Extension:QPoll

MediaWiki extensions manual - list

QPoll Release status: beta
Implementation	Parser function, Tag, Special page, Database
Description	Allows to create chains of multipage polls and to provide the statistics at the custom special page
Author(s)	Dmitriy <questpc@rambler.ru> (QuestPCtalk)
Last version	0.7.0 (February 2011)
MediaWiki	1.15, 1.16, 1.17
License	GNU GPL
Download	from local mirror SVN [?]: checkout-url tree code changes
Example	see [1] (available in Russian), and GT5-Tuning.com
Parameters qp_Setup::$cache_control qp_Setup::$global_showresuls qp_Setup::$anon_forwarded_for
Tags qpoll
Hooks used ParserFirstCallInit LanguageGetMagic LoadAllMessages
Check usage and version matrix

Purpose

This extension allows to create polls embedded into the wikipages. Every poll may contain a set of the questions of various types. The polls can be "chained" (when the dependent poll would be available for voting only after a successful submission of the "dependance" poll). Questions may have various types: with unique, single or multiple category selections. Categories can be placed into the groups (metacategories also known as category spans) to make a "subquestions" inside a question. Optional dependence of the question's proposal text on the user's choice of category in another previously voted poll.

Terminology and Syntax

Why a QPoll? Well, because there's already a Poll extension, which uses the <poll> tag. Also, because it has grown out of the Quiz extension (see history). Maybe also, because Q is the first letter of the word "Question".

Every poll is defined in the source text of the page enclosed into the <qpoll> tag. One wikipage can embed one or multiple poll(s) in the source text.

<qpoll poll_attributes>...</qpoll>

• poll_attributes : xml list of qpoll element attributes
• ... : list of questions, see below

Within the list of questions, you can have metacategories and categories. Note that neither of them have any relation to MediaWikis categories, nor the Category namespace, unless you deliberately create one adding links.

Declaration/voting mode

This mode was the only mode available before v0.6.0. When the particular mode is used, be sure that poll/question attributes are compatible with that mode, otherwise you'll probably get syntax error messages. There are some common attributes which are suitable for any mode, see below.

Every poll may contain an one or multiple question(s):

<qpoll poll_attributes>
{common_question
|question_attributes}
metacategories
categories
...

{common_question
|question_attributes}
metacategories
categories
...

{common_question
|question_attributes}
metacategories
categories
...
</qpoll>

• common_question : Common question describes the purpose of the question at whole. It's not mandatory and thus can be blank. Questions are automatically numbered from the number one.
• question_attributes : xml-style list of question attributes.
• metacategories : optional source line, containing the row of cells, separated by special character ("|" or "!"). Every cell has either a name of metacategory or is an empty one. Empty cell(s) before a cell with the name of metacategory define the count of categories, placed into the group (metacategory). The groups make a "subquestions" in the question of "single" category selections type (see Question attributes). In the source code these are referred as "category spans". Real metacategories are separated with "|". It is also possible to create "fake" metacategories, which will be just a comments to categories and don't create real subquestions. In such case "!" character should be used as a cells separator. Wikilinks and templates can be used in metacategory names (since v0.4.1), though beware of posting non-existing templates, you'll get unexpected category names. Define your templates before submitting the poll.
• categories : mandatory source line, containing the row of cells, separated by "|" character. Defines the list of categories (columns) in the question table. Categories are the "possible answers", internally numbered from zero. Wikilinks and templates can be used in category names (since v0.4.1), though beware of posting non-existing templates, you'll get unexpected category names. Define your templates before submitting the poll.
• ... : mandatory list of proposals (one or more of source lines). For the types of question "()", "unique()", "[]" (see Question attributes) these lines contain just the list of proposal texts, one proposal per line. For the type of question "mixed" (since v0.4.0), proposal text is preceeded by list of input types, one element per category defined:

[]()<> proposal text

The above proposal line defines three input fields, the first is a checkbox, the second is a radiobutton, the third is a text field. Proposals are internally numbered from zero.

