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Simple Polls

Create polls with multiple options. One vote per IP or logged-in user. Live results shown as a bar chart after voting.

About this plugin

Simple Polls - Contensio Plugin

Create polls with multiple options, enforce one vote per IP or logged-in user, and display live results as an animated bar chart - all without a page reload.

Features

  • Unlimited options per poll (2–20)
  • One vote per user - logged-in users tracked by user ID; guests tracked by IP address
  • Live bar chart - results update instantly after voting via Alpine.js + fetch, no page reload
  • Flexible result visibility - show results always, only after voting, or only after the poll closes
  • Auto-close - set an optional end date/time; the poll stops accepting votes automatically
  • Guest voting toggle - optionally restrict voting to logged-in users only
  • Admin results view - full breakdown with vote counts and percentages
  • Embeddable - drop any poll into any page, post, or widget area with one line
  • Status control - Draft / Active / Closed

How it works

  1. An admin creates a poll in Tools → Polls → New Poll, adds options, and sets the status to Active.
  2. The poll is embedded anywhere in a theme using @include('polls::partials.poll', ['pollId' => 1]).
  3. A visitor selects an option and clicks Vote. The vote is sent via fetch to /polls/{id}/vote.
  4. The voting form is replaced by a bar chart showing results in real time.
  5. If the visitor revisits the page, the bar chart is shown immediately (the plugin checks their IP / user ID on page load).

Vote deduplication

  • Logged-in users - enforced by a unique database constraint on (poll_id, user_id). A second request hits the constraint and returns an error.
  • Guests - checked by IP address before inserting. One IP = one vote per poll.
  • A race condition between the IP check and the insert is handled by catching the database unique constraint exception.

Installation

Via admin panel

Go to Plugins in your Contensio admin, find Simple Polls, and click Install.

Via Composer

composer require contensio/plugin-polls

The plugin is auto-discovered. Go to Plugins in the admin and enable it. Migrations run automatically on first enable.

Embedding a poll

@include('polls::partials.poll', ['pollId' => 1])

Replace 1 with the poll's ID, which is shown on the polls list screen.

The embedded widget is self-contained - it includes its own Alpine.js component and handles voting, error states, and result rendering without any additional setup.

Requirements for the embed to work:

  • Alpine.js must be loaded on the page (included in all Contensio default themes).
  • A <meta name="csrf-token"> tag must be present in the page <head> (included in all Contensio default themes).

Admin

Poll list (/account/polls)

Shows all polls with their status, total vote count, result visibility setting, and expiry date. From here you can create, edit, view results, or delete a poll.

The embed snippet is shown inline on the list for quick copy-paste.

Create / edit form

Field Description
Question The poll question (up to 500 characters)
Options Add or remove options dynamically; minimum 2, maximum 20
Status Draft (hidden), Active (accepting votes), Closed (no more votes)
Show results Always, After voting, or After closing
Allow guests Whether non-logged-in visitors can vote (one vote per IP)
Auto-close at Optional date/time to automatically stop accepting votes

Results view (/account/polls/{id}/results)

Displays a bar chart with vote count and percentage per option, total votes, and current status.

Routes

Method URL Description
GET /account/polls Admin poll list
GET /account/polls/create New poll form
POST /account/polls Create poll
GET /account/polls/{id}/edit Edit poll
PUT /account/polls/{id} Update poll
DELETE /account/polls/{id} Delete poll + all votes
GET /account/polls/{id}/results Admin results view
POST /polls/{id}/vote Cast a vote (JSON)
GET /polls/{id}/results Fetch current results (JSON)

Database

Three tables created by the migration:

polls

Column Type Description
id bigint Primary key
question varchar(500) The poll question
status enum draft, active, closed
show_results enum always, after_vote, after_close
allow_guests boolean Whether guests can vote
ends_at timestamp Auto-close date/time (nullable)
created_at / updated_at timestamp

poll_options

Column Type Description
id bigint Primary key
poll_id bigint FK → polls.id (cascade delete)
label varchar(300) Option text
sort_order smallint Display order

poll_votes

Column Type Description
id bigint Primary key
poll_id bigint FK → polls.id (cascade delete)
option_id bigint FK → poll_options.id (cascade delete)
user_id bigint Logged-in user ID (nullable)
ip_address varchar(45) Voter IP address
created_at timestamp Vote time

Unique constraint on (poll_id, user_id) prevents duplicate votes from logged-in users at the database level.

Requirements

  • PHP 8.2+
  • Contensio 2.0+
  • Alpine.js (included in all Contensio default themes)

License

AGPL-3.0-or-later - see LICENSE.