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Let Anonymous Users Vote in Poll

Page Overview

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1 Initial Problem

Only logged in users with an ILIAS account can currently vote in Polls, independently of the permissions set for anonymous users. This behavior is counter-intuitive, and excludes the Poll from certain use cases.

2 Conceptual Summary

Anonymous users should be allowed to vote in Polls. If the Poll is in the mode 'With Names', those user are identified by a number in the 'Participants' table in the 'Results' tab of the Poll. Whether someone has voted or not should be tracked in a cookie.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

  • Results > Participants in Polls

3.2 User Interface Details

In the 'Participants' table, only shown when the Poll is in 'With Names' mode, anonymous users are identified by 'Anonymous User' and numbered sequentially. No last or first name is displayed for them.

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

No new user interface concepts necessary.

3.4 Accessibility Implications

No accessibility implications.

4 Additional Information

4.1 Involved Authorities

If this request is related to multiple components, please list both authorities for all related components.

4.2 Technical Aspects

Whether an anonymous user has already voted or not is determined via cookie. Initially, we'd propose a lifetime of the cookie of 24 hours. When a user is logged in, cookies are ignored, even if a vote has already been cast using the current browser. If the cookie is deleted or runs out, another anonymous vote can be cast from the same browser.

4.3 Privacy

There are no changes to how personal data is handled, but it should be mentioned in the privacy information how anonymous users are handled in contrast to users that are logged in. The cookie used to track whether a vote has been cast do not contain any personal data, only the ID of the poll where a vote was cast, and a timestamp for the vote.

4.4 Security

No foreseeable security implications.

4.5 Contact

Person to be contacted in case of questions about the feature or for funding offers:  Schmitz, Tim [tschmitz]

4.6 Funding

Funding status and funding parties are listed in the block 'Status of Feature' in the right column of this page.

If you are interested to give funding for this feature, please get into contact with the person mentioned above as 'Contact'.

5 Discussion

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 19 FEB 2024: We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for ILIAS 10. Please clarify the information in the Data Protection section that results are stored also for anonymous users.

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel],30 JUL 2025: How long will the cookie remain? I assume it will be possible for me to vote anonymously multiple times when I delete all cookies on my computer, right? Is anyone aware of this? Or do we need an additional information for this?

Schmitz, Tim [tschmitz], 04 AUG 2025: I'd initially propose a cookie lifetime of 24 hours (also added to the request above). What lifetime is reasonable depends on what polls available to the public are primarily used for. My gut feeling is that the most common usages will be short term polls (e.g. over the course of a lecture or presentation), or polls attached to self-study scenarios, which users are expected to work through once, and not access multiple times. In both cases, 24 hours would be sufficient.

If this assessment is not correct, and it turns out that a longer cookie lifetime is required, it can always be adjusted later on.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 04 AUG 2025: We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for trunk. We start with a cookie lifetime of 24 hours and see if this is a feasible value. And no additional info text about the impact of allowing Anonymous to vote is added.

6 Implementation

Feature has been implemented by {Please add related profile link of this person}

6.1 Description and Screenshots

{ Description of the final implementation and screenshots if possible. }

6.2 Test Cases

Test cases completed at {date} by {user}

  • {Test case number linked to Testrail} : {test case title}

6.3 Privacy

Information in privacy.md of component: updated at {date} by {user} | no change required

6.4 Approval

Approved at {date} by {user}.

Last edited: 4. Aug 2025, 16:05, Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel]