SlyVote

SlyVote version 0.34 beta (released on 2018-01-28) is a voting booth door for Synchronet (written in JavaScript) for viewing and voting on polls, as well as creating polls. SlyVote makes use of the voting feature added in Synchronet 3.17 and also supports displaying of avatars for the people who post polls (avatars were also added in Synchronet 3.17).

SlyVote can be acquired in one of the following ways:

• Browse to the CVS and download SlyVote from the SlyVote directory within xtrn (CVS link or mirror CVS link)
• Download SlyVote from the Digital Distortion BBS Doors and Tools page

SlyVote requires Synchronet 3.17 or newer (for 3.17 beta, a build from August 19, 2017 or newer) and the latest of the following JavaScript scripts (in the exec/load directory) :

• sbbsdefs.js
• text.js
• frame.js
• scrollbar.js
• DDLightbarMenu.js
• smbdefs.js
• avatar_lib.js

In addition, SlyVote has an option to post a poll, which executes postpoll.js (in the exec directory).

SlyVote requires an ANSI terminal, since SlyVote makes use of lightbar menus which do cursor movement, as well as a scrolling frame to display poll messages.

First, ensure that you have an up-to-date Synchronet system running Synchronet 3.17 or higher, and ensure that your Synchronet JavaScript files in sbbs/exec/load are up to date (it wouldn't hurt to also ensure your .js files in your exec directory are also up to date). The easiest way to update your JavaScript files would probably be to download sbbs_run.zip from Vertrauen, extract that somewhere, and then copy the .js files from exec and exec/load to your sbbs/exec and sbbs/exec/load directories.

Before the official Synchronet 3.17 is/was released, daily 3.17 beta builds can be downloaded from Vertrauen (the home BBS of Synchronet). For daily pre-built Windows binaries/executables, download sbbs_dev.zip, and for Linux binaries, download sbbs_dev.tgz, or you may build it yourself (see nix for building Synchronet on *nix systems). See dev for more information on updating to the latest development build of Synchronet.

SlyVote is comprised of the following files:

• SlyVote.js: The SlyVote script
• SlyVote.cfg: The SlyVote configuration file

SlyVote.cfg is a plain text file, so it can be edited using any text editor.

You can copy SlyVote.js and SlyVote.cfg to a directory of your choice.

Run SCFG (Synchronet configuration) and add the following configuration to SCFG->External Programs->Online Programs (Doors) in the section of your choice. Note that this assumes SlyVote is installed in sbbs/xtrn/SlyVote.

Name                            SlyVote Voting Booth
Internal Code                   SLYVOTE
Start-up Directory              ../xtrn/SlyVote
Command Line                    ?SlyVote.js
Clean-up Command Line           
Execution Cost                  None
Access Requirements             ANSI
Execution Requirements          
Multiple Concurrent Users       Yes
Intercept I/O                   No                                
Native Executable               No                                
Use Shell to Execute            No                                
Modify User Data                No
Execute on Event                No
Pause After Execution           No
BBS Drop File Type              None
Place Drop File In              Node Directory

SlyVote can be configured to use a single sub-board or multiple sub-boards, allowing the user to choose a sub-board and vote on polls and view poll results in the various sub-boards configured with SlyVote. SlyVote's configuration file has the following options:

For sysops, polls can be deleted when viewing results from SlyVote.

SlyVote uses the following lines from Synchronet's text.dat file (located in the sbbs/ctrl directory):

• 120 (CantPostOnSub)
• 501 (SelectItemHdr)
• 503 (SelectItemWhich)
• 759 (CantReadSub)
• 779 (VotingNotAllowed)
• 780 (VotedAlready)
• 781 (R_Voting)
• 787 (PollVoteNotice)

• howto:door index