Polling Project - Real-Time Poll Application

A modern, real-time polling application built with Django and WebSockets. Users can create polls, vote on them, and see live results update across all connected clients.

🎯 Features

• Real-Time Updates: Live poll results powered by Django Channels and WebSockets
• User Authentication: Sign up and login with django-allauth (supports Google OAuth)
• Create & Vote: Create custom polls and vote on existing ones
• Live Results Dashboard: Beautiful, interactive results page with live vote counts and charts
• Responsive Design: Modern UI with Bootstrap styling
• Vote Prevention: Users can only vote once per poll with session tracking

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Backend: Django 5.2.7
• Real-Time: Django Channels 4.0.0, Daphne 4.1.2
• Frontend: HTML5, JavaScript, Bootstrap 5, Chart.js
• Authentication: django-allauth with Google OAuth
• WebSocket Server: Daphne ASGI server
• Channel Layer: In-memory (development) or Redis (production)
• Database: SQLite3

📋 Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• Redis (optional, for production scaling)

🚀 Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/abdu1918sr/Advanced_programming_project.git
   cd polling_project

2. Create a virtual environment

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Apply migrations

   python manage.py migrate

5. Create a superuser (optional)

   python manage.py createsuperuser

6. Load demo data (optional)

   python manage.py seed_demo

🏃 Running the Application

Development Server (with WebSocket support)

Run Daphne ASGI server on Windows:

daphne -b 0.0.0.0 -p 8000 polling_project.asgi:application

Or on Linux/Mac:

daphne -b 127.0.0.1 -p 8000 polling_project.asgi:application

Then open your browser to: http://localhost:8000

Using Django's Built-in Server (HTTP only - WebSockets won't work)

python manage.py runserver

⚠️ Note: WebSocket functionality requires Daphne. Django's development server only supports HTTP.

📁 Project Structure

polling_project/
├── manage.py                 # Django management script
├── requirements.txt          # Python dependencies
├── db.sqlite3               # SQLite database
├── README.md                # This file
├── polling_project/         # Main project settings
│   ├── settings.py          # Django configuration
│   ├── asgi.py              # ASGI configuration for WebSockets
│   ├── wsgi.py              # WSGI configuration
│   └── urls.py              # URL routing
└── polls/                   # Main app
    ├── models.py            # Question and Choice models
    ├── views.py             # View functions
    ├── consumers.py         # WebSocket consumer
    ├── routing.py           # WebSocket URL routing
    ├── forms.py             # Django forms
    ├── urls.py              # App URL patterns
    ├── admin.py             # Django admin config
    ├── templates/
    │   └── polls/
    │       ├── base.html    # Base template
    │       ├── index.html   # Poll list
    │       ├── detail.html  # Vote page
    │       ├── results.html # Live results with WebSocket
    │       ├── create.html  # Create poll
    │       ├── login.html   # Login page
    │       ├── about.html   # About page
    │       └── contact.html # Contact page
    └── management/
        └── commands/
            └── seed_demo.py # Demo data seeding

🔧 Configuration

Google OAuth Setup

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create a new project
3. Enable Google+ API
4. Create OAuth 2.0 credentials (Web application)
5. Set authorized redirect URIs to your domain
6. Add to environment variables:

   export GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID="your-client-id"
   export GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET="your-client-secret"

Redis Configuration (Production)

For scalable WebSocket support across multiple servers:

pip install channels-redis

Set environment variable:

export REDIS_URL="redis://localhost:6379"

💡 Key Features Explained

Real-Time Polls

• Uses Django Channels to manage WebSocket connections
• When a vote is cast, all connected clients receive live updates
• Vote counts and progress bars update instantly

Vote Prevention

• Session-based tracking prevents users from voting twice
• Displays "You already voted" message
• Users can still view results after voting

Live Results Chart

• Interactive Chart.js bar chart
• Updates in real-time as votes come in
• Color-coded choices with progress bars

🌐 URLs

• / - Home (poll list)
• /polls/<id>/ - Vote on a poll
• /polls/<id>/results/ - View live results
• /polls/create/ - Create new poll
• /accounts/login/ - Login page
• /accounts/logout/ - Logout
• /admin/ - Django admin panel
• /ws/polls/<id>/ - WebSocket endpoint (real-time updates)

📊 API/WebSocket

WebSocket Connection

const socket = new WebSocket(`ws://${host}/ws/polls/${question_id}/`);

Incoming Messages

{
  "type": "init",
  "choices": [
    {"id": 1, "choice_text": "Option 1", "votes": 5},
    {"id": 2, "choice_text": "Option 2", "votes": 3}
  ]
}

🐛 Troubleshooting

WebSocket Not Working

• Ensure Daphne is running, not Django's development server
• Check browser console for connection errors (F12 → Console)
• Verify WebSocket URL format in browser DevTools (Network tab)

Database Errors

• Run migrations: python manage.py migrate
• Reset database: python manage.py migrate --reset

👤 Author

Abdu1918sr

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.

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Last Updated: January 2026