SoftIcon Poll

FAQ

Do I need an account or an outside service?

No. Everything runs on your own site, and the votes are saved in your own database (in a table named wp_alpl_votes, with your table prefix).

How does “one vote per person” work?

A logged-in visitor votes once per account. A visitor who is not logged in is recognised by a browser cookie and by a scrambled code made from the IP address, so clearing cookies does not allow a second vote.

People who share one internet connection, for example a family or an office, share one IP address, so only one of them can vote while not logged in. If that matters for your poll, turn on “Only logged-in users” in the Voting panel: then every account votes once.

My site is behind Cloudflare or another proxy. Does that matter?

Behind Cloudflare the plugin reads the visitor’s real address from Cloudflare’s header, but only when the request really comes from Cloudflare, so the header can’t be faked.

Behind another proxy or load balancer, every visitor may seem to come from the proxy’s address, and then only one vote would be possible. Return the real address with the alpl_voter_ip filter, for example:

add_filter( 'alpl_voter_ip', function ( $ip ) { return $_SERVER['HTTP_X_REAL_IP'] ?? $ip; } );

Only do this when your proxy always sets that header, or visitors could fake it.

Does it work with caching plugins?

Yes. The page holds only the question and answers. Whether the visitor has voted, and the results, are loaded from your site when the poll comes into view, so a cached page still shows the current results and a poll you have closed.

Why do the percentages add up to more than 100%?

Only in polls that allow several answers. The percent is the share of people who voted that picked that answer, so if every voter picks two answers the shares add up to 200%.

Can I put a poll in the sidebar or footer?

Yes, with a block theme: add it to a template or template part (for example the footer) in the Site Editor, and it works on every page that uses it. With a classic theme’s widget area, put the poll in a synced pattern and add that pattern to the widget area.

What happens if I copy a poll to another post?

The copy gets its own new id when you open it in the editor, so the two polls keep separate votes. A poll inside a synced pattern keeps one set of votes wherever the pattern is used.

How do I reset the votes?

Select the poll, open the Votes panel in the block settings and click “Reset votes”. You are asked to confirm first.

Is it GDPR friendly?

The plugin saves the chosen answers and a scrambled code made from the user account or the IP address; the code can’t be turned back into the address. Visitors who are not logged in get a cookie named alpl_voted_ followed by the poll’s id, for one year. Suggested text for your privacy policy is added under Settings > Privacy > Policy Guide.

What is removed when I delete the plugin?

Deleting the plugin removes the votes table, its setting and the note of which post each poll belongs to. The polls in your posts stay as blocks. Deleting a post for good also deletes the votes of the polls made in it.

Where is the source code?

The plugin includes its unminified source in the src folder; the files in build are made from it with npm run build. It is also on GitHub: github.com/softiconai/softicon-poll.