Poll Server Control

The Poll server control displays a poll or survey created from an Ektron CMS400.NET form on a Web page. When added to a template and visited, the poll might look like this. You can change a poll‘s appearance by modifying its properties.

Ektron recommends displaying a poll or survey with a Poll server control, because it provides great flexibility with the poll’s appearance. Typically, developers want a poll or survey in a small section of a Web page, not the main content. By using the EnableAjax property, you can display the results in the same area as the poll or survey without refreshing the entire page.

However, if you want the form/poll/survey’s response to be either Redirect to a file or page or Redirect form data to an action page, you must use a Form Block server control to display the form on a Web page. See Also: FormBlock Server Control

Poll Server Control Properties

The following table explains the properties of the poll server control.

Note: The following table only lists Ektron-specific properties. It does not describe native .NET properties such as font, height, width and border style. For documentation of these properties, see Visual Studio help.

Property	Value	Data Type
(Poll ID)	The ID of the poll that appears where you inserted this server control. If you don’t know the ID number of the form block, use the CMS Explorer to browse to it. See Also: Using CMS Explorer to Browse Your Ektron CMS400.NET Site	Long
AddValidation	The AddValidation property is obsolete and ignored. It has no effect. It is always true.	Boolean
Authenticated	Indicates if you are logged in to the CMS Explorer and can use it to browse to Content, Collections, etc. See Also: Using CMS Explorer to Browse Your Ektron CMS400.NET Site	String
CacheInterval	Sets the amount of time the server control’s data is cached. The default is 0 (zero). This is the amount of time, in seconds, a control’s data is cached. For example, if you want to cache the data for five minutes, set this property to 300 (three hundred). See Also: Caching with Server Controls	Double
DoInitFill	By default, Fill occurs during the Page_Init event. Set to false if you want to postpone the fill-action until later. In this case, FIll is automatically called during the Page Render event. You might do this if you need to set or change a property on the control in codebehind and have it render with your changes shown.	Boolean
DynamicParameter	To make this form block dynamic, select ekfrm. When you do, this server control uses the form block passed as a URL parameter.	String
EnableAjax	Can displays the poll or results using an iFrame in the area of the page that contains the poll. As a result, the surrounding contents are not disturbed . The default is true. True - Polls and results are shown in an iFrame without modifying or refreshing the surrounding contents. False - Poll and the results replace the Web page’s content.	Boolean
Fields	Displays a list of fields that are defined in the form. These fields are read only. This is an excellent way of displaying the field names used on the form. With this list of names, you can create events using the fields without having to enter the Workarea to see the names.
Hide	Used to hide a form block in design time and run time. True = Hide form block False = Show form block	Boolean
Include Tags	Determines if tags are generated automatically of manually. See Also: Automatic versus Manual Generation of Form Tags	Boolean
Language	Set a language for viewing form content. This property shows results in design-time (in Visual Studio) and at run-time (in a browser).	Integer
SuppressWrapperTags	Suppresses the output of the span/div tags around the control. The default is False. True - Suppress wrap tags. False - Allow wrap tags.	Boolean
WrapTag	Allows a developer to specify a server control’s tag. The default is Span. Span - Use to designate an in-line portion of an HTML document as a span element Div - Use to apply attributes to a block of code Custom - Allows you to use a custom tag	String

Automatic versus Manual Generation of Form Tags

When using the poll server control’s IncludeTags property, you have two options.

Option	Recommended if you are developing	How to Enable
Let Ektron CMS400.NET generate form tags automatically	A pure script .aspx page	Set IncludeTags property to True.
Modify HTML form tags in the .aspx file	An .aspx page and associated code-behind web form	Set IncludeTags property to False. Here is the default .NET generated form tag: <form id="Form1" method="post" runat="server"> Modify the form tag as indicated in red: <form id="Form1" method="post" runat="server" OnSubmit=”return EkFmValidate(this);”>

Option

Recommended if you are developing

How to Enable

Let Ektron CMS400.NET generate form tags automatically

A pure script .aspx page

Set IncludeTags property to True.

Modify HTML form tags in the .aspx file

An .aspx page and associated code-behind web form

Set IncludeTags property to False.

Here is the default .NET generated form tag:

Modify the form tag as indicated in red:

Editing the Poll Result Display: Bar Chart

To edit the style and appearance of the bar chart, modify the following files

siteroot/workarea/csslib/reportchart.css

siteroot/workarea/controls/forms/HistogramReportPoll.xslt

Those files include extensive comments that explain how to customize the bar chart's appearance.

Note: In the current version of Ektron CMS400.NET, pie charts are not editable.