_{Note that category spans, metacategories, category groups are just a different description of the same logical category grouping. Grouping can be applied only to radiobuttons (for example, a group of two radiobuttons is a logical equivalent of checkbox).}

_{Metacategories (category groups) are unavailable for the types of question "[]", "mixed".}

_{Internal numbering of questions, categories and proposals is important because they might be addressed later as a parameter of the extension's #qpuserchoice parser function.}

Statistical display mode

<qpoll poll_attributes>
{question_attributes}
{question_attributes}
...
{question_attributes}
</qpoll>

Only the common question_attributes permitted in statistical display mode can be specified in this poll mode, one per line, enclosed into the curly braces.

Usage

General information

Every page can have one or more of polls. Every poll may contain one or more questions. Every question represents the table with rows and columns counting from zero, where columns are categories (possible user answers) and rows are proposals (poll author's questions). Polls and their questions have xml-style attributes, some of those are mandatory and thus should be properly customized. Question(s) also has a header, which contains a common question, question attributes, optional metacategories line and a mandatory categories line.

Poll address

Poll addresses are similar to addresses of wikipage section: Pagetitle#poll_id. "Title part" before the dash sign can be omitted to specify the address of the poll located at current page. However, the part after the dash sign is not a section. It's an ID of some poll declared at the page Pagetitle, specified as <qpoll id="poll_id">. Poll addresses are currently used as value of address and dependance attributes (see just below) and in #qpuserchoice parser function.

Poll attributes

Version 0.6.0 of extension introduces two separate modes of polls: declaration/voting mode and statistical display mode. These modes are selected by choosing appropriate poll attributes:

• specifying id attribute causes the poll definition to use declaration/voting mode (the only mode available prior to v0.6.0)
• address attribute causes the poll definition to use statistical display mode, which should be used to display the results of the polls at any wikipage - without the forms used to submit the polls.

The modes are mutually exclusive, so no both id and address attributes can be used together in one poll definition. Also, while some of poll attributes have sense in both modes, many of poll attributes can be used exclusively in one mode. However, nothing prevents the user to define the poll and to show it's statistical results at the same page - just define the poll twice - once with id attribute, another time with address attribute.

Mode definition poll attributes

• id attribute switches the poll definition into declaration/voting mode. It defines string identifier of the poll at the current wikipage. It must be unique on the wikipage. The identifier with the same name might be re-used only at another wikipage. This is because polls cannot be remotely voted at another pages. Please note that id's should be specified without the preceding dash sign, for the very same reason. Non-ASCII id's are possible, just place the value of attribute in quotes (an example in Russian):

<qpoll id="алмаз1">...</qpoll>

• address attribute switches the poll definition into statistical display mode. The value of this attribute specifies a short or full address of the poll, whose statistical data should be displayed. For example, it's very handy to create a page or column of the page, where the results of different polls from the different pages will be shown. For example:

<qpoll address="Page1#poll2">...</qpoll>

or

<qpoll address="#poll2">...</qpoll>

Common poll attributes

• Optional perrow attribute specifies to display question tables in cells, similar to MediaWiki's built-in <gallery perrow=number> tag attribute). It's very useful when the polls categories and/or proposals are short texts (e.g. lists of numbers, yes/no choice). In such case you may fit more polls on the screen. For example, perrow=3 would setup three question tables per row display layout.

• Optional showresults attribute specifies to display statistics (percents of user votes for some of the question's category) inside the poll. Originally showresults has only key with no value specified. Starting from v0.5.0 showresults value defines the list of statistical display parameters, separated by semicolons (CSS-like). First element of the list is numerical code of display type: 0 - suppress output (do not show the results), 1 - numerical percents, 2 - simple bars. Next elements define the values of CSS-like attributes: color - the color of bar, background - the background of bar, textcolor - the color of text, textbackground - the background of text. For example:

showresults value	defined style
showresults="0"	suppress statistical display (might be useful to selectively disable statistical display for some question(s) of the poll)
showresults="1"	display numerical percents in default colors
showresults="1;color:blue;background:yellow;"	display numerical percents in blue color on yellow background
showresults="2"	display bars in default colors
showresults="2;color:blue;background:yellow;textcolor:#FF0000;textbackground:aquamarine"	display bars in blue color on yellow background; percents will have red color on aquamarine background

To enable showresults functionality, an administrator of the wikisite should set "global showresults level" which is specified by value of qp_Setup::$global_showresults property defined in LocalSettings.php after the inclusion of the extension.

