------------------------------------------------------------- ACPoll Voting Door -- v.99 by Rich Wardwell -- Adept Concepts ------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT IS ACPoll? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ACPoll is your basic Voting door written for DLG (although most likely compatible with any BBS allowing the use of CLI doors). ACPoll allows you to configure multiple "voting booths" of numerous questions and then print out the appropriate results. I haven't personally seen one of these programs available specifically for DLG, but I am sure their is one floating around. Of course, I believe this Voting door is better than the rest! :-) FILES INCLUDED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following files should be included in the ACPoll archive: ACPoll The executable. ACPoll.DOC You're reading it now. History.DOC History of changes. Regist.DOC Blank registration form. THE LEGAL STUFF ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ACPoll, and the accompanying files are copyright 1992 by Rich Wardwell / Adept Concepts. You are granted a license to use ACPoll on your BBS, and distribute it to other sysops provided: - You distribute it ONLY in the complete, unmodified archive. - No fee is charged for distribution of ACPoll, except if you distribute it via non-electronic means (ie mail), you may recover the cost of the disk and postage. - You register your copy of ACPoll (see below). I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE INCURRED AS A RESULT OF USING ACPOLL. BY USING ACPOLL, YOU, THE USER, AGREE THAT I SHALL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING ACPOLL DOES OR DOES NOT DO TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM, SOFTWARE RUNNING ON THAT SYSTEM, OR HARDWARE CONNECTED TO THAT SYSTEM. PLEASE REGISTER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Although I enjoy developing utilities for DLG, I gave up a lot of my spare time to write this program (and the few others that are out there and in development) even though I had other things that I probably should have done (like sleep). I really don't expect to see anything in return, but it certainly would be nice; especially if you use a number of my utilities. So, if you feel so inclined to send me something it certainly would be welcomed. A small donation along with a filled out registration form will grant you access to the latest version of ACPoll on my BBS. The registered version does remove some of the restrictions found in the released version. (These will be outlined shortly). Anyway, here is is the address for registration: Rich Wardwell Adept Concepts P.O. Box 5087 Athens, GA 30604 USA Bug reports and ideas for the next version (if I do another version) may also be sent to the above address, or to my BBS: The GOOD News BBS (706) 548-5168 FIDO 1:370/50 You will also be able to access any/all of my other DLG utilities there. SETTING IT UP ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ACPoll is a somewhat self contained unit. In other words, you don't have to run an editor to make your configuration files. Here is a basic outline of the commands allowed with ACPoll. ACPoll CONFIG ------------- This command is to define the questions and possible answers available to the user. You must define your configuration files with this command before users may vote. This command takes two arguments, the location/ name of the config file and the location/name of the user file (where the answers and names of users who have voted will be stored). ACPoll CONFIG eg. ACPoll CONFIG DOORS:NewUser.CFG DOORS:NewUser.USER You will be asked the questions to be given to the users and the possible answers. This release version is limited to 10 questions with 10 possible answers per question. This should be sufficient for almost any situation. If you need more, register! :-) ACPoll POLL ----------- This command is what you will use on your BBS to actually poll the users; allow them to vote on the previously configured questions. This command takes a number of arguments, starting with the two config/data files, created in ACPoll CONFIG. After this, the name of the user voting is required, %NAME in DLG. Lastly an optional argument is allowed, which can be the location of a text file to be printed before starting the voting. ACPoll POLL eg. ACPoll POLL DOORS:NewUser.CFG DOORS:NewUser.USER %NAME DOORS:Int.txt The release version only allows 50 users to vote. This keeps the data files relatively low. If you need more, register! :-) ACPoll PRINT ------------ Lastly is the PRINT command, which will print out the latest results from the voting. This command takes the two config/data arguments along with the optional intro text file argument. ACPoll PRINT eg. ACPoll PRINT DOORS:NewUser.CFG DOORS:NewUser.USER DOORS:Int.txt This will display all of the questions and the number of votes each has accumulated along with the percentage of the vote each has claimed. I run this from the BBS also, allowing the users to read the results. Of course, you could have a private survey. GENERAL HINTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Multiple voting booths can be created. Just use different user and config files for each one. I have a Voting Booth menu, filled with different voting topics, which I change occasionally. This door works exceptionally well when used with the Bulletin login stack command. (Post a bulletin in the message area, select command stack, and then enter the appropriate command to execute ACPoll). Using this method, you can force everyone to take an important survey and get an accurate reading of your users. I hope you enjoy ACPoll and find it useful! --Rich Wardwell