Democracy, The PHP Way (
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One of the simplest and most popular add-ons to a Web site is an
online poll, allowing visitors to vote on hot-button issues. In this
article, find out how PHP can be used to build a powerful, good-looking
online poll for your Web site, and also learn a little bit about its image
and cookie manipulation functions.In your travels across the Web, you've probably seen (maybe even participated
in) online polls, quick measurements of what visitors to a site think of the
hot-button issues of the day. And back when portals where a Good Thing, online
polls appeared on each and every one of them; they were - and still are - a
simple and effective method of promoting a sense of community amongst the
visitors to a Web site, and of generating demographic data on a site's
visitors.
If you have a Web site of your own, an online poll offers a
quick way to find out what your visitors are thinking, to add an element of
dynamism to your Web site, and to have a few laughs (you'd be surprised how many
Internet users, when polled, think that Elvis is still alive!)
Building
an online poll isn't very hard; as a matter of fact, with a middling knowledge
of PHP, you can slap one together in a couple of hours. And you won't even need
a degree in rocket science to accomplish this feat - PHP makes it so easy to
build and maintain a Web application like this that you'll wonder why you never
did it before.
Over the next few pages, I'm going to demonstrate this by
showing you how to build a simple polling system, one which you can quickly
integrate into your own Web site. And if you're new to PHP, the process should
also offer some insight into how to apply PHP's capabilities to a real-world
problem, and create a simple and elegant solution.
Not a believer? Don't
take my word for it - taste the pudding for yourself...
This article copyright Melonfire 2001. All rights
reserved.
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