Result
1. Select the check box at the far right of the poll you want to delete. hw38015_2013.jpg
2. Click the Delete Poll button.

Create poll answers for voters

Create poll answers for voters

Working within the Bamboo Poll Admin web part, you can add and edit answers for your voters to be polled.

AddPollAnswer.jpg

Step Action Result
1. Click the button Add Answer A new section opens on the admin window
2. Enter the text of your answer. Enter a number designating the sort order for this answer.
3. Enter a number designating the sort order for this answer. Your answer is saved into the Bamboo Poll Admin web part.

AddAnswer.jpg

Both the Answer Title and the Display Order are required so you must enter information into the columns; you can always go back and edit them later using the Manage Answers button on the Bamboo Poll Admin web part.

How to Create Poll Questions for Voters

How to Create Poll Questions for Voters

Poll consist of two Web Parts:

  1. Poll Admin Web Part: allows you to create, edit and delete poll questions, review poll responses and export poll responses to Microsoft Excel. Poll questions can be configured to allow anonymous users to vote, to set expiration dates for poll questions, and to allow users to select more than one answer (check boxes) vs. only one answer (radio buttons) to a poll question. You can also set the order in which the possible answers to a poll question are displayed.
  2. Poll Voting Web Part: this is where end users vote on the poll questions you enter in the Poll Admin web part.

Add the Poll Admin web part to a page.

Create a poll

PollQuestions.jpg

Step Action Result
1. Click the button Add Poll. The Add Poll section opens.
2. Enter data in the Poll Title (this is your poll question). This is the only column on the web part required to have data in it. The question is saved into the poll admin web part.
3. Select an expires date from the date picker or simply type the date into the text box in MM/DD/YYYY format. The Expires On date is saved into the poll admin web part.
4. Click the Yes or No radio button to set the poll as either published or not; setting it to No allows you to work on the poll until you are satisfied it is ready to be published. The radio button next to your selection has a dot in the center.
5. Click the Yes or No radio button to choose whether to allow anonymous voters or not. The radio button next to your selection has a dot in the center.
If you selected ‘Yes’, anonymous users can vote on the poll.
If you selected ‘No’, then
only authenticated SharePoint users can vote.
6. Click the Yes or No radio button to choose whether to allow multiple selections or not. Multiple selections means voters may vote more than once. The radio button next to your selection has a dot in the center.
7. You can ignore the Category(s) and the Section(s) options as these are reserved for future functionality. Nothing at all happens even if you click any of the boxes.

You can add more poll questions by following steps 1-7 for each question.

Things to consider:

HideWebPart.jpg
You might want to hide your Poll Admin web part from your voters to eliminate confusion.

You can use the Hide option within the web part tool pane

Or you may choose to add this web part to a page or even a different site that your voters won’t see it. If you decide to do this, you will reference the other site’s URL within the Poll Voting web part to make the connection to the poll questions.

Configure the Poll Voting Web Part

Configure the Poll Voting Web Part

After successfully adding Poll to a page, the web part can be configured.

NOTE: You can also use the Web Part Tools tab on the upper panel of the ribbon, and then click the Web Part Properties button to display the Poll Admin configuration tool pane.WPoptions.jpg

Web Part Step Action Result
hw38021_2013.jpg 1. Enter the Site URL where the Poll Admin web part is installed This is the site where you added the admin web part.
2. Select a poll Once you are connected to topicKHW38, select a poll from the drop-down list. If there are no polls in this list, then you must navigate to the Poll Admin web partto create a poll.
3. Display Poll or Results Make sure that this is set for Voting Poll so that the Voting Poll is displayed on the page.
4. Poll Result View

Select whether you want the Poll Voting web part to display the selected poll so that the users can vote (Voting Poll) or just the results of the selected poll (Single Poll Result). For instance, you may want to display only the results of a poll on the home page of your site. In this case, select the poll you want and select Single Poll Result in the drop-down list and thus, in the web part you will only see the results of that poll.

