Forum Discussion

PatriceKnight-d's avatar
PatriceKnight-d
Community Member
6 years ago

Timeline Stops When Another Tab/Window in the Browser is Clicked

I know there has been a thread or two on this before. However, while those individuals who posted wanted the audio and timeline to stop, I want it to continue playing like it did in Storyline 2. I'm currently using Storyline 360 and I have a timer that's running for 30 seconds for each question slide. When the learner clicks in another tab, the timer pauses which defeats the purpose of having a timer. Also with other slides, I want the training to automatically continue and not pause because another tab or window has focus.

I know there's a timer that I can add that has javascript that may prevent this, but I've tried this and with the other things I have going on with the slide, the timer is acting up. I'm not great with js and would prefer another solution.

So how can I prevent the timeline from pausing when another tab is clicked or when a new window opens?

storyline 360
  • AshleyStewart-a's avatar
    AshleyStewart-a
    Community Member
    3 years ago

    Is there any update on this?

    tl;dr

    I would like for the user to open another page or scroll further up the page in Rise while a "cool down" timer runs on a Storyline block. But the timer stops as soon as the user leaves the slide.

    More context:

    I created a quiz in Rise, which is embedded as a Storyline block (I know that Rise has knowledge checks and quizzes, but they don't meet our instructional needs). If the user answers incorrectly more than once, a "cool down" slide appears, encouraging the user to review the previous information further up the page within Rise. The user may continue the quiz after 3 minutes. However, when the user scrolls up so that the Storyline block is out of view, the timeline pauses and so does the timer. I would like for the timeline to continue.

  • OscarGagliardi's avatar
    OscarGagliardi
    Community Member
    2 years ago

    Is there a solution preventing the timeline from stopping when the current tab loses focus? 

    The problem is that if you have an embedded video in the slide, the timeline stops, but the video keeps playing.

    Since we want to ensure students are watching the embedded video entirely, we remove the video controls and extend the Storyline the length of the video so the Next button becomes enabled when the timeline ends. Because the timeline stops when the current tab loses focus, the Next button never becomes enabled.

    • JoseTansengco's avatar
      JoseTansengco
      Staff
      2 years ago

      Hello Oscar, 

      Happy to chime in!

      When adding your embedded video to your Storyline 360 course, did you make sure to select the 'In Slide' option for showing your video as shown here? 

      Selecting this option will allow your video to play within the slide which will allow the timeline to run while the embedded video is playing. Here's a sample published slide with an embedded video so you can see how this option works. From here, you can set a trigger to disable the next button for the slide and assign a trigger to set it back to its normal state after the time duration of the embedded video has passed in the timeline. Note that you'll need to manually adjust the timeline of the slide to be as long or a little longer than the embedded video. 

      Hope this helps!

  • GregEdwards-f3c's avatar
    GregEdwards-f3c
    Community Member
    8 months ago

    Any additional information here? I need to continue playing content event when the tab loses focus. Basically, we have a slide timer that kicks the learner out of the course after a certain amount of inactivity, but if the content pauses when they switch to another tab, then that kind of torpedoes our timer as well. Any other ideas?

    • JoseTansengco's avatar
      JoseTansengco
      Staff
      7 months ago

      Hi Greg,

      Happy to help! 

      There isn't a way to change the behavior you described since it's browser-controlled, but here's a solution shared by a community member that you can check out. I'll let other members of the community chime in as well in case they have alternative solutions that they can share with you!

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