Forum Discussion

JanetGuastav914's avatar
JanetGuastav914
Community Member
10 months ago

Layers Not Loading

I have a situation where I have four individual layers that in turn should be triggered when a corresponding object on the base layer object is selected. I do not want those base layer objects to be ...
storyline 360
JudyNollet's avatar
JudyNollet
Super Hero
10 months ago

Re: "Show Layer" triggers

You have these triggers run when the timeline reaches a certain point, with a condition based on which button is Selected. There are a few problems with that approach: 

The buttons aren't in a button set, which means the user could Select all four at the same time. Triggers run in order, so the user would only see the layer in the last of these triggers. (Here's info about button sets: Storyline 360: Working with Button Sets | Articulate - Community)

After the timeline ends, it won't reach the time mentioned in the triggers again. Thus, the user wouldn't be able to view any other layer.

The typical programming would be to show the appropriate layer when its corresponding button is clicked. 

 

Re: ensure the user has to wait for the base audio to end before clicking a button

Give the buttons a Disabled state. Set that as the Initial state. 

  • Be sure the Disabled state looks different than Normal. 
  • Another option: Set the Initial State to Hidden. (Because you have the associated icons separate from the actual button, you'd also have to control the states for those, too. See link below for how to avoid this.) 

 

For each button, add a trigger to change its state to Normal when the timeline reaches the designated point. 

 

Re: ensure the user can't click another button until the current layer is done

One way to do this is to set the layers as Dialog layers. A Dialog layer prevents the user from interacting with anything except that layer. Here's more info: https://access.articulate.com/support/article/Storyline-360-Dialog-Layers . 

  • The default Feedback Layout blocks the base of the slide. That can be changed so the user can still see the base. I do recommend covering the button area with a semi-transparent shape. That would give the user a visual cue that they can't click.
  • To close the layer, either add a trigger that closes it when its timeline ends, or add a button with a trigger to close it. 

 

Another option if you don't want to use Dialog layers: Put triggers on each layer that change the buttons to Disabled when the timeline  of the layer starts. You'd also need triggers to change them back. If you want to ensure a Visited button goes back to Visited, you'd need variables to track which buttons had been Visited, and then use conditions to change the button back to the state it was in. 

 

Bonus info

You could put the icons directly into the oval shapes. In addition to having fewer items to worry about on the timeline, that also ensures that the entire area is clickable. (FYI: The user can't click wherever an icon is on top of the oval. That's probably not even noticeable for the thin lines. But the more solid parts of an icon could prevent clicking.) Here's info about that: TIP: Making icons easier to program and easier to click | Articulate - Community