Polls

Polls let you quickly record the opinions directly in the Conversations and also view the results.

Extension settings

1. Open your CometChat app

   Login to CometChat and select your app.

2. Enable Polls

   Go to Chat & Messaging —> Features, under Extentions and enable Polls.

How do polls work?

Polls extension has the following 3 parts:

• Create a poll: Submit a question and options to start a poll.
• Vote: Let users cast votes on the poll options.
• Fetch results: Retrieve current voting results for a poll.

1. Creating a Poll

In order to create a poll, you need to submit the following details:

• Question: The poll question users will vote on.
• Options: An array of options to choose from.
• Receiver: UID or GUID of the target user or group.
• Receiver type: Specify user or group.

The options in the array are assigned an index appropriately (starting from 1). You can create a poll by using callExtension method provided by our SDKs:

JavaScript

CometChat.callExtension('polls', 'POST', 'v2/create', {
    "question": "Which OS do you use?",
    "options": ["Windows", "Ubuntu", "MacOS", "Other"],
    "receiver": "cometchat-uid-1",
    "receiverType": "user"
}).then(response => {
    // Details about the created poll
})
.catch(error => {
    // Error occured
});

Java

import org.json.simple.JSONObject;

JSONObject body=new JSONObject();
JSONArray options = new JSONArray();

options.add("Milk");
options.add("Cereal");

body.put("question", "Milk goes first or the cereal?");
body.put("options", options);
body.put("receiver", "cometchat-guid-1");
body.put("receiverType", "group");

CometChat.callExtension("polls", "POST", "/v2/create", body,
 new CometChat.CallbackListener < JSONObject > () {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(JSONObject jsonObject) {
        //On Success
    }
    @Override
    public void onError(CometChatException e) {
        //On Failure
    }
});

Swift

CometChat.callExtension(slug: "polls", type: .post, endPoint: "v2/create", body: ["question": "Which OS do you use?" ,"options":["Windows", "Ubuntu", "MacOS", "Other"],"receiver":"cometchat-uid-1","receiverType":"user"] as [String : Any], onSuccess: { (response) in
         // Details about the created poll
      }) { (error) in
         // Error occured
      }

2. Receiving a poll

Polls are custom messages. So, you have to implement our onCustomMessageReceived listener in order to receive the Poll-related message. Please refer to our Receive Messages documentation under the SDK of your choice.

The metadata stores all the information about the poll. You will find the following details in metadata -> @injected -> extensions -> polls.

Key	Value
id	A String representing a unique ID for the poll.
options	An Object with the option number as the key and the option description as the value.
question	A string representing the question asked in the poll.
results	An object that stores voting results.

Polls are custom messages. Use the incrementUnreadCount flag in metadata to update unread counters when a poll is received.

3. Voting in a poll

Voting in a poll simply requires you to provide the id of the poll and the option you intend to vote for. The vote parameter is basically the option number.

You can allow users to vote for a poll by using the callExtension method provided by our SDKs:

JavaScript

CometChat.callExtension('polls', 'POST', 'v2/vote', {
    vote: "3",
    id: "d5441d53-c191-4696-9e92-e4d79da7463",
}).then(response => {
    // Successfully voted
})
.catch(error => {
    // Error Occured
});

Java

import org.json.simple.JSONObject;

JSONObject body=new JSONObject();
body.put("vote", OPTION_NUMBER);
body.put("id", POLL_ID);

CometChat.callExtension("polls", "POST", "/v2/vote", body,
 new CometChat.CallbackListener < JSONObject > () {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(JSONObject jsonObject) {
        // Voted successfully
    }
    @Override
    public void onError(CometChatException e) {
        // Some error occured
    }
});

Swift

CometChat.callExtension(slug: "polls", type: .post, endPoint: "v2/vote", body: ["vote": "3","id": "d5441d53-c191-4696-9e92-e4d79da7463"], onSuccess: { (response) in
        // Successfully voted
      }) { (error) in
        // Error Occured
      }

4. Getting Results

There are 2 ways to fetch the results of the poll:

1. Real-time updates from the metadata
2. Fetch the results by using the callExtension method.

Real-time updates

As mentioned earlier, a Poll is a message of the category: custom. When the votes are cast by the users, the metadata for the message will be updated accordingly. To get real-time voting information, you need to implement the onMessageEdited listener. Please check our Edit message documentation under the SDK of your choice.

The updated details will be available in the metadata of the message. Here is a sample response:

JSON

"@injected": {
    "extensions": {
        "polls": {
            "id": "d5441d53-c191-4696-9e92-e4d79da7463",
            "options": {
                "1": "Chicken",
                "2": "The Egg"
            },
            "results": {
                "total": 2,
                "options": {
                    "1": {
                        "text": "Chicken",
                        "count": 1,
                        "voters": {
                            "cometchat-uid-1": {
                                "name": "Andrew Joseph",
                                "avatar": "https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-1.webp"
                            }
                        }
                    },
                    "2": {
                        "text": "The Egg",
                        "count": 1,
                        "voters": {
                            "cometchat-uid-2": {
                                "name": "George Alan",
                                "avatar": "https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-2.webp"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            },
            "question": "Which came first? The chicken or the egg?"
        }
    }
}

Using callExtension() method

For fetching results, the only parameter required is the id of the poll. You can use this method only when you are the creator of the poll. Others cannot call this method to get the poll results. Result for a poll can be fetched using a callExtension method provided by our SDKs:

JavaScript

CometChat.callExtension('polls', 'GET', 'v2/results?id='+POLL_ID, null)
.then(results => {
	// Poll results
})
.catch(error => {
	// Some error occured
});

Java

String URL = "/v2/results?id=" + POLL_ID;

CometChat.callExtension("polls", "GET", URL, null,
new CometChat.CallbackListener < JSONObject > () {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(JSONObject jsonObject) {
        // Poll results
    }
    @Override
    public void onError(CometChatException e) {
        // Some error occured
    }
});

Swift

CometChat.callExtension(slug: "polls", type: .get, endPoint: "v2/results?id=\(POLL_ID)", body: nil, onSuccess: { (response) in
        // Poll results
      }) { (error) in
        // Some error occured
      }
    }

A sample response for the results is as follows:

JSON

"polls": {
    "id": "d5441d53-c191-4696-9e92-e4d79da7463",
    "options": {
        "1": "Chicken",
        "2": "The Egg"
    },
    "results": {
        "total": 2,
        "options": {
            "1": {
                "text": "Chicken",
                "count": 1,
                "voters": {
                    "cometchat-uid-1": {
                        "name": "Andrew Joseph",
                        "avatar": "https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-1.webp"
                    }
                }
            },
            "2": {
                "text": "The Egg",
                "count": 1,
                "voters": {
                    "cometchat-uid-2": {
                        "name": "George Alan",
                        "avatar": "https://assets.cometchat.io/sampleapp/v2/users/cometchat-uid-2.webp"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "question": "Which came first? The chicken or the egg?"
}