Forum Discussion
Issue with text variable as triggering event
It turned out to be a complex issue, mainly because the way the Storyline engine handles variable‑based triggers is not always predictable in this scenario. The dropdown script was running on the master slide, which means it executed globally and updated the variable correctly. However, the trigger “Resume timeline when variable changes if variable = ExpectedValue” was defined on a specific slide.
The complication is that Storyline doesn’t always synchronize variable changes made on the master with conditional triggers on individual slides. In practice, the slide may pause at the beginning and only resume if it detects the variable change while its own trigger engine is actively listening. That mismatch in timing is why the original menu sometimes failed to resume the timeline, even though the variable itself was updated. You already confirmed that Storyline’s trigger engine evaluates numeric conditions more predictably than text conditions, which explains why using number variables works more reliably than text in conditional triggers.
By simplifying the menu (hard‑coded options instead of pulling from a textbox) and ensuring the variable change occurs while the specific slide is active, the trigger now fires reliably.
In short: the fix was to simplify the menu construction and remove the dependency on a textbox, because Storyline’s trigger engine is sensitive to timing and exact string matching. Using hard‑coded options and, where possible, numeric variables ensures the resume trigger behaves as expected.
See attached. The only substantive differences are:
- The object manipulating the variable is located on a slide master instead of the main slide.
- The variable is being adjusted by Javascript and not directly by a trigger.
It turned out to be a complex issue, mainly because the way the Storyline engine handles variable‑based triggers is not always predictable in this scenario. The dropdown script was running on the master slide, which means it executed globally and updated the variable correctly. However, the trigger “Resume timeline when variable changes if variable = ExpectedValue” was defined on a specific slide.
The complication is that Storyline doesn’t always synchronize variable changes made on the master with conditional triggers on individual slides. In practice, the slide may pause at the beginning and only resume if it detects the variable change while its own trigger engine is actively listening. That mismatch in timing is why the original menu sometimes failed to resume the timeline, even though the variable itself was updated. You already confirmed that Storyline’s trigger engine evaluates numeric conditions more predictably than text conditions, which explains why using number variables works more reliably than text in conditional triggers.
By simplifying the menu (hard‑coded options instead of pulling from a textbox) and ensuring the variable change occurs while the specific slide is active, the trigger now fires reliably.
In short: the fix was to simplify the menu construction and remove the dependency on a textbox, because Storyline’s trigger engine is sensitive to timing and exact string matching. Using hard‑coded options and, where possible, numeric variables ensures the resume trigger behaves as expected.
That's unfortunate; the goal is to build a template that is easily editable by people less familiar/comfortable with triggers/masters/variables - hence the textbox construction. I suppose I'll need to evaluate my priorities to move forward.
Thank you for your time and effort on this issue.