Disabling Next button failure
Nov 05, 2016
I want the NEXT button disabled until the user interacts with a slide element (text box). That text box has initial state of NORMAL and then SELECTED once it is, well, selected. By linking the state of the NEXT button to the state of the text box my intent is to have the NEXT button active if the user returns to the slide later because the slide is set to RESUME SAVED STATE which means the text box would be remembered as being SELECTED.
Slide triggers are:
1) Set NEXT button to disabled when state of text box is NORMAL
Text box triggers are:
2) Change state of text box to SELECTED when clicked
3) Change state of NEXT button to NORMAL when user clicks
However, the NEXT button is always active despite the fact that it's state is tied to the state of the text box.
I don't want the NEXT button tied to the timeline because when the user returns to the slide later the timeline will reset the NEXT button to disabled even if the slide is set to RESUME SAVED STATE (feature request submitted to fix that programming). In my mind the logic is sound. Text box is initially NORMAL when the slide starts therefore the NEXT button would be disabled. When the text box is selected, it state changes to SELECTED and the NEXT button would then become active but it's not working that way.
I have attached a sample for review. The links won't work because they go to a document behind our firewall. But the triggers would still work.
Help, I have 6 slides that all need to behave this way.
3 Replies
Have a look at the attached and see if that's what you wanted. I changed the order of triggers on the textbox and also changed the trigger that initially sets the state of the Next button.
That works. Thank you. A couple follow up questions to help me understand how the logic of SL works.
How does your trigger work where the one I set up didn't?
I see you removed the trigger i set that changed the state of the text box to selected when clicked, yet it still shows the selected state after being clicked. If I have another action dependent on the state of the text box being 'selected' do I not have to use triggers to change that state? The dependent action will recognize the state as now being selected because it is a default state of the player?
This seems to be different than how variables work. If I assign an initial value to a variable (let's say False) in the variable definition list and at some point I have an action that is dependent on that variable value being false I have found that the dependent action won't occur unless I actually adjust the value of the variable to false (even though that's its value from the variables list).
I am trying to figure out the programming design logic to variables and triggers as I go. I have found lots of resources on how to program a trigger or variable for a specific use but nothing on the decision/programming logic to help me understand how they are working so I can make a better decision on how to construct them. And I have figured out that the order they are listed makes a difference in how they work but haven't found anything written that describes the why one thing must come before another.
I have encountered this exact scenario and had similar frustrations. It turns out you must use "When Timeline starts", to force the trigger when the slide opens, and then add conditions to restrict it.
There is solid logic to it, once you learn that some conditions are "listeners" and only trigger when something changes. For example, "Disable Next Button when Box1 State = Normal" will only trigger if the State changes to Normal. This also applies to variable changes.
It's frustrating, and can be a bit messy when you have lots of buttons.
Tip: Check for a visited state, not a selected state. Once a button is visited, the status remains true, whereas a selected state toggles with each subsequent click.
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