Forum Discussion
Layers not displaying correctly based on variable value
- 3 days ago
There’s nothing wrong with your logic but the setup is quite complex and heavy. The calculation itself is already intricate, and on top of that, all the different "When" events appear to be handled on a single base layer, using a large number of "OR" conditions and and placing all the heavy lifting on the Submit button. This creates a fragile system that can easily break under certain conditions.
While it's possible to patch some of the issues by hiding layers or adjusting trigger order, I don’t see that as a sustainable solution. For example, Feedback Layer 4 is being shown even when Feedback Layers 1, 2, or 3 should be displayed instead. This is likely due to its higher visibility in the layer hierarchy, combined with Storyline’s inability to process all overlapping conditions in real time, especially under the complex setup described above. Simply hiding the incorrectly displayed layer or reordering the triggers doesn’t solve the core problem. Without restructuring the logic and reducing the load on the base layer, similar issues are likely to continue occurring.
I've attached another version (Slide 2) to show how I would approach this. In this version, I created a dedicated Calculation layer that opens when the user clicks Submit.
In this setup, the base layer is responsible only for managing user input — specifically collecting PathQ values through the selection and deselection of radio buttons.
The actual evaluation logic is moved to a separate Calculation layer, which is triggered when the user clicks Submit. This layer fetches the current PathQ values, performs the necessary logic, and sets the appropriate True/False feedback variables (e.g., Feedback_1, Feedback_2, etc.) based on defined conditions.
Each feedback variable is linked to a specific scenario, and when one of these variables changes to true, the corresponding feedback layer is triggered.
By dividing responsibilities in this way:
- The base layer remains lightweight, only handling input.
- The Calculation layer performs the heavy logic, reducing the risk of conflicts or timing issues.
- Layer visibility and feedback control are handled cleanly through variable-driven triggers, rather than complex stacked conditions on the base layer.
- The Submit button no longer struggles to process everything at once, but instead has a single, clear responsibility: to show the Calculation layer.
I've got it working for you.
Though I still don't understand the actual trigger problem.
The Problem. It is 100% the issue of the SUBMIT trigger that send the results to Feedback 4. If I hide that trigger, all the answers jump to their correct feedbacks (except for those that match the Feedback 4 variables).
To check further I created a series of boxes on the base layer, from 1 to 8 (to represent the layers) and instead of having the submit trigger show the specific feedback layer I had it unhide the related box. I found Box 4 (Feedback 4) would always reveal itself, along with the box that was the match for the PathTotal variable. No idea why as your Submit button triggers clearly didn't call 2 layers/boxes at once.
I then removed all variable checks that revealed Feedback 4 other than PathTotal = 10 and no matter the answer even id PathTotal = 27 it still kept showing me Feedback 4. I even set the variable check to be = -10 so it would be impossible to show, but still the Feedback 4 appeared.
If I remember correctly I even made another layer, and instead of the Submit trigger jumping to Feedback 4 I had to jump to FAKE LAYER, and still the same problem occured. So that rules out the Feedback 4 layer being corrupted.
So yeah I could see the problem but could not find any mistakes within your triggers.
The Solution. It worked at my end, so hopefully it works for you.
STEP 1. Make sure Hide other layers is checked. Feedback 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8
STEP 2. Feedback 4 must be unchecked.
STEP 3. Layers are not visually stacked as they are in the Slide Layer panel. They are stacked in order of trigger call. So you need to move Show layer Feedback 4 before Show layer Feedback 1. See image below.
This will open Feedback 4 below any other layer, meaning if the answer is for example 10, 34, or 60 then no other layer will be called and all is good. However if any other Feedback layer is shown, it will stack ontop of Feedback 4 automatically closing Feedback 4 before the user can even see anything has happened and will be unaware of this weird bug.
Hopefully this works for you.
- amorrissen3 days agoCommunity Member
Thanks for that thorough investigation and the workaround explanation, Aaron. It sounds seriously messed up that you have to fudge it like this to get it too work. I'll give it a try.
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