Setting up a Social Poll Middleware Source

This type of Middleware Source is used for displaying surveys or rankings of two or more candidates to integrate it through our Middleware with your graphics system allowing you to display, in real-time, results on the screen.

It also allows you to perform dynamic displays of the first candidates from a group according to the number of posts collected for each one. E.g., ranking of the most valuable player in a soccer match.

When you create this type of Middleware Source, you must associate it with the Flows from which it will take the data. 


To learn how to create a Middleware Source, click here.

1. General Settings

  • Name (1): Naming your Social Poll Middleware Source is a good practice so that you and your teammates can identify it for later use.

  • Connected Flows (2): When you create this type of Middleware Source, you should assign the different Flows that will participate in the survey/ranking. Click on Select and choose any of your listed Flows to add them to your Social Poll.

  • Status (3): It will provide your Social Poll status and give you access to the Remote control to modify it. For further information on the Social Poll MIddleware Source Remote Control, please click here.

  • Custom Title (4): In the XML or Database; it appears in the title field/column.

    Additional Settings (5)

  • Count:
    • Total Posts: Indicates the number of times a hashtag, keyword, or social account was mentioned. This way you can show your audience the real volume of participation. 
    • Unique Authors: Indicates how many people participate. This count is very useful for polls since it prevents a user from being able to participate more than once.

  • Default Sorting by: You can sort the returned data by:
    • Posts per minute (PPM)
    • Name
    • Count

  • Default Sorting: You can also sort your returned data in ascending or descending order.

  • Number of Flows to show: With this element, you can limit the number of Flows returned. From Top 3 up to Top 25 or just Show All.

  • Percentage decimals: You can choose the number of decimals you want to show. From 0 up to 2.

  • Number formatting: According to the selected language, the thousands separator will be a dot (.) or a comma (,). For additional information click here.

  • Remote Graphics triggering enabled: By enabling this feature you can control through your graphics system whether you want to show or not your designed graphics with the XML data provided by the Middleware Source.

  • Fight Mode: This will keep constantly in movement the poll results, even if no posts are being collected for the associated Flow. For example, when enabled, percentages for each Flow will constantly jump in certain percentages in a random way up and down. 

2. Flows Properties

You can upload an image to your Flow.

3. Ranges

Name (1): Naming your Range is a good practice so that you and your teammates can identify it for later use.

Time Ranges (2): 

You can set a Time Range to display data on a certain period:

  • Since the beginning of the tracking.
  • Sliding period:Data is restricted to:
    • Up to the last 360 minutes: data will be displayed by minutes.
    • Up to the last 24 hs: data will be displayed by hour
    • Past the last 24 hs: data will be displayed by day.

  •  Fixed period: The Time Range will limit the dates and times you can choose for the data to be available. Timezone is UTC. e.g. From: 2019-12-10 21:00 To: 2019-12-10 23:00.

4. Integration

  • Integration type (1): Select how you want to integrate the data according to the graphics system you have. If it is not listed click others. 

Vizrt Integration

Integrations with Vizrt can be made through:

  • Flowics Middleware + Data Reader, pick others from the dropdown.
  • Flowics Middleware + TRIO, pick others from the dropdown.

For additional information about Vizrt integration click here.

  • Integration Steps (2): From here you will be able to access the XML and JSON or you will find the steps on how to integrate according to your CG integration system.

  • Version (3): This refers to the Middleware Source version. We recommend always using the higher from the dropdown. Please refer to this article for more information.

  • Connect to Middleware (4): Enable it, pick your middleware from the dropdown, and find the destination path where the File or Database is being written in your destination unit by the middleware.  

5. Previewing Social Poll Middleware Source

After you have saved the Social Poll Middleware Source configuration you can preview its data. Keep in mind that the information in this section is not updated in real time, so you should refresh the window to see the latest results.