NOTE: Once users vote on a poll, the poll results are automatically displayed and the user is prevented from voting again. If you allow anonymous users to vote, then once these users close their browser, open a new browser and navigate back to the voting page, they will be able to submit another vote.

5. Pie Chart or Bar Chart If you select Bar Chart, you must select a bar color from the drop-down list.
If you select Pie Chart, you must enter the Hex color code if you want to use colors not available in the Select Color drop-down list.
6. Results Type Select to display the number of votes (Count), the percentage of votes (Percent), or both (Count/Percent) when displaying results as a bar graph or pie chart.
7. Redirect Voters to this List Enter a URL to redirect voters to a separate page of site after voting on a poll.
8. Select a Language Select a language from the drop-down list to translate the web part user interface and tool pane settings. You can also create your own translation or modify the default files available in the drop-down menu. For more information, see Customizing the Language Setting.

Click Apply and then click OK.

Configure Poll Admin Web Part

Configure Poll Admin Web Part

When you get ready to set up a Poll, the first thing you have to do is add the two web parts to a page or add each one to a different page. By putting the two web parts on individual pages, you can control permissions for who can manage the poll and who can use the poll for voting through page permissions.

This topic covers the steps necessary to add the Admin web part to a page in order to use the web part to create a Poll.

Step Action Result
1. Add the web part to a page. PollAddWP.jpg
Notice there are 2 web parts in the gallery when Poll is installed. For this exercise, select the first web part labeled Bamboo Poll Admin.
PollOnPage.jpg
Nothing has been configured; the web part has just been added to the page.
2. Click the “Add Poll” button at the top of the web part. AddPoll.jpg
3. There are two items on the tool pane that you will want to look at for configuration.

PollAdminToolpane.jpg

  • Records per Page – Enter the number of poll records to be displayed in the web part. The Next and Previous buttons can be used in the user interface to browse through all the records.
  • Select a Language – From the drop-down list, pick a language to translate the web part user interface and tool pane settings. You can also create your own translation or modify the default files available in the drop-down list. For more information, see Localizing the Language Setting.

NOTE: The translation options for Spanish and French are currently all still in English. You must customize the files directly to translate the Web Part user interface to the language you require.

4. On the web part itself, the only column that is required is the Poll Title.

IgnoreCategory.jpg

  • Poll Title – This column is required.
  • Expires On – This is a date when the Poll can no longer be used for voting.
  • Published – Click Yes to publish the Poll or No to publish later.
  • Allow Anonymous Voters – If you select Yes, anonymous users can vote on the poll. If you select No, only authenticated SharePoint users can vote.
  • Multiple Selections Allowed – Click Yes to allow voters to respond to the poll multiple times.

NOTE: Once users vote on a poll, the poll results are automatically displayed and the user is prevented from voting again unless you click Yes to allow multiple votes. Once these users close their browser, open a new browser and navigate back to the voting page, they will be able to submit another vote.

In this screenshot, the Category(s) section is greyed out. This area is reserved for future features. Currently these check boxes do not affect any functionality in this Web Part.

5. Click the Save button above the Poll Title to save this poll. Save.jpg

Now that you have configured the Admin side of the Poll, you will want to Configure the Poll Voting Web Part next.

Complementary Products for Poll Web Part

Complementary Products for Poll Web Part

sharepointsolutions.pngYou will find many of our products complement each other quite nicely saving you the time and trouble to write custom code. With Bamboo at the heart of your SharePoint investment, you gain access to a huge catalog of enhancements, components, and accessories that add the critical functionality your business requires.

The same components can be easily used in future applications and they all come from a single, trusted vendor, ensuring an easy purchase process and support you can count on. That’s the Bamboo Way!


Connect Poll to Alert Plus and you can quickly notify appropriate users or administrators based on specific columns.
AlertPlus
Alert Plus