Amazing Little Picture Poll

Hi there. This readme file will give some background information on The Amazing Little Picture Poll and, most importantly, will tell you how to set it up on your site!

The Amazing Little Picture Poll v1.2 is a sweet little php application. It is a simple picture poll which uses a flat file to store voting scores. It's easy to set up and configure to your own needs.

The Amazing Little Picture Poll can be freely distributed, manipulated, stolen, abused, used for any kind of activities.

In case of any problems with the original code, I'll be glad to help out. Mail to: littlepoll

Any suggestions for improvement are also always very welcome!

I can not be held responsible or liable for anything.

v1.2: Update to work with PHP 5.4 and improved security

v1.1: Update with better layout possibilities

v1.0: First full version with installation instructions to be freely distributed.

v0.2: Some minor improvements.

v0.1: First beta version, created on request based on the code of The Amazing Little Poll.

Besides the REALLY obvious: A php-enabled webserver, and access to it to set a file's attibutes.

Step 1:Copying files

Copy the following files to your home directory on the webserver:
- lp_settings.php
- lp_source.php
- lp_admin.php
- lpdemo.php (only for testing)
- lprecookie.php (only for testing)
- lplist.txt
- lp_log.dat
- lp_0.gif
- lp_1.gif

I would recommend SmartFTP as an FTP client for Windows. It's free for personal use and works pretty good. For the Mac, I've been using Cyberduck.

Step 2: Setting file attributes

Set the attributes of the file "lppiclist.txt" and "lp_log.dat" so all parties (owner, group, public) have read and write access. That's CHMOD to 666.

If you use SmartFTP, then select the file you want to change attributes of, select Commands - Properties / CHMOD. Then type 666 in the permissions box. With Cyberduck, right-click the file, choose info, then go to the tab 'Permissions' and set them to read and write for all.

Open lp_admin.php in your browser, and set up your poll. (Initial password = "elephant")

For the pictures that you want for voting, use full links to both thumbnails and the full size pictures.

Test your poll using the Amazing Little Poll Test Facility. Open lpdemo.php for this in your browser.

Step 5: Implementing source code

Now that the poll itself is working, it's time to implement it into your site. Paste the following code above the <html> tag in your site (so really above everything else):

<?php include("lp_source.php"); ?>

(if you get an error message like "cannot add header information, headers already sent by...", then please make sure that the <?php tag is really at the beginning of the file)

Step 6: Implementing poll

Where you want the poll to be in your page, add the following lines of code:

<?php if($votingstep==1) { echo($step1str); }
if($votingstep==2) { echo($step2str); }
if($votingstep==3) { echo($step3str); } ?>

Where you want the question to be in the page, add the following line of code:

<?php echo($question); ?>

If you want to show the total number of votes, add the following line:

<?php echo($totalvotes); ?>

Step 7: Implementating dynamic title

You can add a 'dynamic' title for the Poll, which reads something like "your votes please" or "thanks for your vote", depending on the situation. Put the following code where you want the title to be:

<?php echo($mainstr); ?>

Step 8: Customizing general

Open the file 'lp_settings.php' in a text editor and set it up according to your wishes.

IMPORTANT: make sure you set the filename of your page (for example, index.php) correctly!

IMPORTANT: change the initial admincenter password for better security!

Step 9: Customizing the graphs

The graph is drawn using two little .gif files. They should be 1 pixel in width. You can change them to change the appearance and color of the graphs.

Step 10: Customizing the vote button

You can change the style of the vote button to fit the style of your page. To do this, enter the CSS code in the $buttonstyle variable in lp_settings.inc. For example, to get a black button with a white border and white text:

$buttonstyle="border:1px solid white; background:black;color:white;";

For more information on CSS (cascading style sheets), visit Webmonkey

Step 11: Logging

Open lp_log.dat to get an overview of events of the poll, when a new one was created, hack attempts, votings, etc.