Features

• Proxy Vote can manage multiple, simultaneous events.
• Proxy Vote 1.1 is verified to work with Wordpress versions 2.5/2.6. Version 1.0 is verified to work with Wordpress version 2.3. The administrative interface is unique to each version but features and capabilities are the same.
• Each proxy event description can contain HTML, images, URL links, and more.
• Event descriptions are formatted to print on individual pages.
• Results of the event are optimized for printing.
• Cleanly remove the plug-in once you’re done. You have the option to completely remove all traces of Proxy Vote, including its tables.
• Customize the form text then insert it with an entry like [proxy123].
• It works on posts and pages.
• Information and error messages can be localized to another language very easily.
• All submitted proxies record the IP address of the sender.
• Events can be exported to an XML file. Use Microsoft Excel or any XML-friendly application for viewing the raw data. Format it however you please. It’s your data.

Anti-Features

• Events cannot be re-imported to the database from the XML file. Arguably, what’s the point when the event has expired?
• The number of voters cannot be changed once an event is created. However, expiration, title, and description can be changed at any time.
• There is no event start time, only an expiration time. In other words, do not post your event until you are ready to use it. If this anti-feature is added, it would make the second anti-feature much easier to implement.
• Formatting and compatibility is unknown on earlier 6.x versions of Internet Explorer. If this applies to you, I highly recommend you upgrade IE.

Adding an event is very easy. Provide the title, description, expiration time, and the number of voters. Proxy Vote manages multiple, simultaneous events.

Managing Your Event

Once you’ve created your event, you can monitor its progress, print data, modify its properties, or export the data to XML. Submitted proxies are displayed as they are received. Back on the main management page, you’ll have a real-time look at how many proxies are submitted for each event.

Spreading the Word

Your proxy is only useful if people are given a brief, informative paper with instructions to submit the proxy. In my opinion, keeping the message brief and informative is the best means to getting proxies and achieving a quorum. In this example, I included multiple HTML elements to illustrate the flexibility of the proxy messages. This event had 250 voters, therefore, 250 unique keys and pages were generated - just print and distribute!

Go ‘Live’ with Your Event

Ready to post your proxy event form? It’s easy. You can add any text before or after the form itself. Give your voters a simple reminder of what’s required. Publish your post or page and you’re one step closer to a quorum.

It’s Your Data

Once your proxy event is complete, you might want to organize the data differently. Proxy Vote wasn’t designed to analyze, process, or format data in fancy ways. Export your event to an XML file and open the results in Microsoft Excel or some other program. You can format, sort, and arrange the data however you prefer.

1. Open the downloaded zip file
2. If you’re using Wordpress 2.3, extract the contents of the Version1.0 folder to your Wordpress plugins folder; if you’re using Wordpress 2.5 or 2.6, extract the contents of the Version1.1 folder
3. Activate the Proxy Vote plugin
4. Go to the Settings page (Options in WP 2.3); select the Create Tables button.
5. Activation is complete, so create a proxy event.

The Events Management View

The Events Management View shows a list of all proxy events and the form for creating a new event. Events with the nearest expiration time are shown on the top. The number of proxies generated and submitted are displayed.

Each event has two selections: Edit and Delete. Selecting Delete will open a dialog box which allows you to proceed or cancel the action. Selecting Edit brings you to the next screen which displays proxy details.

The Proxy Details View

This view shows actions relevant to the current event. All actions are display in the top section called “Activities”. Let’s briefly review each one.

• The first bullet shows the activation string necessary to insert the proxy form into a post or page. You can type or copy the text displayed. It will always follow the pattern [proxyID] where ID is the id number of the proxy event. If you insert this text with an invalid id number, the plugin will ignore the text.
• The second bullet provides a link to the Proxy Message View.
• The third bullet links to the Proxy Results View.
• The fourth bullet links to the bottom of the page where you can update properties of the event, such as title, description, and expiration time.
• Finally, the last bullet links to the Proxy XML View.

