Drag and Drop Items return to initial position

Oct 19, 2017

I used a drag and drop template and added more than one attempt. When I click the Try Again button on the Try Again layer, the layer hides but it doesn't reset the base layer so my drag and drop items stay on the targets. I'd like the items to return to the initial position on the slide. Is this possible?

Thanks! Debbie

11 Replies
Bob O'Donnell

Funny you should ask.... I put that in as a "feature request" about 3 years ago. Seems like it would be easy to add. Other users have requested it. Its something our clients typically ask for.

If I recall, my work around was to add extra programming so you could track the user's attempts. On the first try when the user gets the "Try Again" popup, you can add a trigger to jump them to the same question slide they are on, you can delete the hide layer trigger.

Jumping the user back to the same slide essentially reloads the question screen and puts all the items back in place. I think the slide also needs set to return to its initial state. Its a little extra work to add variables to track the student attempts and make the other feedback layers work but it seemed to function ok if I remember correctly. If I get a chance I'll try to find it.

Debbie Kelley

Thanks Bob. I was afraid there might be more programming. I already added a variable because I have two Try Again layers so I could provide different feedback for each attempt (something else that could be added to the feature request list - if I do something wrong a second time, I don't want to get the same feedback). I'm assuming I will have to add the programming for both Try Again Layers.

Bob O'Donnell

I just did a quick test to remind myself how it worked... it seems to function ok. I'm a bit limited on time to play much more, but you can test it out in your slide. One thing to remember, if you want to use it on another drag and drop question later on you will need to add a trigger somewhere to reset both variables back to their default settings. Give it a shot and let me know how you make out - either here or email me if you want. Name your variables anything that makes sense to you.

You actually don't need 2 Try Again Layers.... the program by default displays "Try Again" as the first IA (Incorrect Answer) response, then shows you the "Incorrect" layer for the 2nd IA. You can add your second attempt feedback on the Incorrect layer. And of course "Correct" takes care of itself, unless you wanted custom feedback for that as well. Here's the info I used.

Create Variables:
Attempts = 0
FirstTry = True/False

Set slide properties of base layer to "reset to initial state".

Base Layer Trigger
Add 1.00 to Attempts
When the timeline starts
If FirstTry is equal to True

Try Again layer Triggers
Show layer Incorrect
When the timeline starts
If Attempts is equal to 1.00

Set FirstTry equal to True
When the timeline starts

Try Again (button)
Jump to "your question slide name here"
When the user clicks

RANDY NOVION

I ran into this issue, too. I spent several days trying to make it work but still got stuck into this issue,  where the drag items does not go back to it's original position after using the trigger Jump to "this slide" with the based layer having a setting of "Reset Initial State".  What I have is a drag and drop slide with scrolling panel. I want the dragged items go back to it's original positions when the user wants to reset or clicks start again button. The original position of the drag items are inside the scrolling panel.

I have tried custom triggers on object states but the objects stays where it was dropped on after the "jump back to slide".  Is it possible to have the objects, dragged from the scrolling panel and dropped outside the scrolling panel to return back to the scrolling panel, and when the user tries to reset the activity?

Vincent Scoma

Hi Randy,

Thank you for reaching out! 

Another approach to reset a drag & drop interaction is to use motion paths for the objects. The way it would work is that when the try again layer appears, you can set a trigger for each drag object to follow the path assigned to them. This will essentially "reset" the objects back to their original position. You can see more details on setting up this approach that was shared by a fellow community member here

I hope this helps! 

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