Note: you need to set up a page to show the results, see #Statistical display mode.

Declaration/voting mode poll attributes

• Optional dependance atttibute defines a relation of the current poll to the successful submission of the poll, address of whose is defined as a value of dependance attribute. For example, poll with the header <qpoll id="mypoll" dependance="Another page#my_earlier_poll"> will be available for voting only when the user had successfully passed a poll with id="my_earlier_poll", located at Another page. Dependence of the polls can be chained further to the next poll, and the engine would then look for the first unsubmitted poll of the current user.

Question attributes

Common question attributes

• Optional layout attribute provides various visual layouts of the question. (Note that the question data won't be altered, only the visual representation will be changed). Value of the layout attribute is the list of tokens (words), currently limited to proposals and transpose. Thus, a four possible layouts are available:

no layout attribute specified	Categories are columns, proposals are rows. Proposal texts are displayed at the right side.
layout="proposals"	Categories are columns, proposals are rows. Proposal texts are displayed at the left side.
layout="transpose"	Categories are rows, proposals are columns. Proposal texts are displayed at the bottom side.
layout="proposals transpose"	Categories are rows, proposals are columns. Proposal texts are displayed at the top side.

• Optional showresults attribute defines the style of statistical display. The meaning of value is the same as poll's showresults attribute (see above), but it can be applied to every question separately, also the locally-undefined values will be inherited from the top element (poll), like in CSS. Such way, different questions of the same poll may have different values of showresults attribute defined, presenting statistical information in various ways and colors.

Declaration/voting mode question attributes

• Mandatory type attribute defines the type of user's category selection in the current question. The following values are currently available:

type="unique()"	A set of radiobuttons. The selection of these must be unique in both category and proposal axis. This type of category selection represents unique weight choice. Let's say the categories defined are the list of numbers |1|2|3|4|5. Then, the user choices must be an unique weight of the proposal.
type="()"	A set of radiobuttons. The selection of these is unique only in category axis. This means, that proposal answer can have only one user's category choice, while different proposals may have the same category choice.
type="[]"	A set of checkboxes. The selection of these is non-unique in any axis. One proposal can have as much (but at least one) of user category choice(s).
type="mixed"	A set of mixed type user controls (checkboxes, radiobuttons, textfields), defined in the list of proposals (link). Selection of radiobutton clears out every other category selection in the proposal row, if available. Selection of any other control clears out radiobuttons, if available. Radiobuttons and inputs of other types mutually exclude each other. One proposal can have as much (but at least one) of user category choice(s). Since v0.7.0, it is possible to define just one category (choice) for question, when proposal have textfield type. It might be useful for short questions, or for adding the comments.

• Optional textwidth attribute defines the width of text fields in em's, when the categories of such type were defined in proposal line(s) of the question of "mixed" type.

qpuserchoice parser function

This function can be used to extract the answer (user's category choice(s)) of some previously submitted poll. Possible parameters are:

{{#qpuserchoice:poll_address
|question_id
|proposal_id
|default_answer
|category0_answer|category1_answer|...|categoryX_answer|...|categoryN_answer}}

• poll_address: mandatory. the same as in the poll dependance attribute, given without double quotes.
• question_id: mandatory, number, starting from 1.
• proposal_id: mandatory, number, starting from 0.
• default_answer: optional. if given, returns it's value when categoryX_answer was not given. If omitted or has a blank value, returns category_X_answer in case it's present in the list of parameters, otherwise returns the name of category number X for the current user, poll_address, question_id, proposal_id. Since v0.4.2, this parameter may optionally have special value $ which indicates that number of category (counting from 0) choosen by current user, will be returned instead (in case the user had answered to the polls question). User selected numbers of categories of particular question can be used in template to calculate overall results (for example, in psychological tests).
• categoryX_answer: optional, (X: 0..N). If given, returns it's value when category X was chosen by current user in poll_address, question_id, proposal_id. In case the value is blank or omitted, returns the text answer (in case it's not blank), or just the name of category number X for the current user, poll_address, question_id, proposal_id.