6. XML integration

6.1 Example & Fields description

6.1.1 XML Example

<poll>
    <widgetId>29924</widgetId>
    <title>prueba fight mode</title>
    <isLive>false</isLive>
    <status>open</status>
    <isFightModeOn>false</isFightModeOn>
    <metric>totals</metric>
    <updatedAt>2018-10-02T17:33:19Z</updatedAt>

    <flows>
        <flow>
            <idX>bf47aca8c0ea02cb232ca7e5969e71cd</idX>
            <name>Real Madrid</name>
            <integrationId>Local</integrationId>
            <totalX>2619</totalX>
            <percentageX>68</percentageX>
            <formattedTotal>2.619</formattedTotal>
            <formattedPercentage>68</formattedPercentage>
            <image>https://s3-assets0.flowics.com/web/uploads/production/generic-resources/asset/30688/versioned_cb912a096f92164261df50bac5e3ac02_large.jpg</image>
            <localImagePath>/path/to/downloaded/media/s3-assets0.flowics.com/image.jpg</localImagePath>
            <ranking>0</ranking>
        </flow>    
        <flow>
            <idX>81f6b096d518392fd953fc52bf2be888</idX>
            <name>Barcelona</name>
            <integrationId>Visitor</integrationId>
            <totalX>1223</totalX>
            <percentageX>32</percentageX>
            <formattedTotal>1.223</formattedTotal>
            <formattedPercentage>32</formattedPercentage>
            <image>https://s3-assets0.flowics.com/web/uploads/production/generic-resources/asset/30689/versioned_cb912a096f92164261df50bac5e3ac02_large.jpg</image>
            <localImagePath>/path/to/downloaded/media/s3-assets0.flowics.com/image.jpg</localImagePath>
            <ranking>1</ranking>
        </flow>
    </flows>
    ...
</poll>


6.1.2 Fields Description

Note that some field names change when using the Avid Maestro integration type. 

Field

Description

Field (Avid Maestro integration)

poll.widgetId

Id of widget poll.widgetId
poll.title Name of the Poll Middleware Source. If a custom title is set, it replaces the name of the widget. poll.title
poll.isLive Its value can be true or false. 

A graphic artist can use this field to control the behavior of the scene connected to this Middleware Source, i.e., it can show or hide the poll based on its value.


poll.isLive
poll.status There are 2 statuses:
  • Open: The audience can participate in the poll sending their votes
  • Closed: The audience cannot continue voting.  
poll.status
poll.isFightModeOn
  • True if enabled
  • False if disabled
poll.isFightModeOn
poll.metric
  • Total: Count the total number of votes. 
  • Unique_Authors: Count the number of votes by author. 
poll.metric
poll.updatedAt

Date and time on which the poll was saved.

poll.updatedAt
poll.flows.flow.id Id of the Flow. poll.flows.flow.idX
poll.flows.flow.name

Indicates the name of the Flow.

poll.flows.flow.name
poll.flows.
flow.integrationId
Id that a user can assign to the Flow associated with the Widget to integrate with external systems. poll.flows.flow.integrationId
poll.flows.
flow.total
Expose the total number of posts collected for the associated Flow. poll.flows.flow.totalX
poll.flows.
flow.percentage
Expose the percentage of votes collected. poll.flows.flow.percentageX
poll.flows.flow.
formattedTotal
Similar to poll.flows.flow.total but the number will be formatted according to the locale requested (added thousands separator). poll.flows.flow.formattedTotal

poll.flows.flow.

formattedPercentage

Similar to poll.flows.flow.percentage but the number will be formatted according to the locale requested (added thousands separator). poll.flows.flow.formattedPercentage
poll.flows.
flow.image
URL to the image uploaded by the user in the Flow properties tab within the Widget.   poll.flows.flow.image
poll.flows.flow.
localImagePath
Full path to downloaded Image. Taken from image. poll.flows.flow.localImagePath
poll.flows.
flow.ranking
Reflects the position assigned to each option. This goes from zero which presents a higher number of votes than one, which in turn is greater than the two, and so on. poll.flows.flow.ranking

7. Database Integration

7.1 Columns Description

When using this kind of integration, a database table with the following columns is created. The type of columns is textual. For the specific type, check the middleware configuration, but they typically are text for MySQL or PostgreSQL and ntext for Microsoft SQL Server.

Column

Description

Column (Avid Maestro integration)

widgetId

Id of the Widget (same value for each row). widgetId
title Title of the Poll, as configured on the Widget (same value for each row). title
isLive

Its value can be true or false. 

