26 Working with Polls

You can create polls, take polls and view poll results in a portal page.

Note:

Tasks discussed in this chapter are not available to you if Polls task flows are not exposed. The portal manager adds the polls task flow on a page, as described in Adding Polls to a Portal in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

Topics:

• Taking Polls

• Working with Polls in the Polls Manager

• Viewing Poll Results

Taking Polls

To take a poll, simply select or enter your choice, and click Vote.

The Take Polls and Quick Poll views display the most recently-published available poll, or the poll set by your portal manager. After you submit a response for that poll, the next most recently-published poll displays.

The following figure shows an example of Quick Poll:

Working with Polls in the Polls Manager

The Polls Manager lets you create polls, view the status of all current polls, and perform operations on existing polls, including edit, save (as a poll or as a poll template), publish, clear results, close, analyze, and delete.

Topics:

• Creating a Poll

• Editing a Poll

• Publishing a Poll

• Deleting a Poll

• Closing a Poll

• Analyzing the Results of a Poll

Creating a Poll

To create a poll:

1. From the Poll Manager task flow, click Create Poll.
   
2. In the Create Poll dialog that opens, enter the name of the poll and optionally a brief description. Then click Create.
   
3. On the Design page, click Add and then make a selection to populate the poll with an existing template or with questions and surrounding text.
   
   Description of the illustration poll_pm_design.png

   To apply a template, you must have an existing template saved. When you save any poll, you can select to save it as a template. After it is saved as a template, you later apply that poll template to other polls.

4. Click Add Section to enter any explanatory text or to split your poll into sections.
5. In the Create Section dialog, enter your desired text and apply formatting using the rich text editor controls. Then click OK.
   
6. Click Add Question to add each poll question.

   If you want to add questions to the section, click Add Question in the section. If you want to add a question that will not be within the section, click Add Question at the top of the Design page.

   Note:

   New questions are added to top of the poll, so you may want to enter poll questions in reverse order.

7. In the Create Question dialog, enter the following and click OK.

   • Select a Type of Question: Make a selection from the drop-down list. Your selection determines the answer choices the user sees, for example, Multiple Choice (Only One Answer) or Multiple Choice (Multiple Answers).

   • Question: Enter your question. For a multiple choice question, enter each answer choice in a separate line

   • Row Answer choices: Enter the answer selections in the answer field.

   • Add Comment Field : Select the option to add a custom field, such as Tell us more! or Other.

   The following figure shows an example of a per-populated dialog:

   

   If required, you can add more questions to the poll or a section.

   The following figure shows the Polls Manager Design page with a sample section and question under it.

   
8. Click Schedule to select publish and close options for the poll.

   Polls must be published and open to be taken. Users cannot take unpublished or closed polls.

   
   1. Make a selection from Publish Options. Select to keep the poll in draft mode for further editing, publish it immediately, or publish it on a future date.

      If you select to publish it on a future date, click the Select Date and Time icon to enter the publishing time through a calendar.

      Click Edit Introduction Message to customize the text provided at the beginning of the poll in the rich text editor.

   2. Make a selection from Close Options. Select to close the published poll after it reaches a certain number of responses or on a certain date. If you select both options, then the poll closes when either condition is first met.

      If you select to close the poll on a specific date, click the Select Date and Time icon to enter the closing time through a calendar.

      Click Edit Closing Message to customize the text provided at the end of the poll in the rich text editor.

   3. Click OK and then Save.
9. Click Settings to select what to display after users take the poll.
   For example, you can set a custom URL or JSF task flow as a Thank You page that appears after the poll is taken.
   1. From After taking the Poll, select one of the following options:

      • Show Closing Message as 'Thank You' message or Show Poll Results. If you select Show Poll Results, select to Show Graph in either 2D Graph or 3D Graph.

      • Use Custom URL as 'Thank You' page: Enter the URL of the page you want to show after the user takes the poll.

        The URL can be any URL, either the URL of a portal page, or an external URL. When you create a page in a portal, you can specify the pretty URL of that page here (for example, http://<host>:<port>/webcenter/portal/<portalname>/pages/<pagename).

      • Use Custom Task Flow as 'Thank You' page: Copy the metadata file location of the custom task flow you want to show after the user takes the poll. You can view the metadata file location from the Task Flows page of the Assets pages. See Viewing Information About an Asset in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

10. Click Analyze to view results after users have taken the poll.
11. Click Save to save your poll.

    When you save any poll, you can select to save it as a template. After it is saved as a template, you can later apply that poll template to other polls.

The following figure shows the Polls Manager on a portal page:

Editing a Poll

You can edit a poll from the Polls Manager task flow on a portal page.

To edit a poll:

1. Click the poll name link to edit the poll name and description.
2. Click the Actions menu and then select Design to make any changes.
   
3. Click Save and then Close.

Publishing a Poll

You can publish a poll from the Polls Manager. Polls must be published to be taken. Users cannot take unpublished polls.

To publish a poll:

1. Click the Actions menu and then select Publish .
   

Closing a Poll

You can close a poll from the Polls Manager task flow on a portal page.

To close a poll:

1. Click the Actions menu and select Close.
   

   The Close option is available only after a poll is published.

   The Status of the poll changes to Closed, showing the date and time the poll closed.

   Note:

   Click the Actions menu and select Publish if you want to open the poll again.

2. Click Save and then Close.

Analyzing the Results of a Poll

You can analyze the results for a poll from the Polls Manager task flow on a portal page.

To analyze a poll:

1. Click the Actions menu and select Analyze.
   The Analyze page opens.
   Description of the illustration poll_pm_analyse.png
2. If the poll included a field for poll takers to add comments, click View Summary to see consolidated comments.

   Expand the name of the poll's custom field name to view all comments, if you gave poll respondents an option to add comments.

Deleting a Poll

You can delete a poll from the Polls Manager task flow on a portal page.

To delete a poll:

1. Click the Actions menu and select Delete.
   
2. Click Yes in the Delete Poll dialog.
3. Click Save and then Close.

Viewing Poll Results

The View Poll Results view provides a graphical view of poll results, if the poll closing option is set to show this option. The poll that displays is set by your portal manager.

To see the latest poll results, click the Refresh icon.

Note:

Do not click the Reload or Refresh button in your browser. Click the Refresh icon to update your view.

Click View Summary to see a response percent and the response count, including consolidated comments if the poll includes a field for poll takers to add comments.

The following figure shows a sample of view poll results of a poll: