Forum Discussion
Storylines 360 Activating a trigger when two text entry variables are defined
Hello! I am new to the community and new to Storylines 360. I am also new to the field of instructional design, coming from retail management. I am currently training on the software that my organization uses for designing training modules for training employees. I am learning how to design triggers, but I have a question about how they work.
I am trying to figure out how to design a trigger or set of triggers that will prevent a user from proceeding to the next slide until the user defines two variables, namely their name and today's date, which will be needed later in the slide to place the user's name and today's date on a printable certificate when the user completes the training. How I want the user to proceed to the next slide is when the next button is enabled, it which the color will turn gold and let the user proceed to the next slide when the name and date is defined. Currently, I have the trigger set to activate after a ~7 second text to speech clip completes as a sort of work around. Thank you for reading and thank you for your time!
The value of the variables for text-entry fields defaults to [blank]. Each variable's value updates when the user enters something in the field and the focus changes (that is, they click somewhere else). Thus, you can enable Next with two triggers that have conditions:
- Change the state of Next to Normal when TextEntry changes with the conditions that TextEntry ≠ blank and TextEntry1 ≠ blank.
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Change the state of Next to Normal when TextEntry1 changes with the conditions that TextEntry ≠ blank and TextEntry1 ≠ blank.
Notes
This doesn't check that the user actually entered their name and a date. However, if it's clear that the info will be used for their certificate, they probably will enter the proper info.
I suggest you rename the variables associated with the text-entry fields, as well as the fields. It's easier to program and troubleshoot when all variables and objects have meaningful names. (For example, you have two triggers set to run "When Text Entry loses focus." But one trigger is for setting TextEntry and the other is for setting TextEntry1.)
This link goes to a discussion with info about date picking options. If you have questions about that, I suggest you start a new discussion. Date Picker | Articulate - Community
For future reference, this Exchange Best Practices section is for general questions about eLearning. You’re asking how to do something in the software. That type of question is a better fit in the Discuss Articulate Products section of the website. That's where those of us who regularly answer questions about how to use the software spend more of our time. And that's where more folks go to search for answers specifically related to Storyline, Rise, and other parts of Articulate 360.
5 Replies
The value of the variables for text-entry fields defaults to [blank]. Each variable's value updates when the user enters something in the field and the focus changes (that is, they click somewhere else). Thus, you can enable Next with two triggers that have conditions:
- Change the state of Next to Normal when TextEntry changes with the conditions that TextEntry ≠ blank and TextEntry1 ≠ blank.
-
Change the state of Next to Normal when TextEntry1 changes with the conditions that TextEntry ≠ blank and TextEntry1 ≠ blank.
Notes
This doesn't check that the user actually entered their name and a date. However, if it's clear that the info will be used for their certificate, they probably will enter the proper info.
I suggest you rename the variables associated with the text-entry fields, as well as the fields. It's easier to program and troubleshoot when all variables and objects have meaningful names. (For example, you have two triggers set to run "When Text Entry loses focus." But one trigger is for setting TextEntry and the other is for setting TextEntry1.)
This link goes to a discussion with info about date picking options. If you have questions about that, I suggest you start a new discussion. Date Picker | Articulate - Community
For future reference, this Exchange Best Practices section is for general questions about eLearning. You’re asking how to do something in the software. That type of question is a better fit in the Discuss Articulate Products section of the website. That's where those of us who regularly answer questions about how to use the software spend more of our time. And that's where more folks go to search for answers specifically related to Storyline, Rise, and other parts of Articulate 360.
Furthermore, I tried the date picker and it doesn't work out of the box and I am not quite sure how to make it focus on the correct text field and define the variable. I'm not very well versed in JavaScript to make it work. It does give me something to look into, though. Thanks again!
You're welcome! Pay it forward when you can. 😊
By the way, I don't know JavaScript, and I haven't bothered with the date picker, either. I just remembered seeing the discussion and linked to it in case you were interested.
Thank you! I was looking for the "and" logic but your advice was just what I needed to find it by defining the two if conditions. I wasn't sure how to change the names of variables so I just defined two new ones to keep track of them.
The button to open the Variables window is near the top of the Triggers panel.
In the Variables window, you can edit any variables name or default value.