_{Category names of checkboxes "[]" and radiobuttons "()" are treated as pre-defined (fixed) user proposal answers. Textfields "<>" may have "custom" texts of the user proposal answers (non-blank field).}

Since v0.6.1, #iferror parser function may be used to detect non-existent / non-voted poll and to display a specified message in such case.

See an example below.

Special:PollResults

Special:PollResults special page, available to users with the administrative rights, provides various statistical information about polls currently running on the wiki site. You may browse polls and users, check which users had (/not) participated in the polls, view user choices as well as total's statistics (percents of the category selections). Precise total's statistics can also be exported into the XLS-format, to further analyze the data in OpenOffice / LibreOffice Calc or Excel. Since v0.7.0 it is also possible to export user votes in XLS-format.

LocalSettings.php

Among general user settings (such as setting up 'read', 'edit' and other rights for registered and anonymous users), there are three built-in qp_Setup class properties and some related wikiglobal variables which affect the extension's operation:

qp_Setup::$global_showresults = value;

• qp_Setup::$global_showresults = 0; (default value is 0) controls "global showresults level" of showresults poll / question attributes.

Following table shows all of currently available global showresults level values (which are applied to all polls of the wiki):

qp_Setup::$global_showresults value	defined style
undefined, 0, false	suppress statistical display at all
true, 1	shows the statistics of some poll only to users who successfully submitted (passed) that poll; this helps to reduce voting bias influenced by previous voters
2	shows the statistics to everyone

Boolean values are kept for the compatibility with pre v0.6.0. By default, without the value specified, showresults does nothing and the polls statistics is available only to users with administrative rights on the Special:PollResults page.

qp_Setup::$anon_forwarded_for = value;

• qp_Setup::$anon_forwarded_for = true; (default is false) enables appending of X-Forwarded-For client address to the anonymous username (in form of "proxy_IP/client_IP"). Such username will be represented as a subpage of anonymous user page in NS_USER namespace.

Voting of anonymous users behind the proxy brings the technical difficulties, because anonymous username in MediaWiki is represented with it's IP address:

• private subnets aren't appended to IP chain by default. To do so, place a $wgUsePrivateIPs = true; line into LocalSettings.php. Otherwise, qp_Setup::$anon_forwarded_for has a very little sense.
• even if website admin enables $wgSquidServers[] in LocalSettings.php to resolve X-Forwarded-For proxy http header, many clients behind different proxies use the same private subnets (eg. 10.0.0.0/8). In such case, two users with the same private IP under different proxies can vote as the single user. That's why qp_Setup::$anon_forwarded_for is needed.
• even, when $wgUsePrivateIPs and qp_Setup::$anon_forwarded_for are true, proxy headers can be spoofed. Some proxies have X-Forwarded-For turned off. In such case, use authorization. Consider adding a namespace for polls, which would be readable only to registered users. Try using available LDAP authorization extension.

qp_Setup::$cache_control = value;

• qp_Setup::$cache_control = true; (default is false) makes the extension to flush Article and Parser caches only when the user actually submits the page. By default, extension always uses Parser::disableCache() at every page where qpoll tag is presented, which reduces the performance. However, cache control feature is not completely tested so use it at your own risk! Also, after changing the value of this property, don't forget to run ?Title=Page_where_the_poll_is_located&action=purge query, to make sure the cache is purged.

Before v0.6.5, user settings were made by definition of global variables $qp_enable_showresults and $qp_AnonForwardedFor before the require_once( "$IP/extensions/QPoll/qp_user.php" ) line. Since v0.6.5, these settings are made by values of qp_Setup class properties qp_Setup::$global_showresults and qp_Setup::$anon_forwarded_for, after the require_once("$IP/extensions/QPoll/qp_user.php"). $qp_enable_showresults and $qp_AnonForwardedFor still can be defined for backward compatibility but discouraged to use.

global variable, v < 0.6.5, before require_once(...)	v >= 0.6.5, after require_once(...)
$qp_enable_showresults	qp_Setup::$global_showresults
$qp_AnonForwardedFor	qp_Setup::$anon_forwarded_for
not available, use 0.6.3 w/o cache control, 0.6.4 with cache control	qp_Setup::$cache_control

Installation

• download the latest available version and extract it to your wiki extension directory. Note: if you have MediaWiki 1.18, download the trunk version, not 1.18 (see talk page).
• add the following line to LocalSettings.php

require_once( "$IP/extensions/QPoll/qp_user.php" );

• setup additional variables in LocalSettings.php, if needed
• check out Special:Version page to verify the installation
• login as the user with administrative rights, go to Special:PollResults page. Database tables will be set up. Alternatively, you may import qpoll.sql to mysql database manually (remember that $wgDBprefix for the tables won't be used!).
• if there are any glitches, make sure you've installed successfully and MediaWiki version is compatible with the extension. Please report the bugs at the talk page. Also you may try using previous version (if available).

