1. Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal
  2. Working with WebCenter Portal Tools and Services
  3. Adding Polls to a Portal

49 Adding Polls to a Portal

Add Polls to a portal to allow portal members to create, manage, and analyze online polls.

Permissions:

To perform the tasks in this chapter, you must be a portal manager or a portal member with the portal-level permissions Manage Security and Configuration or Manage Configuration.

At a minimum, you must have the following permissions:

  • Edit Pages (to add the Polls task flows to a page)

  • Edit Task Flows (to modify the task flow, if necessary)

See About Roles and Permissions for a Portal.

Topics:

49.1 About Polls

WebCenter Portal users can create, edit, take, and analyze online polls. With polls, you can survey your audience (such as their opinions and their experience level), check whether they can recall important information, and gather feedback and metrics.

WebCenter Portal provides the following Polls task flows:

  • Quick Poll task flow creates a quick one-question poll. For more information about creating a quick poll, see Creating a Quick Poll Task Flow

  • Take Polls task flow publishes the most recently published poll or the one you want to display. The Take Polls task flow displays the poll for users to take. For more information about the Take Polls task flow, see Working with the Take Polls Task Flow

  • Polls Manager task flow creates detailed polls, and lets you view the status of all current polls, perform operations on current polls, as well as publish, analyze, close, and delete all polls. For more information about creating polls using the Polls Manager task flow, see Working with the Polls Manager Task Flow

  • View Poll Results task flow lets you view poll results. For more information about viewing the results of a specific poll, see Working with the View Poll Results Task Flow

You can do the following with polls:

  • Create a poll. You can create quick polls with only a name, description, and question, or you can create detailed polls.

    Use the Quick Poll task flow to create a quick one-question poll (Creating a Quick Poll Task Flow), or use the Polls Manager to create more detailed polls (Creating a Poll in Using Portals in Oracle WebCenter Portal).

  • Create a template for polls. Templates contain the same questions, sections, and welcome and closing content.

  • Edit an existing poll. For example, you can add questions to the poll, change existing questions, or publish (open) and close the poll (Editing a Poll in Using Portals in Oracle WebCenter Portal).

  • Take a specific or the most recently-published poll (see Taking Polls in Using Portals in Oracle WebCenter Portal).

  • View poll results. See Working with the View Poll Results Task Flow.

  • See the status of all polls and available actions for each poll, such as edit, delete, publish, analyze, and clear results.

More detailed poll functionality is available through the Polls Manager.

Note:

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

49.2 Adding a Polls Task Flow to a Page

For the steps to add a Polls task flow to a page, see Adding Components to a Page.

Note:

The presence or location of the Polls task flows in the resource catalog depends on how the resource catalog is configured. For example, in the default portal catalog, the Polls task flows are included under the Polls folder.

49.3 Working with Polls Task flow Properties

The Polls task flow has associated properties, which users with sufficient privileges can access through the task flow's View Actions menu. For example, select Parameters to display the Parameters dialog.

The following sections provide information about properties associated with Polls task flows and describe task flow parameters:

49.3.1 Setting Polls Task Flow Properties

In the page editor, selecting any component exposes a View Actions menu, which provides access to the component’s properties: Parameters, Access, Display Options, Style, and Content Style.

See Also:

Setting Properties on a Component

To set Polls task flow properties:

  1. Open the page that contains the task flow in the page editor (see Opening a Page in the Page Editor).
  2. Select the task flow, then click the View Actions menu and select the properties you want to set:

    • Parameters control the default task flow content. For descriptions of each parameter, see Polls Task Flow Parameters. Parameters can be wired to polls, and can be used to facilitate the wiring of the task flow to page parameters and page definition variables. For more information, see Wiring Pages and Components.

    • Access settings show or hide the component to specific roles, users, or groups. For more information, see Setting Component Access.

    • The Display Options, Style, and Content Style properties affect the appearance and behavior of the task flow for all users. These properties are common to all task flows. For more information, see Modifying Component Properties.

    The Parameters and Display Options dialogs provide access to an Expression Language (EL) editor, which you can use to select or specify a variable value instead of a constant value. Click the Expression Editor icon icon next to a property, then select Expression Builder to open the editor.

    Note:

    When you enter EL in the Display Options dialog, the parser reports an error only if it detects invalid syntax, such as a missing closing bracket. Validation is performed only on syntax, not on the expression value. Generic Display Options are those cataloged in Table 10-1.

    EL validation is not performed on non-generic display options.

    If you need EL assistance, an application developer can provide an EL expression; see Expression Language Expressions in Developing for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

49.3.2 Polls Task Flow Parameters

The following table describes the parameters that are unique to the Polls task flow.

Table 49-1 Polls Task Flow Parameters

Parameter Description Task Flow

scope

The portal name from which polls are to be fetched. If this is supplied, then polls of that particular portal are shown. In the Home portal, when this parameter is not supplied, polls from all portals are fetched.

This parameter appears in the properties for the Polls Manager task flow.

Show User Data Only

Specifies whether to display all polls or only those created by the current user:

  • Select No (default) to display all polls.

  • Select Yes to display only those polls created by the user

If the scope parameter is specified, then this parameter works the same but within only that scope.

