Hi Chris

Did you manage to get this to work? I'm trying to adjust the source code to sort this issue out but struggling, do you have any pearls of wisdom?

Thanks,

Alex

Hi Alex, yes, I did, by playing around with the source code - well by "playing" I mean messing about with the source code like a bull in a china shop.

As I remember (no guarantees !) the lines of code causing a problem were those in poll.ascx.cs in methods SelectAwnser() (sic) and RenderResults() which test for properties != DBNull.Value

For example:

if (childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value != DBNull.Value) ...

I replaced those tests with a less efficient one, but which works, which casts the "votes" property value to a string and tests its length. If length > 0 I've cast the string to an integer variable (making the assumption the "votes" value is going to be a number) and then used that variable further on down in the method. Basically what this does is ensure that wherever the methods expect an integer, they are going to get one, even if it's just 0, rather than a null, or zero-length string.

int myvotes = 0;

if (childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value.ToString() != ""
)

{

myvotes = Convert.ToInt32(childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value);

 ....

If it's going to useful to you I can send the complete modified code  - I've also pulled out the (AFAIK) redundant SQL related code.

Cheers !

Chris.

Star!

Thanks Chris! It's all working nicely and saved me my own bull impression!

For anyone else who needs it I'll post the two methods belows.

Cheers,

Alex

private
 
 void SelectAwnser()
{
System.Threading.
Thread.Sleep(100);
 
Document answerDoc = new Document(Convert.ToInt32(Questions.SelectedValue));
 
int currentvotes = 0;
 
if (answerDoc.getProperty("votes").Value.ToString() != "")
{
currentvotes = 
Convert.ToInt32(answerDoc.getProperty("votes").Value);
}
 
//if (answerDoc.getProperty("votes").Value != DBNull.Value)
 
//{
 
// currentvotes = (int)answerDoc.getProperty("votes").Value;
 
//}
currentvotes++;
answerDoc.getProperty(
"votes").Value = currentvotes;
 
//insert into table
 
try
{
 
if (Membership.GetUser(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name) != null)
{
 
int memberid = (int)Membership.GetUser(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name).ProviderUserKey;
 
int pollid = answerDoc.Parent.Id;
 
SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(umbraco.GlobalSettings.DbDSN);
 
string select = "insert into tblPoll(memberid,pollid,answer) values(@memberid,@pollid,@answer)";
 
SqlCommand comm = new SqlCommand(select, conn);
comm.Parameters.AddWithValue(
"@memberid", memberid);
comm.Parameters.AddWithValue(
"@pollid", pollid);
comm.Parameters.AddWithValue(
"@answer", answerDoc.Text);
conn.Open();
comm.ExecuteNonQuery();
conn.Close();
}
}
 
catch { }
 
HttpCookie poll = new HttpCookie("poll" + answerDoc.Parent.Id);
poll.Value = 
"true";
poll.Expires = 
DateTime.Now.AddMonths(12);
Response.Cookies.Add(poll);
 
RenderResults();
}
 
private void RenderResults()
{
pnlResults.Visible = 
true;
pnlQuestion.Visible = 
false;
 
Document pollDoc = GetPollDoc();
lblQuestion.Text = pollDoc.Text;
 
if (_hidequestion)
lblQuestion.Visible = 
false;
 
if (pollDoc.getProperty("info").Value.ToString().Length > 0)
{
lblInfo.Text = pollDoc.getProperty(
"info").Value.ToString();
}
 
int totalvotes = 0;
 
int mostvotes = 0;
 
int count = 0;
 
foreach (Document childDoc in pollDoc.Children)
{
 
if (childDoc.Published)
{
 
if (childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value.ToString() != "")
 
//if (childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value != DBNull.Value)
{
 
//totalvotes = Convert.ToInt32(childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value);
totalvotes += 
Convert.ToInt32(childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value);
 
if (Convert.ToInt32(childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value) > mostvotes)
{
mostvotes = 
Convert.ToInt32(childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value);
}
 
}
count++;
}
}
 
Answer[] awnsers = new Answer[count];
 
int i = 0;
 
foreach (Document childDoc in pollDoc.Children)
{
 
if (childDoc.Published)
{
 
if (childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value != DBNull.Value)
{
 
double width;
 
if (WidthTotalVotes)
{
width = CalcPercentage(
Convert.ToInt32(childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value), totalvotes, 0);
}
 
else
{
width = CalcPercentage(
Convert.ToInt32(childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value), mostvotes, 0);
}
awnsers[i] = 
new Answer(childDoc.Text, Convert.ToInt32(childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value), CalcPercentage(Convert.ToInt32(childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value), totalvotes,1), width);
 
}
 
else
{
awnsers[i] = 
new Answer(childDoc.Text, 0,0,0);
}
i++;
}
}
 
if (SortResults)
{
 
Array.Sort(awnsers, 0, awnsers.Length, new AnswerComparer());
}
Literal3.Text = 
string.Empty;
 
bool first = false;
 
for (int j = 0; j < awnsers.Length; j++)
{
 
if (awnsers[j].votes == mostvotes)
{
first = 
true;
}
 
else
{
first = 
false;
}
Literal3.Text += RenderAwnser(awnsers[j].ToString(), awnsers[j].percentage, awnsers[j].votespercentage, first);
 
} 
 
}

Cheers chaps - literally the moment I needed to download this to start using, you guys go and fix a bug before I get started!

