You need to set up some parts of Elector prior to the election.
Elector comes pre-installed with some data, including party and riding data for the federal or provincial election, as well as dissolution data and previous election data for seat/vote gain context.
You need to set the election date and configure an automatic data feed for elections data if desired.
Set the Election Date
Before you begin adding ridings and candidates into the Elector system you MUST set an Election Date preference key first because all data entered into the system is assigned this date for grouping purposes.
- From the Home page, select System Maintenance > Preferences/System Reset.
- In the Configuration Keys section, select NextElectionDate from the list.
- Enter text in the my value field and click update config key.
- The election and date information you enter is visible at the top of every Elector page.
Note: Additional system preferences options are available in the Flow Preferences module.
Automate Data Input
An automated data feed is a smart choice for election night instead of having a human copying and pasting election data manually.Automated data parsers read data from a content provider, such as Canada NewsWire, and feed it directly into Elector for your broadcast output. A small application, known as an agent, runs on your data server that reads from the content provider. The agent running locally on your database server checks for new data at intervals and brings the latest content in for broadcast, leaving you to manage less tedious aspects of your station.
Contact Bannister Lake to get your instance of Elector configured for an automated data feed for your election broadcast.
Note: You can configure Flow to allow users to toggle between automated and manual data riding data updates for Party Standings. See Preferences/Configuration Keys for details.
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