Votesie v1.0.5 Copyright 1999, Kristina Pfaff-Harris (http://tesol.net/scripts/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Contents of this file: Program Summary Copyright & Licensing Information Legal Notice & Disclaimer Getting Started with Votesie v1.0 Known Bugs What to Do About Problems Other Scripts =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Program Summary: Votesie! v1.0 lets you create a simple poll or voting booth on your website. It will let you choose various color schemes for the poll and results windows, enter a question or issue of your choice, and enter responses for visitors to vote on. When a user votes, he or she is immediately shown the current results of the vote with a bar graph showing the total number of votes and the percentage of total votes each response has gotten. This can be a fun part of any website, as witnessed by the several sites which run such polling scripts. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Licensing & Copyright Information: This program is copyright 1999 Kristina L. Pfaff-Harris. This program may be used free of charge on a website, but may not be sold or distributed. (Please send potential users to http://www.tesol.net/scripts/ to download the package.) Please see votesie.cgi for other licensing details and restrictions. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Legal Notice & Disclaimer: This program is offered as-is and no warranty is given, either express or implied. By downloading, modifying, copying, viewing, or using this program, you agree that neither the author of this program nor the owners or administrators of the site from which you downloaded this program are liable for any breach of security, damage or loss caused directly or indirectly by the use of this program, and that any such breach, damage or loss is the sole responsibility of the person who downloads, modifies, copies, views, or uses this program. The author has attempted to make this program as bug-free and secure as possible, but there is always the possibility of something being overlooked, hence the author disclaims any responsibility for problems incurred in the use of this program. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Getting Started with Votesie!: This assumes that you have permission to execute cgi programs on your server, and that you know where the programs have to go. Sometimes, a web server is set up so that all cgi programs must be in a single directory (usually /cgi-bin). If you don't know whether or not you have permission to do this, or if you don't know where the programs must go, ask your system administrator. These instructions are focused towards Unix systems. If you have an NT system, the directions will change. This program is NOT supported for NT installations at this time, although it has been tested to work on NT 4.0 with IIS. If you would like to port it to NT-Perl, or translate it into another language, please drop me an email. You'll need to modify each of these files slightly for use on your own site. votesie.cgi: There are several places in this file that you will need to change. All of the instructions for changing them are located in the file itself and marked with **CHANGE** so that you can find them easily. Please be very careful when you make your changes. If you accidentally leave out a " or a ; or forget to put \ (backslashes) in the right place, the program will not run. If you have problems after you make your changes, try typing 'perl -d votesie.cgi'. This opens the Perl debugging program which will often tell you approximately where your error is. This file must also be chmod 755 or 775 in order to work. Type 'chmod 755 votesie.cgi'. Please read all instructions in this file carefully! votesie_votes: This file should be an empty file. It will contain the information about your polls and the current vote status. This file MUST be writeable by the web server. Try 'chmod 766 votesie_votes'. votesie_voters: This file should also be empty, and must be writeable by the web server. It will contain IP address information about each person who votes, in case you wish to check for duplicate votes. Once you've gotten votesie.cgi configured the way you need it to be, you're ready to pull up the admin interface and create your poll. In the votesie.cgi file, you should have set $admin_password to some password that you will use to access the admin interface. Let's say you used the word "blahblah". To access the admin interface to create a poll, you would type the following in the address window of your browser: http://www.yourdomain.edu/location_of_votesie/votesie.cgi?blahblah Where "www.yourdomain.edu" is the actual domain name of your website, and "location_of_votesie" is the path to where you've set up the votesie.cgi script. This will bring up a "Create a New Poll" window. Follow the instructions to enter a question/issue to vote on, and enter the number of possible responses you want to have for the issue. To the right, you'll see both an example Poll Window and an example Results Window, and to the left, a selection of colors for various areas of the Poll and Results windows. Tip: Using the same color for the "header" and the "border" looks very nice. When you have selected all your colors, click the "Generate Poll Form" button. You will then be shown an example of what your poll and results windows will look like with the color scheme you've chosen. If you don't like it, just hit the Back button on your browser. If you like the look of your poll, type in the responses to the question or issue, click "Create my Poll" and voila! Your poll will be ready to go. The program creates an html page containing your poll and gives you a link to it. You may copy and paste the HTML into a page of your choice, or just link to the poll where it is. And that's about all there is to it! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Known bugs: Votesie currently has only minimal defense against "ballot box stuffers." Checking for duplicate votes is based on IP address, which has its limitations. Please report any bugs to me so I can fix them! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= What to Do About Problems: IMPORTANT: If you contact me with a problem about this program, you MUST give me as much information as possible. Please set $debugging = "yes"; in the votesie.cgi program and send me the output. In addition, please check the FAQ at http://tesol.net/scripts/FAQ/ to see if your question is answered there before you email me. If you get an "Internal Server Error," please check that you have uploaded the cgi in ascii (NOT binary) mode, that the path to Perl is on the very first line of the program, and that you haven't left out any important " or \ when you were configuring it. Then, let me know the following: The messages you get when you turn on debugging information, if any. Your operating system (e.g. Solaris, Ultrix, BSD etc) Your web server (e.g. Netscape Commerce, NCSA, etc) The error message you got. The error message in the server log file. (ask your systems admin where the error logs are.) The location of your form (http:// etc) so I can look at it. The version and name of this program. (This is Votesie v1.0.5) If you do NOT let me know all the above information, you may get no response at all. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Other Scripts: If you like this program, try some of the other CGI scripts available at Kristina's Scripts for Educators: http://www.linguistic-funland.com/scripts/ Currently available are: CGI-Subscribe: An email mailing list manager Chat-N-Time: Real-time web-based chat CrosswordMaker: A tool to create and grade HTML crossword puzzles MailStuf: Simple CGI Email form and program MakeBook: A guestbook/ongoing story program. Quadratic-O-Matic: A simple quadratic equation solver QuizTest: Offer multiple-choice/true-false quizzes RandomQuiz: Generates quizzes with randomly selected questions RemindMe: An email auto-reminder service SillySearch: Let people search for pages on your website SillyCount: Let's you create a web-page counter. SillySite: A simple web-page creation program VeryInteresting: Loan Interest calculator and amortization table generator VocabSearch: Create and search a list of vocabulary words Votesie: Online voting booth/Poll generator =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Thanks for using Votesie! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=