How do I use this module?

It would be a shame to introduce a duplicate effort. Especially since much time and care has been taken with this module to make it flexible and to cover a variety of use cases. The broader of a base it serves, the more likely it will continue to receive ongoing support and maintenance.

For that reason, the included modules are:

* Vote smart API, which does "nothing" on its own, but provides a query function, key management, and recommended table schemas. Your module can make calls to the query interface and/or create tables based on the definitions in this module.

* Vote smart field module, which allows you to store a vote smart record ID on any node type using CCK. When your node is saved, other fields on your node ( e.g. first_name, last_name, bill id, and so-forth ) can be populated by the information returned by Vote Smart.

* Vote smart factory, which allows you to create content types (e.g. State, Bill, Candidate, ... ), which already contains the recommended fields and mappings. If you have other modules installed, such as Image Field or Geo, it will use those field types

I did all of this on behalf of a voterguide site last fall. I got this module functionally complete in order to:
* Generate content types, with appropriate fields, for candidates
* Import all candidates into nodes, and, using Geo, tag them with valid political boundaries

Then, using Views + Geo, I was able to find all of the candidates in "your" boundary.

Thus it's "available" today, provided your use cases roughly overlap those that have already been built up by this. Since you're handy with modules, you can check all the code out via CVS and see if it suits you. At that point, I'd love to hear about your use cases and how you can put some of your resources towards making these tools better documented, more polished, and/or more functional.

That way, everyone wins!

i'm getting ready to play with this module again... there is a new api out as well ( or that is what the smart vote guys say)... how is your projects going? is there anything that I can do. I would especially like to assist on documentation.

What's the status of this module development? Anything I can do to help?

We got this module as far as we had funding to get it, so that we could develop a voting endorsement site for the 2008 election. Combined with the Geo module, we were able to develop a production web site with address-to-district mapping and present full information on candidates in a visitor's district, augmented by endorsement information provided by the Drupal site owner.

As I said in the January comment:

"Thus it's "available" today, provided your use cases roughly overlap those that have already been built up by this. Since you're handy with modules, you can check all the code out via CVS and see if it suits you. At that point, I'd love to hear about your use cases and how you can put some of your resources towards making these tools better documented, more polished, and/or more functional."

We're eager to put more work into this module, but we can only do this if someone provides the necessary funding. This is a great value for anyone who is paying fees for the same data that's freely-available from votesmart.org.

I'm updating the title of this issue, because I've been getting a lot of support requests about this topic and I'm hoping people will find the answer here!