Thanks for posting the solution, that probably saved me a couple of hours of aggro! :)

Just expanding on Alex and Chris' excellent work, I've instead opted for parsing the value which also seems to sort out the problem :

        private void SelectAwnser()
        {
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100);

            Document answerDoc = new Document(Convert.ToInt32(Questions.SelectedValue));
            int currentvotes = 0;
            if (answerDoc.getProperty("votes").Value == DBNull.Value || Int32.TryParse(answerDoc.getProperty("votes").Value.ToString(),out currentvotes) == false)
            {
                currentvotes = 0;
            }

            currentvotes++;
            answerDoc.getProperty("votes").Value = currentvotes;

            //insert into table
            try
            {
                if (Membership.GetUser(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name) != null)
                {
                    int memberid = (int)Membership.GetUser(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name).ProviderUserKey;
                    int pollid = answerDoc.Parent.Id;

                    SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(umbraco.GlobalSettings.DbDSN);
                    string select = "insert into tblPoll(memberid,pollid,answer) values(@memberid,@pollid,@answer)";

                    SqlCommand comm = new SqlCommand(select, conn);

                    comm.Parameters.AddWithValue("@memberid", memberid);
                    comm.Parameters.AddWithValue("@pollid", pollid);
                    comm.Parameters.AddWithValue("@answer", answerDoc.Text);
                    conn.Open();
                    comm.ExecuteNonQuery();
                    conn.Close();
                }
            }
            catch { }

            HttpCookie poll = new HttpCookie("poll" + answerDoc.Parent.Id);
            poll.Value = "true";
            poll.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddMonths(12);
            Response.Cookies.Add(poll);


            RenderResults();
        }

        private void RenderResults()
        {
            pnlResults.Visible = true;
            pnlQuestion.Visible = false;

            Document pollDoc = GetPollDoc();
            lblQuestion.Text = pollDoc.Text;
            if (_hidequestion)
                lblQuestion.Visible = false;

            if (pollDoc.getProperty("info").Value.ToString().Length > 0)
            {
                lblInfo.Text = pollDoc.getProperty("info").Value.ToString();
            }

            int totalvotes = 0;
            int mostvotes = 0;
            int count = 0;
            int test = 0;

            foreach (Document childDoc in pollDoc.Children)
            {
                test = 0;

                if (childDoc.Published)
                {
                    if (childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value != DBNull.Value)
                    {

                        if (Int32.TryParse(childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value.ToString(), out test) == true)
                        {
                            totalvotes += test;
                        }

                        
                        if (test > mostvotes)
                        {
                            mostvotes = test;
                        }                        
                    }

                    count++;
                }
            }

            Answer[] awnsers = new Answer[count];

            int i = 0;

            foreach (Document childDoc in pollDoc.Children)
            {
                test = 0;

                if (childDoc.Published)
                {
                    if (Int32.TryParse(childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value.ToString(), out test) == false)
                    {
                        test = 0;
                    }

                    if (childDoc.getProperty("votes").Value != DBNull.Value)
                    {
                        double width;

                        if (WidthTotalVotes)
                        {
                            width = CalcPercentage(test, totalvotes, 0);
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            width = CalcPercentage(test, mostvotes, 0);
                        }
                        awnsers[i] = new Answer(childDoc.Text, test, CalcPercentage(test, totalvotes,1), width);
                        
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        awnsers[i] = new Answer(childDoc.Text, 0,0,0);
                    }

                    i++;

                }
            }

            if (SortResults)
            {
                Array.Sort(awnsers, 0, awnsers.Length, new AnswerComparer());
            }

            Literal3.Text = string.Empty;
            bool first = false;
            for (int j = 0; j < awnsers.Length; j++)
            {
                if (awnsers[j].votes == mostvotes)
                {
                    first = true;
                }
                else
                {
                    first = false;
                }

                Literal3.Text += RenderAwnser(awnsers[j].ToString(), awnsers[j].percentage, awnsers[j].votespercentage, first);
                
            }      
           
        }

Thanks Tony !  Incidentally, I had come back to making this component work after having tried out Contour for poll functionality.  There was nothing wrong with the Contour option, but I appreciate the simplicity/hackability of Tim's Poll user control, and also like the fact the poll questions (and answer statistics) exist as nodes under the poll - which makes it a better "fit" for teaching to my end users.

is working on a reply...