InterScore, Inc.PollCat by InterScore

PollCat Poll Documentation

Thank you for using InterScore's PollCat Poll for Internet Information Server 4 (Windows NT 4.0, 95 and 98).  InterScore, Inc. is in the business of providing high-end Polls and Surveys.  We are happy to provide the PollCat Poll control to you free of charge.  Please read this document for important installation considerations.

Table of Contents

 

Quick Start: Step by step instructions

IIS Management Console

 1. Copy the Administration.asp and Poll.asp from your installation directory to your web server virtual directory as indicated to the left (Use Windows Explorer or other method). The image to the left shows what the files look like once you copy them into the web directories. Windows 95/98 systems will look different when viewed from the Personal Web Server administration utility.


2. Right-Click on Administration.asp and select Properities. If you are using Windows 95/98, skip to step 8 by running Adminstration.asp from your browser.

Administration.asp Properties

 3. Select File Security Tab and Click the Edit Button.

Authentication Methods

 4. Uncheck the Allow Anonymous Access checkbox.


5. (Optionally) Uncheck the Windows NT Challenge/Response checkbox.


6. (Optionally) Check the Basic Authentication checkbox.

Administration.asp Authentication Screen

 7. Ideally, from another workstation, launch the administration.asp file from your web browser. If you performed the previous step correctly, you should be requested to be authenticated. Note: This may not be true if you do this step directly on the web server as you were authenticated during the NT Login process.

Opening PollCat Administration Screen

 8. You should get the opening PollCat administration screen to the left.

9. PollCat needs a data path to store its data files. Create a directory outside the web server's virtual web directories to ensure no direct unathorized access to the poll files.

10. Go to the following step before clicking Next

Windows Explorer

 11. In Windows Explorer, create a directory on the web server.

12. Right click on the directory and select Properites. Skip to step 17 for Windows 95/98 systems because there is no security considerations.

New Folder Security Permissions

 13. Select the Security Tab.


14. Click the Permissions button.

Directory Permissions

 15. Add Full Control directory permissions to the Everyone Group or the IUSR_XXX User.


16. Click OK

PollCat Configuration

 17. Now click Next in the Administration.asp utility. PollCat should at this point be properly installed.


18. You need to now create polls. Follow the directions contained at the top of each page.

Sample PollCat Poll

 19. After you have created your first poll, launch the Poll.asp file from your web browser. You should get your poll to show up if you saved at least one poll configuration.

 

Files

isPollCat.dll PollCat component
Administration.asp Sample administration script
Poll.asp Sample poll script
\images Sample graphic files to build poll result bars.
\samples Sample pollcat definition files that demonstrate html embedding.

PollCat is is normally installed and registered in the \winnt\system32 directory (\windows\system on Windows 95/98 systems) during the installation process.  The component was developed using Visual Basic 6.0.  You can download the VB6 support files if necessary at our web site.

You may need to register PollCat on your system.  Go to the command prompt and navigate to the \winnt\system32 (or \windows\system on Windows 95/98) directory and execute: regsvr32 isPollCat.dll.  If desired, PollCat also can be installed as a package within Transaction Server. 

NT Permissions

There are two critical permission considerations:

  1. The Administration.asp script needs to be run in a Non-Anonymous user mode.  This can be achieved by placing the file within your web site and removing the permissions for the Anonymous IIS user and allowing read access for an administrator (or any user that can write to the registry).
  2. The PollCat data directory path that you provide during the PollCat configuration process  (noted below) must allow Read, Write, Create, and Delete permissions for the Anonymous IIS user to process PollCat data files.

Cookie Feature

PollCat is smart enough to prevent users from submitting a vote more than once.  PollCat achieves this by writing a cookie to the browser.  A cookie can only be written to the browser before any HTML has been sent to the browser.  Thus to enable this feature, you must set Response.Buffer = True before PollCat is instantiated.  After PollCat has been instatiated within your scripts, you can flush the buffer.  See the sample Poll.asp file provided in your installation directory.

The name of the cookie is PollCat:<poll cat id> and will expire after one month.  If you need to change this value, you can do it after you instantiate PollCat with Response.Cookies("PollCat:<ID>").Expires = <Your Date>

Poll Mode

The poll mode allows a user to see the poll and submit a response to see the result (see Poll.asp for a sample script).  Only three lines of code is required (see Properties & Methods for additional features):

Ideally, draw a table cell to give PollCat space to write its output.  You will find a sample poll script called Poll.asp located in the directory provided during installation.  Copy this to your web server after you have configured a poll to see sample output.

Administration Mode

To create polls, run PollCat in Adminstration mode.  Get the script Administration.asp located in the directory you provided during installation.  

Ideally, place the script in the root directory of your web site to make it easier to verify that your graphical references are correct during configuation.  Run the script (note the NT permission considerations noted above).  Instructions are provided within configuration mode.

Properties & Methods

Program ID isPollCat.UI
ID Numeric: Provide the ID of the Poll. Polls generated from the admininistration utility start with 1.
DataPath String: NT/95/98 physical path name. Used to bypass the default server-based data directory. Set this in the administration.asp script and the script used to render your poll.
ResultsOnly Boolean: If set True, the poll will not render the question; it will only render the results. The default is False.
ShowTotals Boolean: If set False, the poll will not render the resulting number of votes so far tallied. It will render the percentages. The default is True.
Administration This method will start the administration utility. See the administration.asp script

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can I remove the PollCat banner image?

You can purchase an annual license which unlocks the control and allows you to put any image or other HTML in place of the image. If you leave it blank, the image will not be drawn. This license can be purchased in the administration utility by clicking on Advanced Features.

2. Can my ISP host PollCat?

Your ISP can host PollCat. The current version supports directory based poll cat data paths. It is possible to have your ISP create a script that only you can access that provides a path to your PollCat data independent of other customers that are hosted on the server. Feel free to have your ISP contact us if there are questions.

Support and Feedback

PollCat is freeware and has been provided "as-is".  Limited support is available via e-mail to the Interscore Adminstrator.  Please provide the script and the data files (<PollCat ID>.def, <PollCat ID>.det, <PollCat ID>.sum) to facilitate resolution as well as the version number noted in the PollCat title during administration. 

Feedback and enhancement requests are also welcome.   Please e-mail the Interscore Adminstrator. 

Copyright © InterScore, Inc. 1999.  All rights reserved.