Pollster.com: New! Put Our Charts on Your Blog

November 01, 2006

New! Put Our Charts on Your Blog

We are very pleased to introduce some exciting new upgrades to our Pollster.com charts! Some changes are small, but if you're a blogger (or anyone else with a web site) we have one huge new feature we hope you will want to try. Here are the details

Timeframe selection -- By popular demand, you can now view charts from several different "timeframes:" polls since October 15, polls since September 1 and all data available (our classic view). You will find a simple pull-down menu below each chart letting you select the view.

Roll-over pop-up info - if you aim your cursor pointer at any of the points on the chart, it will now pop-up the percentage for that point, the name of the poll and its release date.

Embed Chart - This is the big one for bloggers or anyone else with a web site. At the bottom of each chart you will now find a box labeled "Embed Chart," that works just like the one on YouTube. It includes some HTML code that when copied into a blog post or web page will produce a small version of that chart on your blog...just like this...

The chart will update -- on your site -- whenever we add new data. Your readers can use the controls to turn data points, trend lines and confidence intervals on and off. Please, go ahead and give it a try (and when you do, make sure to use the Control-A keyboard shortcut to select all of the HTML code). As of tonight, our charts are your charts too!

Obviously, the election is now less than a week away, but we may have a few more surprises in store over the week. We will definitely plan to blog up a storm over the next seven days. So don't touch that dial.

Update: In working with this new feature this morning (which strictly speaking, is certainly still in its "beta" phase) we have found a few quirks. First, if you are having trouble seeing the charts clearly on Pollster.com, you might want to try clearing your browser cache. To do that on Internet Explorer, use the Tools menu, select Options, select the General tab and in the Temporary Internet Files section, click the Delete Files button, then click "OK" twice. On Firefox, use the Tools menu, select Options, click on the "privacy" button, then the "privacy" tab and then click the button that says "clear cache now."

Some advice to those pasting the embed code into a browser: Be careful to select and copy all the code (to be safe, use CTRL-A to select all) and be sure you paste it into whatever "HTML" mode your markup software uses. In Typepad for example, you will want to use the HTML window, not the "compose" window. Your HTML editor may not display the chart, but the "preview" mode usually will.

And to answer the question that has come up: Once the election is over, we are commiitted to keeping these charts posted permanently, just like any other permalinked blog content.

Update II: Reader Ed "unfutz" Fitzgerald passes along this helpful suggestion for getting the embed feature to work with your Blogger based blogs:

I wasn't able to get the charts to display on a post on my Blogger-based weblog with the code you provided -- I got an error message saying it was an illegal instruction. I was, however, able to get them to display using this code:

[embed src="http://www.pollster.com/swf/ChartSmall.swf?file=NJSen.xml&poll=all,36 5,250"; width="365"; height="250";][/embed]

(replace all square brackets with angle brackets)

You can see the results (5 charts are embedded) at
http://unfutz.blogspot.com/2006/11/missouri-is-key.html

If you have experienced any problems with the embed feature or any other aspect of our site, please do not hesitate to email us with details.

Update II: Alert reader MetaData at SquareState emailed to point out that one extraneous character in the code above was preventing it from working properly. I deleted that character, so if you tried the above fix and it didn't work, you may want to try it again. Thanks unfutz and thanks MetaData!

Digg This!

--Mark Blumenthal on November 01, 2006 in Pollster.com

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Comments

Fantastic! It looks great on my site. BTW, for those using Wordpress, remember you need the Script Enabler plugin to embed a javascript in your post.

Posted by: ArchPundit | November 1, 2006 2:34 AM

Very impressive! I hope you bought a spare server or two; this site is going to be even more flooded with traffic now.

Posted by: tom veil | November 1, 2006 9:53 AM

Wonderful news. I consider your website the unbiased cradle of facts when it comes to polling. You avoid the flotsam and jetsam that often gets in the way of other websites intent on pushing an agenda. Your motto should really be "Just the facts". Thanks!

Posted by: | November 1, 2006 11:30 AM

Nice work. Thanks gang.

Posted by: dennisdeveny | November 1, 2006 2:19 PM

Help -- I can find the race, I can see all the polling data, but I can't find the chart for the race! I feel like an absolute idiot -- guess those 20 years in IT aren't worth much. WHERE do I click to see the chart? (I found it by accident for the featured race, but none others.)

Posted by: Bruce in Louisville | November 1, 2006 8:30 PM

Bruce -- try here. If you still don't see a chart (should be a blue & red line graph right in the middle of your screen, showing that Davis and Lucas are tied), then you need to install a Flash player.

Posted by: tom veil | November 1, 2006 9:36 PM

I wasn't able to get the charts to display on a post on my Blogger-based weblog with the code you provided -- I got an error message saying it was an illegal instruction. I was, however, able to get them to display using this code:

[embed src="http://www.pollster.com/swf/ChartSmall.swf?file=NJSen.xml&poll=all',365,250"; width="365"; height="250";][/embed]

(replace all square brackets with angle brackets)

You can see the results (5 charts are embedded) at
http://unfutz.blogspot.com/2006/11/missouri-is-key.html

Posted by: Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) | November 2, 2006 4:06 AM

Strangely enough, the code wouldn't work at all for me without the single quote mark after the "all" -- but if I may point out, the code you've listed differs from mine by a space after the "36". You have "36 5,250" and I have "365,250"

Posted by: Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) | November 2, 2006 10:50 PM

This will be a close race but I believe Whithouse will prevail.

Posted by: Dorothy O'Gara | November 6, 2006 8:07 AM

Hello, i love www.pollster.com! Let me in, please :)

Posted by: Lusidvicel | December 18, 2006 12:01 PM

your mother eats crap

Posted by: yourfacesux | April 16, 2007 5:31 PM