Finally version 2.0 beta is out. Testers needed

Written by Hristo Genev Thursday, 01 October 2009 10:02

News - Development

It's been a while since our team released version 1.2.4. After tons of improvements were made we decided to release a major version 2.0. Now the 2.0 beta is out you can download it, test it and help improve it.

There are significant changes to the previous releases starting with the database. The DB schema has been optimized. For instance the votes are saved in only one table called #__apoll_votes (id, option_id, apoll_id, user_id, user_ip, time), not like the old poll component which kept the number of votes in three one and the same fields in three different tables. These changes also required different database names which makes version 1.2.4 incompatible to ver. 2.0 databasewise. You can uninstall 1.2.4 and install 2.0 beta from scratch. Our team has come up with a solution for upgrade without losing all your polls created with the previous version. How to do that is described in this article here. Version 2.0 does not automatically import the polls from the joomla native poll component. This is done manually if desired from the apoll->configuration->import menu. With the new version you will be able to decide to keep or drop the apoll database upon uninstall.

The source code of the component has also been severely altered. 90% of the code is rewritten to follow the principles of the Model-View-Controller design pattern. 10% will be rewritten shortly. We added a brand new votes manager, which allows you administrators to see which of your users have voted and which have not, where do the votes come from - ip address, time, usernames etc, you can even delete votes.

Jquery is now running in noconflict() mode. Apoll scripts are rewritten and there are no more errors and warnings about incompatibility with other javascript frameworks (mootools);

Apoll module now uses joomla native mootools scripts to handle the vote process without reloading the whole page.

Here is a list of some of the new improvements for the component:

• Users can add as much options as they want. No more limitations;
• Added votes manager. Administrators can view votes and reset polls (delete all votes or just some of them);
• Show the poll form and vote in the component, not only in the module;
• Set publish_up and publish_down dates for the poll;
• Allow only registered to vote, cookie and ip check;
• Apoll now uses Open Flash Chart 2.0 with animation of the pies;

Module improvements:

• Ajax vote (no more reloadings of the whole page)
• Show link to relative article

Dowload v. 2.0 beta from here. If you like the component please support us.