A graphic artist can use this field to control the behavior of the scene connected to this Middleware Source, i.e., it can show or hide the poll based on its value.

isLive
status There are 2 statuses:
  • Open: The audience can participate in the poll by sending their votes.
  • Closed: The audience cannot continue voting.
status
isFightModeOn
  • True if enabled
  • False if disabled
isFightModeOn
metric
  • Total: Count the total number of votes. 
  • Unique_Authors: Count the number of votes by author. 
metric
updatedAt Date and time on which the poll was saved. updatedAt
Id Id of the Flow. IdX
Name Indicates the name of the Flow. Name
integrationId Id that a user can assign to the Flow associated with the Widget to integrate with external systems. integrationId
total Expose the total number of posts collected for the associated Flow. totalX
percentage Expose the percentage of votes collected. percentageX
formattedTotal Similar to poll.flows.flow.total but the number will be formatted according to the locale requested (added thousands separator). formattedTotal
formattedPercentage Similar to poll.flows.flow.percentage but the number will be formatted according to the locale requested (added thousands separator). formattedPercentage
image URL to the image uploaded by the user in the Flow properties tab within the Widget.   image
localImagePath Full path to downloaded Image. Taken from image localImagePath
ranking

Reflects the position assigned to each option. This goes from zero which presents a higher number of votes than one, which in turn is greater than the two, and so on.

ranking

8. JSON File integration

8.1 Example & Fields description

8.1.1 JSON Example

{
   "widgetId":34308,
   "title":"Social Poll JSON",
   "question":"WHO DO YOU THIK WILL WIN LA LIGA?",
   "isLive":false,
   "status":"open",
   "updatedAt":"2020-10-08T15:25:20Z",
   "options":[
      {
         "id":"7a3e86150460597c33a40da31b7c914e",
         "name":"Barcelona",
         "integrationId":"",
         "total":569,
         "percentage":51.87,
         "formattedTotal":"569",
         "formattedPercentage":"51,87",
         "image":"https://s3-assets0.flowics.com/web/uploads/production/generic-resources/asset/86299/versioned_0e648f20ade3efc19f0c4c96ee3675de_large.png",
         "ranking":0,
         "localImagePath":"C:\\Midlleware test\\media\\https\\s3-assets0.flowics.com\\29798dfd23e9f39deca527558dab4ca06c83540a.png"
      },
      {
         "id":"59539c973583bbb88c810fe9dab11a16",
         "name":"Real Madrid",
         "integrationId":"",
         "total":528,
         "percentage":48.13,
         "formattedTotal":"528",
         "formattedPercentage":"48,13",
         "image":"https://s3-assets3.flowics.com/web/uploads/production/generic-resources/asset/86300/versioned_0e648f20ade3efc19f0c4c96ee3675de_large.png",
         "ranking":1,
         "localImagePath":"C:\\Midlleware test\\media\\https\\s3-assets3.flowics.com\\77434086fd3f4c6106bf8186866de4b38859db3c.png"
      }
   ]
}

8.1.2 Fields Description

Field
Description
widgetId
Id of the Widget
title Title of the social poll, as configured in the Widget.
question Is the question of the poll.
isLive

Its value can be true or false. 

A graphic artist can use this field to control the behavior of the scene connected to this Middleware Source, i.e., it can show or hide the poll based on its value.

status There are 2 statuses:
  • Open: The audience can participate in the poll by sending their votes.
  • Closed: The audience cannot continue voting.
updatedAt Date and time on which the poll was saved.
options.id Id of the Flow.
options.name

Indicates the name of the Flow.

options.integrationId Id that a user can assign to the Flow associated with the Widget to integrate with external systems.
options.total

Expose the total number of posts collected for the associated Flow.

options.percentage Expose the percentage of votes collected.
options.formattedTotal Similar to options.total but the number will be formatted according to the locale requested (added thousands separator).
options.formattedPercentage Similar to options.percentage but the number will be formatted according to the locale requested (added thousands separator).
options.image URL to the image uploaded by the user in the Flow properties tab within the Widget.  
options.localImagePath Full path to downloaded Image. Taken from options.image
options.ranking

Reflects the position assigned to each option. This goes from zero which presents a higher number of votes than one, which in turn is greater than the two, and so on.

  

Was this article helpful?