Forum Discussion
Layers - Variables
Hi,
My attached file is not working as below link.
I have added variables but not working.
https://mattguyan.com/ELH_Challenges/using_characters/story_html5.html
Regards
Malvika
Try the New Version.
I mean this kindly, but in your work, you would have a lot more time to experiment with things, and learn how they work, if you would change one habit. I had to delete all the layers and start over, because everything was on every layer. Look carefully at the New Version. The only things on the layers are the things that change. You take everything you can touch with your cursor, and copy it onto every layer, and that takes a lot of time and effort. I don't mind; perhaps you have the time and energy. The problem is that having so many duplicates in so many places confuses you, confuses somebody who may come after you and have to maintain the project, and worst of all, it confuses the system. If you want (for example) to change the state of one of the characters, it's easy if they appear in only one place. But it is a lot of work to make that exact same change on every layer.
Think of layers this way: They are transparent pieces of material that you can lay (hence the name layer) on top of the base to show something different. I know in the past you have had problems with sliders and dials because you put a copy on every layer. You will be happier if you adjust your workflow to strive for economy (don't spend time creating things you don't need.)
I also did it without variables. Variables are useful to keep track of something that happens on a different slide. In this case everything happens on one slide, so it is easy to check the state of objects. Variables would be used (for example) if you wanted the learner to choose one of the characters, then use that character of different slides. The variable would make sure the program remembered which character to show.
Here's a little story that might help you understand the use of variables.
I got home last night, and the cat insisted he had not been fed all day, and was STARVING. I hadn't been there all day, so I didn't know, and my wife was off to her quilting party, so I couldn't ask her. Fortunately, she left a sticky note on the counter that said "I fed the cat", so I knew not to feed him again.
The note she left me is the variable. I couldn't see her feed the cat, but I could see the note and know what went on while I was gone. Storyline is just like I was. One slide has no way of knowing what happens on another slide, but it can read a message left for it in a variable, and know what the learner did on another slide, provided you, the developer, used those actions on that other slide to change the contents of a variable.
The cat got pretty insistent, so I gave him a snack, crossed out her message, and wrote, "He's also had a bedtime snack", and went to my meeting.
The note is the variable. Everybody can see it, and it never changes unless you, the developer, create a trigger to change it.
My wife is getting older (I'm not, just she), and takes a bunch of medicines. She puts them in one of those little plastic gadgets with seven boxes. Every night, (if she remembers :) ) she looks in the box for that day. If it is empty, she knows she has taken her pills that day.
The pill box is the variable. She can't always remember everything, but if the box has pills in it, she knows to take them.
Variables are designed to be seen everywhere, but not heard (much like small children of a previous generation). SL cannot multi-task, so only one slide at a time can be active. SL has no memory, so when a slide becomes active, it can't know what went on while it was hibernating. That's why variables were invented. Each slide can look at the note (variable) and by seeing what is on there now, it can know what went on somewhere else, or some other time. I couldn't hear my wife write the note, but I can read it and know what went on at home while I was not there.
Variable aren't actual things, nor parts of your project, just like the pillbox isn't part of my wife's medicine. They are just post-it notes to carry information from one part of the project to another, and are most useful in trigger conditions.
See if the New Version does what you want. Any questions about how it works, ask.