Examples

Example of LocalSettings.php

v0.6.5:

require_once( "$IP/extensions/QPoll/qp_user.php" );
qp_Setup::$cache_control = false;
qp_Setup::$global_showresults = 1;
qp_Setup::$anon_forwarded_for = true;

Declaration/voting mode

Now there's an example of three different polls:

<qpoll id=almaz1 showresults perrow=2>
{Please choose the side of conflict:
|layout="transpose" type="unique()" showresults="0"}
! Choose a score (I - least important, V - most important)
| I | II | III | IV | V
describes my values and ideals
describes my personal views
the most logically suitable to the current situation
explains their arguments in the most logical way
gives the most useful idea

{When I begin to work on some project as a member of a working group, the most important thing to myself is:
|layout="proposals transpose" type="unique()" showresults="1"}
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
understanding the goals and importance of this project
to guess the goals and values of the working group members
to define, how the project will be performed
understanding, which benefits this project can brin to the group members
to organize the project in such way that it would be implemented well enough

{In reality, I am understanding new ideas better and easier, when I can:
|layout="proposals" type="()" showresults="1;color:blue;background:yellow"}
|| "Real" myself ||| "Ideal" myself
| Yes | No | Yes | Maybe | No
Did you ever think, which external reasons encourage you to invent something new?
Did you ever have trouble because you're too curious?
Did you ever have a strong wish to improve the design of the some material thing?
Did you ever have trouble due to your own stubbornness?

{Which picture do you like better?
|type="unique()" showresults="2;color:blue;background:yellow;textcolor:#FF0000;textbackground:aquamarine"}
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
[[image:jh_of001.jpg|thumb]]
[[image:jh_of002.jpg|thumb]]
[[image:jh_of003.jpg|thumb]]
[[image:jh_of004.jpg|thumb]]
[[image:jh_of005.jpg|thumb]]
</qpoll>

Let's assume the poll above is located at the wikipage Mainpage. It's unique identifier on the mainpage is #almaz1 (id=almaz1 poll attribute). Only a different title can re-use the same identifier. This poll will show it's statistics to everyone who can view and thus vote on the Mainpage, in case wiki admin permitted this by placing qp_Setup::$global_showresults=1; in LocalSettings.php (showresults attribute). Questions of this poll will be displayed two per row (perrow=2 poll attribute). Questions of poll will have their statistics displayed in different style, according to their showresults attributes.

---

<qpoll dependance="Mainpage#almaz1" id=poll0 showresults="2;color:green">
{Checking various types of questions, 1
|type="()"}
|Large metacategory for the full list of categories just below
| Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3
understanding the goals
guessing real goals of the project
digging deeply into the problem

{Checking various types of questions, 2
|type="()"}
|| Two categories span "A"|| Two categories span "B"
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
understanding the real goals
Did you mean {{#qpuserchoice:Mainpage#almaz1|1|2|the default|the roman one||the roman third||the roman fifth}} choice?
guessing true goals of the project
digging even more deeply into the problem

{Checking various types of questions, 3
|type="[]"}
|| Metacategory for categories I & II | Metacategory for categories III & IV
| I | II | III | IV
understanding the goals
guessing real goals of the project
digging deeply into the problem
</qpoll>

Let's assume the second poll is located at the wikipage Pagename. It will be available for the current user only after the first poll (Mainpage#almaz1) was successfully submitted (dependance="Mainpage#almaz1" poll attribute). It's own id=poll0. It might be addressed in the future with Pagename#poll0 poll address (or, just #poll0 if the another poll or parser function is located on the same page).

