CTS Daily Poll – WordPress Poll Plugin

A lightweight WordPress daily poll plugin that lets you create, manage, and embed polls anywhere on your site using simple shortcodes. Built entirely with native WordPress APIs — Custom Post Types, custom database tables, AJAX, and shortcodes.

Perfect for: bloggers, news sites, community websites, membership sites, and anyone who wants to add interactive polls to their WordPress site without bloat.

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Features

• ✅ Daily Poll System – Set a poll per day; the plugin automatically shows today's active poll or falls back to the most recent one
• ✅ Shortcode Embedding – Use [daily_poll] to embed the active poll anywhere (posts, pages, widgets, templates)
• ✅ Historical Results – Use [poll_results] to display a paginated table of past poll results
• ✅ AJAX Voting – Votes are submitted without page reload — smooth, fast user experience
• ✅ Animated Results Bars – CSS-only animated bar charts show vote percentages in real time
• ✅ Duplicate Voting Prevention – Three layers: IP address check, logged-in user ID check, and browser cookie
• ✅ Rate Limiting – Prevents vote spam (max 5 votes per IP per 10 seconds)
• ✅ Voter Privacy – IP addresses are stored but never displayed publicly
• ✅ Logged-in & Anonymous Voting – Supports both registered users (by user ID) and guests (by IP)
• ✅ Custom Post Type – Polls are managed as a dedicated CPT with its own admin menu
• ✅ Admin Columns – Quick overview of poll dates, active/closed status, vote counts, and shortcode copy
• ✅ Date-Based Sorting – Sort polls by date in the admin list
• ✅ Caching – Vote results are cached via WordPress Transients (5 min) for optimal performance
• ✅ Fully Localizable – 49 translatable strings with .pot file included; ready for any language
• ✅ Security Hardened – Nonce verification, $wpdb->prepare(), esc_html() / esc_attr() on all output
• ✅ Custom CSS – Clean, mobile-responsive styling with smooth animations
• ✅ No Bloat – Zero external dependencies, no heavy page builders, no premium upsells

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Installation

WordPress Admin (manual)

1. Download the plugin ZIP from GitHub Releases
2. Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
3. Choose the ZIP file and click Install Now
4. Click Activate

Manual (FTP)

1. Clone or download this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/salehgaliwala/wordpress-poll-plugin.git

2. Upload the cts-poll folder to /wp-content/plugins/
3. Go to Plugins in the WordPress admin and activate "CTS Daily Poll"

After activation, a new "Daily Polls" menu item appears in your WordPress admin sidebar.

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Quick Start

Creating a Poll

1. Go to Daily Polls → Add New Poll
2. Enter a Title (e.g., "Tuesday Poll")
3. In the Poll Settings meta box:
   • Enter the Poll Question (e.g., "What's your favorite color?")
   • Add Poll Options (use the + button to add more)
   • Set the Poll Date — this is the date the poll is tied to
   • Check Active to accept votes
4. Publish the poll

Embedding the Active Poll

Insert this shortcode anywhere on your site:

[daily_poll]

This automatically displays today's active poll. If no poll exists for today, it shows the most recent active poll.

Advanced Shortcode Usage

// Show a specific poll by ID
[daily_poll poll_id="42"]

// Always show results (no voting form)
[daily_poll poll_id="42" show_results="always"]

// Custom title
[daily_poll title="Today's Question"]

// Show historical results (last 10 completed polls)
[poll_results]

// Show 25 results per page
[poll_results count="25"]

Finding a Poll's ID

Go to Daily Polls → All Polls. Each row shows the shortcode in the Shortcode column. You can also hover over a poll title and click the "Copy Shortcode" row action.

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Shortcode Reference

[daily_poll]

Attribute	Default	Description
poll_id	0 (auto)	Specific poll ID. Leave empty for today's active poll.
show_results	after_vote	after_vote = show results after voting; always = always show results
title	(poll question)	Custom heading above the poll

[poll_results]

Attribute	Default	Description
count	10	Number of completed polls to display per page

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Translating the Plugin

The plugin is fully translation-ready and includes a .pot file at languages/cts-poll.pot.

To translate into your language:

1. Copy languages/cts-poll.pot to languages/cts-poll-{locale}.po (e.g., fr_FR, de_DE, es_ES)
2. Translate the strings using Poedit or any .po editor
3. Save the compiled .mo file in the same folder
4. WordPress automatically loads the translation when the site language matches

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Development

File Structure

cts-poll/
├── cts-poll.php                          # Main plugin bootstrap
├── README.md                             # This file
├── languages/
│   └── cts-poll.pot                      # Translation template
├── includes/
│   ├── class-cts-poll-post-type.php      # Custom Post Type registration
│   ├── class-cts-poll-meta-boxes.php     # Admin meta boxes (question, options, date, active)
│   ├── class-cts-poll-shortcodes.php     # [daily_poll] and [poll_results] shortcodes
│   ├── class-cts-poll-ajax.php           # AJAX handlers for voting and results
│   └── class-cts-poll-admin.php          # Admin columns, sorting, row actions
├── assets/
│   ├── css/
│   │   └── poll-styles.css               # Front-end styles
│   └── js/
│       └── poll-scripts.js               # Front-end AJAX + admin copy shortcode
└── templates/                            # (reserved for future template overrides)

Database

On activation, the plugin creates a custom table wp_cts_poll_votes:

Column	Type	Description
id	BIGINT	Primary key
poll_id	BIGINT	Post ID of the poll
option_index	INT	Index of the selected option
voter_ip	VARCHAR(64)	Voter's IP address
user_id	BIGINT	WordPress user ID (0 for guests)
vote_date	DATETIME	Timestamp of the vote

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Security

Measure	Implementation
CSRF Protection	WordPress nonce verified on all AJAX requests
SQL Injection	All queries use $wpdb->prepare()
XSS Prevention	All output uses esc_html() / esc_attr()
Input Sanitization	All POST data sanitized with sanitize_text_field()
Rate Limiting	Max 5 votes per IP per 10-second window
Duplicate Prevention	IP + user_id + cookie three-layer check

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Requirements

• WordPress: 5.0 or higher
• PHP: 7.4 or higher
• Database: MySQL 5.6+ / MariaDB 10.1+

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I have multiple active polls?

The plugin is designed for one active poll per day. You can create multiple polls (one per date), but only today's poll will be shown by [daily_poll].

Where are votes stored?

Votes are stored in a dedicated custom database table (wp_cts_poll_votes), not in post meta. This ensures fast queries and easy data management.

Can I see who voted?

The plugin stores IP addresses and user IDs for duplicate detection but does not provide a voter list UI. Vote data is anonymous by design.

Does it work with caching plugins?

Yes. Vote results are cached via WordPress Transients (5-minute TTL), which work with most caching plugins. The cache is cleared whenever a new vote is cast.

Is it GDPR compliant?

The plugin stores IP addresses for duplicate prevention — a legitimate interest. You should mention the use of cookies and IP storage in your privacy policy. The plugin does not track users across sessions or share data with third parties.

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Changelog

1.0.0

• Initial release
• Custom Post Type for polls
• Custom database table for votes
• [daily_poll] shortcode with AJAX voting
• [poll_results] shortcode with paginated history
• Duplicate prevention (IP + user_id + cookie)
• Rate limiting
• Admin columns and shortcode copy
• Transient caching
• Full localization support (49 strings, .pot file included)

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License

This project is licensed under the GPL v2 or later — see the LICENSE file for details.

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request.

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Support

For bugs and feature requests, please use the GitHub Issues page.