The Proxy Message View

The proxy message is the keystone of the Proxy Vote plugin. You can use the proxy message for a variety of purposes, but its main intent is to provide a custom message to each voter with a unique proxy key. In the Proxy Message View, you can preview what these messages will look like. At the top of the screen you will see a message box which provides some tips on printing the proxy message. If you have 300 voters, you should have 300 proxy messages. For almost all web browsers, you will proceed to File -> Print Preview menu item. Verify your description has been formatted the way you intended.

The Proxy Results View

Proxy results include all the submitted proxies for the event. Much like the Proxy Message, the print preview feature of your web browser will format the page. In most circumstances, the landscape page format is superior for tabular data. This view is display only.

In the table you will find these columns:

• Key is the 10-character random code distributed to this voter.
• Voter is the person submitting the proxy.
• Proxy is the person who will vote on behalf of the voter.
• IP is the internet protocol address of the computer which submitted the proxy.
• Submit Time is when the proxy information was submitted to your site.

The Proxy XML View

This view displays all event data in XML format. The proxy event can be exported to a file using the Export to XML File button. The auto-generated name will be exportID.xml where ID is the id number of the proxy event. Although the data is displayed in a text editable field, you cannot change the data here.

Create an Event

1. Go to the Manage tab, then select Proxy Votes.
2. Enter your event information under the section “Add Proxy Event”
• Title can be anything meaningful to identify this event. You can update the Title at any time.
• Description can contain actual HTML code; line breaks, headings, images, tables, or anything you need to summarize the event. However, it should always contain the [key] and [expires] tag. The Description section forms the text of your proxy message, which is a custom set of instructions to your voter. It should also provide the URL of the proxy form. It’s a good idea to create a draft of the post so you can finalize your proxy message. You can update the Description at any time.
• Expiration is the local end time for the proxy event. The plugin will not accept proxies submitted after the expiration. The expiration time uses the properties setup in your blog, such as the UTC offset. You can update the Expiration at any time.
• Number of Voters is the maximum number of people who can submit a voter proxy. This value cannot be changed once the event is created.
3. Select Add Event and you will see a message which confirms the event was created and the random keys generated.

Sample Proxy Message

The following snippet of HTML code is a good starting point for your proxy message. It doesn’t contain any image links. However, it makes use of embedded styles, unordered lists, and those two important tags: [key] and [expires].

<h1>The Proxy Event</h1> <p>This is the proxy event you've waited for all year. To achieve a quorum at our annual meeting, we only ask for a few moments of your time. This year we've made the process of submitting a proxy easier than ever. Please follow these directions carefully.</p> <ol> <li>Go to our website: www.unsaturated.com/proxyvote</li> <li>Look for entry titled "Proxy Event of the Year"</li> <li>In the first space you will notice the expiration date, which is currently [expires]. You must submit your proxy before that time.</li> <li>In the next space enter your unique code: <b>[key]</b></li> <li>Enter your name (last name, first name)</li> <li>Enter your proxy's name (last name, first name)</li> </ol> <p>Again, we thank you for your support. This will help our meeting proceed smoothly and ensure business continues without any further delays.</p> <p>Sincerely,<br/> Matthew Crumley<br/> Board President</p>

The result is a system that provides immediate feedback, a decent measure of security, and simple integration with Wordpress blogs.  The first version I fielded worked great with our HOA website.  Everyone in the community was given a customized paper explaining the process.  That paper also provided a customized key, much like a business provides to its shareholders.  The process is very simple: the voter goes to the website, enters his key, his name, the proxy’s name, then submits the information.  That’s all there is to it!

The first version I tried had limited capabilities.  I think the concept was solid but the feature list needed improving.  After a few months of development I made the feature list grow, worked out the bugs, and polished the user interface.  The result is a compelling product worthy of commercial distribution.

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