Quick Polls

So-called polls are a vote on individual questions for which the results are always immediately displayed. Polls can, for example, be integrated into the home page of the panel.

EFS supports two types of polls: polls for panelists on the one hand, and anonymous polls which allow all visitors of the home page to contribute on the other hand.

You can create as many quick polls as required. Please mind, though, that panelist polls, in particular, require considerable server resources, i.e. they may affect the performance of the panel installation: For each participant, an answer must be stored, i.e. for n respondents, n new data records are created. The following guiding values provide orientation:

It is recommended to run not more than ten active quick polls per language version simultaneously.
It is recommended to restrict the participation for a quick poll to at most 10,000 participants, e.g. by restricting the field time appropriately.

Tip: After the end of the field period, export the results of the panelist polls, then delete the poll or at least the results.

Anonymous Quick Polls and Panelists-Only Polls

EFS supports two types of polls that are fundamentally different in terms of authentication and retrievable data.

Polls for panelists:
- These polls are visible to all visitors having access to the respective page. However, only logged-in panelists may participate.
- As the panelists have identified themselves by logging in, the poll data can be related to the individual panelists accounts. So, in addition to viewing the poll results you can also export them along with the corresponding panelist data.
- The quick poll filter allows you to use the results from panelist polls for grouping purposes.
Anonymous polls:
- Anonymous polls can be answered by any visitor.
- Participation is registered by cookies, i.e. if a visitor rejects or deletes cookies, he or she may participate multiple times. This also applies to logged-in panelists answering an anonymous quick poll. If, on the other hand, two visitors use the same browser on the same PC without deleting cookies, the second visitor will not be recognized as a new user and he cannot answer the quick poll.
- As you do not know the participants in anonymous quick polls, you may view the results but there is no possibility of exporting the participants’ responses along with the corresponding panelist data as is the case in panelist polls.
- For the same reason, the results from anonymous quick polls are not available in the quick poll filter for grouping purposes.

Managing Polls

In the Website → Panel websites → {Selected language version} → Quick polls menu you can set up polls, edit them and view the results.

Read rights for “panel_quickpolls” are needed for managing the quick polls.

The overview comprises all the quick polls created for the defined language version and contains the following information:

Title: Internal title.
Headline: Headline seen by the panelists.
Active:
- Yes: The poll will be displayed.
- No: The poll will not be displayed.
Type: Question type

If you want to view quick polls of another language version in a given installation with several websites and/or language versions, simply change the settings in the upper section of the dialog. You can use the View function to change the number of table columns displayed as well as the number of rows per page. A simple search function is available.

The icons in the “Actions” column give the following editing options:

Edit
Copy poll
View results
Only for panelist polls: Export participant answers
Delete

Creating a New Poll

Click on the Create poll button in the Quick polls menu.
Fill in the form. The most important fields are listed below. Optionally, you can activate the rich text editor and use it to format the texts.
– Allow participation for non-panelists: This option enables you to decide if only logged-in panelists can participate, or if the poll should be anonymous i.e. can be answered by non-panelists as well. Please mind that with anonymous quick polls, you have less possibilities for evaluation. Notably, the result data cannot be matched to panelists. The poll type setting cannot be changed later.
– Title: This title is for orientation purposes only, it will not be seen by panelists.
– Question text: The actual question.
– Text on display of results: This message is displayed after successful voting. Enter the following text, for example: “Thank you for voting!”
– Error message when invalid answers are given: This message is displayed if a problem occurs on saving and, as a result, the answer is deemed invalid. Enter the following text, for example: “Only once, please”.
– Maximum scale of results display: In this field, you can define how broad, in percent, result bars may be in relation to the complete breadth of the poll table. Enter: “100”.
– Question type: You can choose between single or multiple response lists.
– Active: Only active polls will be displayed. If you wish to see your poll on the website, select “Yes” and deactivate all other polls of the current language version once you have saved the setting.
Confirm by clicking on Save.
Open the new poll by clicking on the title or the Edit icon.
In the lower section of the edit dialog you will find the new section “Answer options”. Enter the first answer text and Save.
Repeat this for all required answer options.

For installations with several websites and/or language versions, please note: The language version of a new quick poll is automatically predefined by the overview settings. The language version cannot be subsequently changed.

Properties of a Poll

The table lists all characteristics a poll can have.

Fields	Wildcard	Meaning
Allow participation for non-panelists		There are two types of polls: Panelist polls: Only logged in panelists can participate. Anonymous polls: They can be answered by non-panelists as well. With anonymous quick polls, you have less possibilities for evaluation. Notably, the result data cannot be matched to panelists.
Title		The internal poll title. This title may not contain special characters. Optionally, you can enter the internal title in the external view via a wildcard.
Question text	{$poll.poll_question}	The actual question, for example: “Who do you think will win the World Cup?” Optionally, you may design your text using the rich text editor.
Headline	{$poll.poll_header}	Optional explanatory text. Is displayed in the standard panel below the question text. Optionally, you may design your text using the rich text editor.
Footer	{$poll.poll_footer}	Optional text element, which is displayed in the lower section of the poll. Optionally, you may design your text using the rich text editor.
Text on results display		Text that is optionally displayed after voting. E.g. “Thank you for voting!” Optionally, you may design your text using the rich text editor.
Maximum scale of results display		Defines how broad result bars may be in relation to the complete breadth of the poll table. The entry is in percent.
Question type		Desired question type. You can choose between single or multiple response lists.
Active		Only active polls will be displayed. If several polls are active in a language version, use the “Display quick poll” option in the “Quick Poll” function module to define which of them should be displayed.
Start date / End date for participations		You can define a participation period. Outside this period, the poll is visible, but participation is only possible during the participation period.

Viewing Results

The edit dialog of a poll contains a View results button with which you can open the result overview.

You can delete the results by clicking on Delete results. Please note that by doing so the poll results are deleted irrevocably.

Downloading Results of Panelist Polls

In normal, personalized polls, the Export participant answers function allows you to download a CSV file that contains selected address data and the answer of each participant.

Write rights for “panel_quickpolls” are needed for using the export.

Topics