Unexpected behavior when revisiting a slide

May 06, 2014

Good day,

I am experiencing some peculiar behavior on the gate slide for a course I am developing. It would be fantastic if someone could help me spot what is wrong as I’ve been banging my head against this for awhile. The slide is available from this link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n1inzx6qu2s7531/Shane%27s%20Storyline.story

Unfortunately I am unable attach the entire story file. I apologize in advance for the complexity of this question. I’ve worded it as clearly as I can.

The gate slide lays out a number of tiles that correspond to different sections of the course. When the leaner clicks a tile, a layer is displayed with a menu that allows them to navigate to the corresponding scene. The base layer for the slide has some audio that explains how the course navigation works. While listening to that base layer audio, there is a layer (DemoMenu Layer) triggered that displays how the menu function for each tile works. The DemoMenu layer is triggered to show when an off-slide rectangle appears and is hidden when another off-slide rectangle appears later on the base layer timeline.

After the timeline for the base layer completes, the learner can select a tile which then shows a layer with a menu allowing them to move around the course. The layers all have a ‘back’ button that allows the learner to return to the main menu (base layer). The back button is simply triggered to hide the layer they are on. When the learner selects to move to different scenes in the course, they return to the gate slide by clicking the ‘next’ button and since the gate slide base layer is configured to ‘Resume Saved State’ they are shown the same layer that they saw when they left the slide. Perfect!

Everything works fine EXCEPT that when the learner returns to the gate slide from another scene and clicks the ‘back’ button, instead of resuming the base layer in the same state where they left it (the end), it displays the DemoMenu Layer (about half way through its timeline) and then when it finishes, the base layer. I do not know whey the DemoMenu Layer is displayed when the learner clicks the back button.

Downloading the slide will unfortunatelynot allow you to observe this phenomenon because on its own, the gate slide works properly. It is only when learners revisit the slide that this issue is experienced. But it should help to see how the slide is configured anyways.

Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide.

Shane

7 Replies

Christine Hendrickson
Staff

almost 10 years ago05/06/14 at 4:30 pm (UTC)

Hi Shane,

Usually, the forums will allow files of around 20 MB or so for attachments. If you're still having trouble sharing your file here, you could use a file sharing site.

I recommend using Dropbox. It's free and you'll be able to share the download link here with the community.

I agree that it would be easier to see what's causing the problem if we can see how the slides, layers, revisiting options and triggers are all set up. If you still have trouble sharing the file, perhaps you could share screenshots here? You can insert as may as you like by clicking on the "Insert Image" in your response.

Thanks!

Shane Toevs
Author

almost 10 years ago05/06/14 at 4:43 pm (UTC)

Hi Christine,

Thanks for your reply. Here is the story file for the gate slide. Unfortunately, you can't see the problem replicated with just this slide as the issue is only present when you revisit the slide but it'll bebeter than nothing.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n1inzx6qu2s7531/Shane%27s%20Storyline.story

Shane

Christine Hendrickson
Staff

almost 10 years ago05/07/14 at 11:24 am (UTC)

Hi Shane,

Thanks very much for sharing the file!

I agree, without the additional scenes, it does make it a little difficult to see how the full course would function.

However, with that being said, I do think I've fixed the problem.

I worked with the "Product Knowledge Library" layer and the "What is it?" title. I added a placeholder slide to jump to when this tile is clicked.

I modified the trigger that's calling the demo layer - originally it was set to launch the layer when the "timeline starts" while tied to an object on your slide. I changed this to when the object's state is normal - since this is what's happening when the object first appears on the slide. I also added a trigger on the Demo layer to close the layer when the timeline for that particular layer ends.

I added one other trigger that adjusts the value of the DemoGate variable to true, when the timeline for that layer starts and added the condition to the state trigger.

It seems to be working quite nicely now, when returning to the slide from another slide and clicking the "Back" button on the last layer viewed.

I'm attaching the modified file here. If you could take a look and let me know if this works for you, that'd be great :)

Thanks, Shane!

shane.story

Shane Toevs
Author

almost 10 years ago05/07/14 at 1:42 pm (UTC)

What an elegant solution! Thanks so much.

One question though ... you modified the trigger that calls the demo layer to when the state of the off-slide object is normal. I'm not quite clear on why this is better than setting it to when the timeline for that object starts?

Could you please clarify Christine and thanks again

Shane

Christine Hendrickson
Staff

almost 10 years ago05/07/14 at 3:50 pm (UTC)

Hi Shane!

When you trigger the timeline for an object like that, it won't really work the same way it would for the timeline of the entire slide. When the object first appears, it takes on an initial state. That state isn't present until the timeline reaches the object - this is why it's best to trigger from that point.

That object's state is the same, but even though it's not on the timeline anymore, the timeline is still moving. I think the timeline still considers the object after it's shown up (for the object itself), which is why I think that it's not quite as handy as the state of the object.

Then again, I'm a little state-happy and generally just hop to that before trying anything else :)

I hope that helps!