Is there a voting button facility in Lotus Notes 8.5 like Outlook?

Question

I need to have opinion from my team on some topic.

Is it possible where we can have voting button in email in Lotus Notes 8.5?

Answer 1

There are many Survey applications out there. One I can recommend is "Survey Application" provided on OpenNTF and developed by Sean Cull.

You can see it in action here.

The application is available as open source, Lite and Pro with maintenance packs and extended features. It's worth a look.

Answer 2

I will suggest that you set up a dedicated database for voting.

Mat Newman has created an example database that does this: http://www.matnewman.com/webs/personal/matblog.nsf/dx/voting-buttons-in-lotus-notes

Answer 3

A quick and dirty way™ is to use Hotspot buttons, but I will heavily caveat this solution with the following:

• This code will only work in Lotus Notes client, Blackberrys will ignore it and I don't have iNotes handy to test.
• People will be able to vote more than once.
• The results will appear in your inbox (or the designated email address to collect votes), so you'll need to collate the results yourself.

I'll assume that you want to create voting buttons within an memo. Before carrying out these instructions, please ensure you're in the body of the email.

1. In the Create menu select Hotspot > Button...

2. The infobox (property window pop up should appear), switch to the first tab Button Info and name the button with appropriate choice value i.e. "YES".

3. Below the body of your email a new two panels. The left panel has two tabs called Objects and Reference. The right panel is where you will write your code. The drop down parameters should be Client and Formula. Change the drop down parameters if they don't match the two previous values. Troubleshooting tip: If you can't see this panel (can happen if you click on the body of the email), right click on the button and select Edit Button.

4. Paste the following code into the code panel (below the two drop downs Client and Formula).

   REM {Parameters you can change
   VotingChoice - example values: YES, No, London, Paris
   MessagePrefix - could be the reason/purpose of the vote, this will help you 
   filter votes as they start to appear in your inbox.
   SendTo - this any email address it doesn't have to be the one that sends out 
   the voting buttons. It doesn't even need to be a internal or Lotus Notes mail 
   system, this is because you're just sending a plain text email.
   };
   
   VotingChoice := "YES";
   MessagePrefix := "VOTED: ";
   SendTo := "your.emailaddress@domain.com";
   
   REM {I'd leave the rest of this if you're not sure};
   Message := MessagePrefix + VotingChoice;
   @MailSend(SendTo;"";"";Message);
   
   
   REM {Give the user some feedback};
   @Prompt([Ok];"Success"; "Thank your vote was collected");
   @Command([FileCloseWindow])
   

5. Create additional voting buttons and then send out your email.

As the votes start to appear you'll be able to pick them out because of the MessagePrefix, so I'd make sure this is unique. The voters won't see this email in their sent box because it's sent via code.