System Variables

Jun 09, 2015

Poking through the archives I see this is a question that comes up from time to time.

It's a feature request I've submitted.

This is just an inquiry as to status.

Is it currently possible to access Storyline II system variables (e.g. slide number)?

63 Replies
eric barns

Ashley

Its going to be difficult to "to modify or use them." If them in question (the list of variables) are unknown to the community.

curslide = story.allSlides[player.slideIndex].title;

as the above example shows, there must be lots of other story.? vars and play.? vars plus a raft of others, could you your network to get Articulate to publish a list in txt doc (nothing fancy) so us developers start to make storyline evolve into a truly indispensable tool rather than only good enough some projects.

We use both Captivate and Storyline as well having to then recode the storyline HTML5 and JavaScript, so a proper list of all the exposed variables is a reasonable request and has been asked for in the forums for years!!

Regards
Eric

eric barns

I asked Articulate.com for the list of internal variables but they just passed the buck to a UK dealership, not sure how much damaged they are doing to their image with a response like that!!

Rally take an engineer 5 mins to answer us and supply a know working list!!

Well let's see what the UK dealer does, then off to facebook and twitter to get a more global feedback.

Eric

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Eric, 

We can't offer support for creating Javascript code or modifying the published output - and the only system variables I know of are the ones such as Results.ScorePercent, which are read only and can't be accessed. Things such as current slide or similar may be things that folks have used in connection with Javascript or the Storyline SDK, so you may want to review those two elements as well. 

It sounds like you submitted a feature request here, and that's going direct to our product development team for review, so that's the best next step.

Mike B.

Eric, did you get anywhere with this? There was a thread a while back where someone posted a list of exposed variables, but I can't find it. I guess my only concern is using unsupported variables that could be changed or removed in an update.

I'm trying to detect the state of the Next button, normal or disabled. Is there a system variable that is exposed for that, that I could grab with some javascript and set my own player variable to test in a trigger?

 

Mike B.

I have a feeling he didn't get anywhere, as I'm not getting anywhere with support on this.

How can you guys say "We do not support JavaScript coding" when there is an "Execute Javascript" option for triggers? I'm not asking them to write code for me, just tell me which variables exist in the Players so that I may access them. Are they afraid people are going to break their courses by writing to variables that they shouldn't?

Mike B.

Sure, the case # is 00655775. I have a feeling this is info they don't want to give out, as I don't think anyone else has gotten anywhere with them on this. I'm going to have to resort to other means to get the info I need.

At this point, I really just want to get the state of the "NEXT" button. I'm using restricted navigation, and need to know if the NEXT button state is "normal" or "disabled". I will have 500+ slides to apply this to in 50+ projects, so I'd rather not have to create variables for each and every slide to track this.

eric barns

Sorry had no msg, then today out of the blue, 5-7, in short neither articulate or their uk dealership have any real interest in supporting companies like ours. With over 60,000 employees who rely on us to provide e learning solutions as well as the top 100 UK companies trusting us to deliver elearning, its a shame Articulate Board of directors and execs cant be asked to help their clients.

So i have managed to use javascript to capture button states, slide numbers, scenes number and probably few others

you can fire me a quick email at eric.barns@yahoo.co.uk with your requirements and i see if i can assist.

best of luck with any support for Articulate and its affiliates, my advice sadly, consider captivate as their is a lot more support.

david mckisick
eric barns

best of luck with any support for Articulate and its affiliates, my advice sadly, consider captivate as their is a lot more support.

 

Hey Eric. I agree with you about the need for Articulate to facilitate the release of system variables. There is indeed system variable functionality in Captivate and it works well, as does slide numbering. It makes no sense to me that Articulate would remain on the sidelines on this one, because it truly gets to the heart of the matter for us developers, which is to have every option available to us to create feature rich content, including the use of system variables for the community to add the functionality they need.

I am not sure I can agree though with your comment about Articulate support. They are responsive on the forums and they do get in touch with you fairly quickly if you put a support ticket in. Their response to feature requests though does leave an awful lot to be desired.

eric barns

Mike B

If all the customers who develop to this level asked for it to be so, surely it would be overwhelming evidence, it not as though we need any changes, the software is fine as is, is just information they seem to be paranoid to release, in fact they are positively silent and so are their forums and there dealers, so orders have gone out!!!!!!

Good luck
eb

John Nixdorf

It's been a long time (2008, which admittedly is an eternity in e-learning development tool years) since I worked daily with Captivate. My experience at the time was that it was a screwy, idiosyncratic program that was constantly giving unwelcome surprises. Tech support was nonexistent. Maybe that's changed, and Adobe has made up its mind to actually do something with Captivate.

Articulate tech support is pretty good in terms of quick response to posts they think they know the answer to. More difficult questions may take a couple of nudges to get some attention. I have found it's necessary to be very, very, very careful about forming a question that only allows one answer, otherwise you get the "easy" answer and follow-ups are overlooked. It goes something like the old joke:

There are two men in a balloon over a great forest. They realize they're lost. They look down and see a hunter, and call down to him.

First man in the balloon: Hello down there. Can you tell us where we are?

Hunter: You're in a balloon

Second man in the balloon: That guy must work for Articulate Technical Support

First man in the balloon: How can you tell?

Second man in the balloon: Because he gave us an answer that is absolutely correct, and completely useless.

Walt Hamilton

John,

It's an oldie, but goodie. Still, be careful how you use it, because there is a second half.

Hunter: You must be end users.

Balloonists: How can you tell?

Hunter: You don't know where you are, and you expect me to fix it.  You are in the same position you were before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault.

Don't take the humor as a defense of Articulate, It's a great program, and we SHOULD have access to those variables.

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