The question 2, proposal 1 of this poll calls a #qpuserchoice parser function to display a custom proposal text depending on the user's category choice in the previously voted poll Mainpage#almaz1 question 1, proposal 2 (see "the most logically suitable to the current situation" proposal text line above). The displaying proposal text will be Did you mean ... choice?, where ... will be substituted according to the user choice of categories in Mainpage#almaz1 question 1, proposal 2

Mainpage#almaz1 question 1, proposal 2 selection	Pagename#poll0 question 2, proposal 1 text
II,IV	Did you mean the default choice?
I	Did you mean the roman one choice?
III	Did you mean the roman third choice?
V	Did you mean the roman fifth choice?

Note also, that the metacategory (spans) line of the question number 3

|| Metacategory for categories I & II | Metacategory for categories III & IV

is equivalent to the line

|| Metacategory for categories I & II || Metacategory for categories III & IV

second metacategory was filled up with one additional empty cell automatically to include the rest of the categories (IV in this case).

---

<qpoll id=multi>
{Your favorite drink
|textwidth="20" type="mixed"}
| Plain water | Juice | Beer | Other drink
()[][]<> Winter
()[][]<> Spring
()[][]<> Summer
()[][]<> Autumn
</qpoll>

The poll of "mixed" type. Choose only the water, or any combination of juice, beer and/or other custom drink, which you would prefer during the proposed seasons of the year.

<qpoll id=multi2>
{Your favorite drink
|textwidth="20" type="mixed"}
| Plain water | Juice | Beer | Other drink
()[][]<> Winter
Spring
Summer
Autumn
</qpoll>

Since the v0.4.3 it's possible to omit repeated declaration of exactly the same category types at the next proposal line. Starting from the second proposal line (Spring), there's only proposal text. Thus, the poll with id=multi2 has the same category types as the previously declared poll with id=multi.

---

Since the v0.7.0 it's possible to define just one category question when proposal have textfield type:

<qpoll id=multi3>
{Please describe your short opinion on newspapers below
|textwidth="20" type="mixed"}
| Your feedback
<> Calgary Herald
Edmonton Journal
Lethbridge Herald
Lethbridge Sun Times
Lethbridge Journal
</qpoll>

Starting with v0.7.0 question's "common question" can be hidden when there is only one category defined and it's name equals to html entity 160 (non-breaking space). This might be useful when defining the fields for question comments and feedbacks. For example, you may replace common question title "Your feedback" to html entity 160 in the poll with id=multi3 to have the question to be hidden.

Statistical display mode

Please note that this mode is available only since v0.6.0. The following code can be placed at any wiki page where the extension was installed:

<qpoll address="Mainpage#almaz1" showresults="1">
{showresults="2;color:green;"}
{}
{showresults="0"}
{showresults="1"}
</qpoll>

If permitted by value of qp_Setup::$global_showresults property, will show the statistical results of poll with id almaz1 located at Mainpage.

• first question will have green bars displayed
• second will inherit showresults="1" from poll's value of showresults attribute, thus showing only numerical percents
• third will not be displayed at all
• fourth will have only numerical percents displayed

Technical notes

Parsing and storage of the polls on the wiki pages gives a flexibility. Yet, every kind of flexibility brings technical difficulties. When an existing poll has already been submitted, it's structure and results are stored in database. When some user alters the source text of such poll, troubles might occur. Generally, it's very much recommended to:

• add new categories only at the last column
• add new proposals only at the last row
• do not alter existing submitted metacategories
• do not change the type of the poll

Few simple precautions are made against of some notorious glitches. Eg, very incompatible stored/altered question headers cause reject of loading previous poll's category choices. Some of these problems can be fixed by developing a visual poll editor, however, this is against wiki idea - processing of source text, and would require too much of efforts.

But, do not alter source text of ongoing polls at all, if you can. Setup the wiki so voting users only have a read permission, not an edit permission. Read permission is enough to submit the poll. This is the main reason, why the poll structure is stored only during the first successful submission, not during reading the page source. If you want poll_address to be stored without the poll structure, just submit the unfilled poll. This might be useful for setting up dependence chains without cumbersome answering. Storage of address will happen only if the poll has correct syntax.

