exporting variables to be read in a Google docs spreadsheet

Dec 06, 2012

Dorothy Stark
By Dorothy Stark

I've seen Tom's helpful screencast on how to embed a Google docs form into a Storyline project. However, what I want to do is a little different. I'd like to be able to export the values of about a dozen variables from Storyline so I could see them in a spreadsheet the way I would if students entered those values into a Google docs form.

I've got a grammar assessment, and I want to export a student's name and either OK/NEED TO REVIEW/MIGHT WANT TO REVIEW for each of a dozen or so topics. Now, I could just use a final page screen in Storyline showing a student her status on these dozen topics and ask her to fill out an embedded Google docs form in which she basically copies the results manually. These are just initial assessment scores, and I'm not worried about honesty issues. However, this seems like a pretty klutzy way to do things. Would anyone be able to help me out with a suggestion for a better method? I don't know any JavaScript, and my familiarity with Storyline is fairly low.

Thanks!

Dorothy

142 Replies
john faulkes
over 10 years ago04/25/13 at 11:21 am (UTC)

Myself and a (very) technical colleague are doing these sorts of things to help with this issue - exporting the values of variables so that you can work with them offline (in a spreadsheet if you wish), and also if you need to, filling Storyline variables with data from external sources.

Send a private message if you want to discuss it in more detail.

John.a.

Kevin Thorn
over 10 years ago08/30/13 at 7:38 am (UTC)

Sending data from Storyline using variables to a Google spreadsheet can be done...and quite effectively, too. I just finished a project doing this very thing.

First is setting up a Google Script. In Storyline you'll need to write a Javascript that will read all the variables and fire the data off. In our project we had over 50 questions each with 3 possible choices. We wanted to see the result (choice1, choice2, or chioce3) for each of the questions. 

The neat thing is the Google Spreadsheet would update dynamically. We tested several outputs including a stand alone Storyline output on a web server, Storyline published as SCORM on an LMS, Storyline published for AO, and Storyline as a web object in a Studio '09 output in both SCORM and AO. Same project all sending data to the same spreadsheet while multiple users were accessing the various platforms and being able to literally watch the spreadsheet as it fills up. 

John Souchak
10 years ago09/30/13 at 8:27 am (UTC)

I'm being asked to show a non-LMS method to gather gather data from Storyline courses on learner progress (something that gives us more data than Google Analytics, which would only look at the page where the SL "object" is contained).

I'd like to implement one of these "non-LMS" methods to capture some data. Right now I just need to show something to mgmt like a proof-of-concept. My thought is to just have a couple of variables for a small section of a course...."slide1complete" to "slideNcomplete" and then a "Section1complete"...all set as booleans and the triggers to mod them to Y once the timeline for that slide (or last slide) completed.

I understand the create vars in SL, probably some javascript in user.js, and the google spreadsheet that contains a script to get the vars and print them.

Does anyone have anything like this already minimally completed that I could repurpose? Or someplace where the entire process is documented cradle-to-grave (I've read the referenced blog posts in the forum posts here that discuss the process but in order to "beat the clock" I need something that I can mockup quickly).

thanks,

John 

Yoni H.
10 years ago10/09/13 at 5:22 pm (UTC)

Andrzej Rudnik said:

Hi everyone,

My solutions for this is here.

Helpful link to do this solve in Storyline is here. You will find there solution to send date from html form to google spreadsheet.

To implemnt this in Storyline you will need this link.

I hope it's helpful.


Brilliant solution and thanks for sharing Andrzej.

Unfortunetly the second link is not working for me. Could you please try repost it?

I am desperately trying to accomplish the same solution whcih you have.

Thanks

Andrzej Rudnik
10 years ago10/27/13 at 2:35 pm (UTC)

oh noo :(

I'm really sorry that I did not respond earlier but I had no access to the Internet - long duration holidays.

I don't know if I can do it but I have saved this page for all of you to pdf. There is note who is author of this article.

Function in Storyline can look like this (you can put it on Click event or timline starts):

var player = GetPlayer();    

    $.ajax({

url: "https://docs.google.com/forms/d/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/formResponse",

           type: "POST",

           data: {"entry.yyyyy" :player.GetVar("your_verible1"), "entry.zzzzz":player.GetVar("your_verible2")},

           success: function(data)

           {

               alert(data); 

           }

         });

    return false; 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX - must be replaced by the form key (for more details chceck pdf file)

yyyyy, zzzzz - must be replaced by number from your's google form. You can find it with firebug (for more details chceck pdf file)

your_verible1, your_verible1 - veribles from Storyline

If you want to check how it is work you have to put content on server. 

sam f
10 years ago10/28/13 at 11:51 am (UTC)

Andrzej Rudnik said:

oh noo :(

I'm really sorry that I did not respond earlier but I had no access to the Internet - long duration holidays.

I don't know if I can do it but I have saved this page for all of you to pdf. There is note who is author of this article.

Thanks a lot for your input -- i reached 90% already and shall test ajax command -- hope it works for me.... Your assistance is appreciated and shall be always remembered

Sam

Sign In to Reply