This parameter appears in the properties for the Polls Manager task flow.

Poll Id

The name of the poll to display, available from the drop-down list.

This parameter appears in the properties for the Take Polls and View Poll Results task flows.

Show In Edit Mode
Specifies whether users can edit a quick poll:

  • Select No to display the Design Poll button for editing the quick poll appears in the page editor only; it is not visible to users viewing the page.

  • Select Yes to display the Design Poll button appears in both view and edit modes, so users can edit the quick poll.

This parameter appears in the properties for the Quick Poll task flow

49.4 Working with the Polls Task Flows

The polls task flows let you create and manage polls.

Topics

49.4.1 Creating a Quick Poll Task Flow

Quick Poll allows one-question poll to be published immediately. Each quick poll needs its own Quick Poll task flow on the page.

Ensure that the Quick Poll task flow is added to a portal page. See Adding a Polls Task Flow to a Page.
To create a quick poll:
  1. From the Quick Poll task flow, click Design Poll.
    This figure shows the Quick Poll task flow.

    Note:

    The Design Poll will not be visible in page view if you select No for the Show in Edit Mode parameter for this task flow. This prevents participants from editing the poll. Polls Task Flow Parameters.

  2. On the General tab, enter the following information:

    • Name: The name of the poll.

      The name you enter appears in the Component Properties as a parameter in the Take Polls and View Poll Results task flows.

    • Description: Optionally, enter a description of the poll. This description does not appear in the poll.

    • Close After: Optionally, select or enter the number of days for the poll to stay open.

    The Edit Poll dialog shows the General tab, with the following fields: Name, Description, and Close After.
  3. Click the Question tab, then design your one-question poll.

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

    2. Enter your question in the Question field.

    3. Enter the answer selections in the answer field. For a multiple choice question, enter each answer choice in a separate line.

    4. Optionally, select the Add Comment Field to add a custom field, such as Tell us more! or Other or Please Explain.

    5. Select the Require Answer to Question check box if you want to make the question mandatory, requiring users to answer the question.

    6. Click OK

    The Edit Poll dialog shows the Question tab.

    Note:

    The same types of questions are available in Quick Poll and in the Polls Manager.

    The following figure shows what poll users see. Note that the same Quick Poll you designed appears in the Quick Poll and Take Polls task flows.

    This figure shows a sample Quick Poll.

    Quick Poll also appears in the Polls Manager and can be managed in the following ways:

    • From the Polls Manager task flow. See Working with the Polls Manager Task Flow.

    • From the Quick Poll task flow, click Design Poll to edit the quick poll.

      Note:

      To prevent participants from editing a Quick Poll, in the Parameters dialog of the Quick Poll task flow. select No for the Show in Edit Mode parameter. For more information, see Polls Task Flow Parameters.

49.4.2 Working with the Polls Manager Task Flow

The Polls Manager task flow 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.

When you add the Polls Manager task flow to a page, you can do the following tasks to prevent other participants from editing the poll:

  • Set the page security access on the page where you add the Polls Manager task flow. See Setting Component Access.

  • If participants have permissions to edit the page, they can add the Polls Manager task flow to their Home portal. To prevent this, customize the resource catalog and edit the resource catalog to remove the Polls Manager task flow. Make sure to assign the new resource catalog to the Resource Catalog for Pages.

The following figure shows an example of a Polls Manager task flow on a page:

This figure shows the Polls Manager in a portal page.

From the Poll Manager, you can do the following:

  • Add a new poll. Click Create Poll to add a new poll.

  • View the latest poll date. Click the Refresh icon to update your view.

  • Click the Actions icon next to a poll to edit the poll, analyze the poll results, close the poll, delete the poll, or clear the existing results.

For information about how to create poll, edit the poll, analyze the poll results, close the poll, delete the poll, see

49.4.3 Working with the Take Polls Task Flow

The Take Polls task flow displays the most recently-published available poll, unless it is set to display a specific poll with the Poll Id parameter. After a user submits a response for that poll, this task flow displays the next most recently-published poll.

To configure the Take Polls task flow:
  1. After you add the Take Polls task flow to the page, click View Actions and then select Parameters.
    This figure shows the Take Polls task flow on a page.
  2. On the Paramters-View Poll Results, select the poll you want users to take from the Poll Id drop-down list.
    This figure shows the Take Polls parameter dialog
  3. Click OK.

    The poll you selected appears in the Take Polls task flow.

    This figure shows the Take Polls task flow. There is a Vote button for users to submit their poll.

    For information about taking polls, see Taking Polls in Using Portals in Oracle WebCenter Portal.

49.4.4 Working with the View Poll Results Task Flow

The View Poll Result task flow provides a graphical view of poll results. The View Poll Results task flow must be set to display a specific poll with the Poll Id parameter.

To view poll results:
  1. After you add the View Poll Results task flow to the page, click the Actions menu and select Parameters.
  2. In the Parameters-View Poll Results, select the poll you want to view from the Poll Id drop-down list.
    The figure shows the View Poll Results parameters dialog.
  3. Click OK.

    Notice that the poll you selected appears in the task flow, showing the results of the poll.

    This figure shows the View Poll Results on page.