Categories of checkbox/radiobutton input types store boolean "true"/"false" values. Categories of text type are considered "true" when the text answer is not empty. Additionally, text input is stored, so the user's answer can be seen on Special:PollResults page. "True" means that category was choosen (answered). That's why the selection of "exclusive" radiobutton in proposal row of "mixed" question type clears out both checkboxes and text fields, and vice versa.

For a technical note on anonymous usernames, read LocalSettings.php section.

Localization

Additional languages can be added into qp_i18n.php file. It is preferable to use http://translatewiki.net/ site interface to update the messages directly at svn server.

Download

Release	Notes
0.3.0 tgz	First public release
0.4.0 outdated, security vulnerabilities	Basic support for text fields. New type of the question ("mixed"), which allows to combine various types of fields in one proposal row. Database scheme has been slightly changed to store text answers.
0.4.1 outdated, security vulnerabilities	Minor fixes. Http redirect finally works in Opera. Nested wikilinks and templates should work in names of categories. Tiny change of stored format of metacategories in DB.
0.4.2 outdated, security vulnerabilities	Minor fixes. PLURAL should properly work in messages. #qpuserchoice parser function introduced new value of default_answer parameter. Minor UI improvements in Special:PollResults. Database scheme has been slightly changed to improve the performance.
0.4.3 outdated, security vulnerabilities	Small JS fix. Shortened syntax of question type "mixed".
0.5.0 outdated, security vulnerabilities	Some internal changes of questions parsing. Few code fixes. showresults attribute can be defined in question header. showresults attribute now supports different styles of statistical display.
0.5.1 outdated, security vulnerabilities	Few bugfixes. Improved compatibility of extension with PHP 5.3 (qp_user.php, XLS generation class).
0.6.0 tgz	Significant cleanup and restructurization of code. Separate statistical output. Optionally displays the results of the poll only to the users who already voted in the poll. Administrator can browse text answers for the selected poll, question, proposal category at Special:PollResults page (for mixed question type "<>" fields).
0.6.1 tgz	Small improvements in displaying of header parsing error messages. #iferror check now should work for #qpuserchoice function.
0.6.2 tgz	Througly checked for proper escaping of the output.
0.6.3 tgz	Fixed bug that happened due to missing $wgDBprefix in one of SQL operators. Including updated translations from http://translatewiki.net/ (many thanks). This version is recommended for MediaWiki 1.14, 1.15.
0.6.4 tgz	Parser and Article caches control for better performance (experimental feature: need an review or more testing under various versions / setups of MediaWiki). Fixed issue with non-UTF locales in htmlentities (reported for PHP 5.3.1).
0.6.5 tgz	Parser and Article caches control by default is off (can be switched on by setting the value of qp_Setup::$cache_control property in LocalSettings.php). Fixed bugs and incompatibilities that prevented the extension from working with MediaWiki 1.16 branch and Vector skin / UsabilityInitiative enhanced preview mode. This version is recommended for MediaWiki 1.16 and will NOT work with 1.15.
0.7.0 tgz	I've tried to make it compatible both to 1.15, 1.16, 1.17. If something still does not work, please report at the talk page. Updated Spreadsheet writer PEAR classes to the latest versions available. Fixed some additional PHP 5.3 deprecations. Enable to define questions of mixed type with just one category defined when the proposal type is textfield. Optionally hide (don't display) common question of such questions. (useful for adding the fields for feedbacks / comments ). Now uses recursiveTagParse() with PPFrame to enable parser functions in tag body (MW 1.16+). Also uses ResourceLoader (MW 1.17+). Export of user votes (voices) in XLS format from Special:Pollresults page, not just averages / totals as before.

To extract tgz archive in Windows, free 7zip program can be used.

Todo

1. Statistical diagrams.
2. Improve "mixed" question type.
3. Make it possible to delete polls.

History

This extension has originally grown out of the exising stable Quiz extension, taking it as the code base. After some revisions, when majority of the code was changed, it has became apparent that Quiz compatibility should be dropped, because the purposes of both extensions are quite different - the storage scheme can't easily be made unified, and there's not much of demands to store Quiz results. Besides that, nested and rotating tables layout require html class renderer which uses arrays and objects to interpret the tags - with simple strings output tags nesting errors and general code bloat were arising.