Multiple choice quiz and animated info graphics

[WileyScouser]

Hi,

I have been assigned an education project. It needs to do the following:

1. Contain a multiple choice quiz which accumulates results depending on right/wrong answers

2 The user has to be able to navigate backwards/forwards and to different sections and categories of the project

2. It needs also to display animated info graphics to convey necessary information in an engaging way

3. The whole project needs to work on the web and on a stand alone touch screen (which may not be connected to the web).

I have done some research and I am aware there are many great templates available in After Effects and Premier Pro for info graphics but I can't build interactivity in to that . . . can I?

So my question is this:
What work flow any of you who have experience of this kind of thing recommend please?

I'm thinking that probably I would use Animate as the framework and import elements from Premier and AfterEffects.

Or have I got this all wrong? Is there a better application for this sort of project.

Thank you for any advice.

[kglad]

animate would handle both outputs (html5 for web and projector for win and mac installations).  but what happens to the results?

do you need that info to be stored in an online database?  does that info need to be stored somewhere else?  or is that info just for the user to see.

p.s. the only reason to use premiere and/or after effects would be if you want to add video to your presentation that wouldn't be satisfactory using animates drawing/animation tools.

[WileyScouser]

Hi,

apologies for delayed reply. Been distracted by other more urgent (paying) projects. But I'm back on to this.

To answer your question: Yes, I think it would be good to store the results in a database so that a user can create an account, log in and out, and their current scores would be available so they can continue.

Where do I need to look to learn and understand how to set that functionality up please?

Thanks again for your support.

[kglad]

for small databases you can use xml.  for large databases using a sql database along with server side executable files (eg, php) can be used.

you should google the things you need to learn.

[WileyScouser]

Yes, Google is a massive and great resource.

Only problem I have with that is you can often be led down a rabbit hole chasing a solution that isn't ideal.

I know there are plenty of really valuable tutorials created by the Adobe team. I'm just wondering if there is any resource that explains how to connect an Animate project to an SQL database?

Thanks

[kglad]

you should still use google to understand better. 

i recommend echo'g xml from your php file, eg:

<?php

// parse as3 values to php variables

foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {

$$key = stripslashes($value);

}

.

.

// do whatever

.

.

// return php values to as3 as xml

echo "<root>
<xmlNode1>" . $var1 . "</xmlNode1>
<xmlNode2>" . $var2. "</xmlNode2>
</root>";

?>

/////////////////////////////////////////////

as3:

var loader: URLLoader = new URLLoader();
loader.dataFormat = URLLoaderDataFormat.VARIABLES;
loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, returnedPHP);

var req: URLRequest = new URLRequest("yourphppathfilename.php");
req.method = URLRequestMethod.POST;
var variables: URLVariables = new URLVariables();

var xmlDoc: XMLDocument = new XMLDocument();
xmlDoc.ignoreWhite = true;
var returnedXML: XML;

// when you want to send and/or return data to/from php, callPHP().  eg, if you use a mouseevent:

function callPHP(e: MouseEvent) {

// assign as3 values to php variables
variables.phpvariable = as3variable;
myrequest.data = variables;
loader.load(myrequest);
}

function returnedPHP(e: Event) {
returnedXML = e.target.data as XML;
xmlDoc.parseXML(returnedXML.toXMLString());
// you can now extract data from xmlDoc using xml node names or locations, eg xmlDoc.xmlNode1 (will be $var1 value)
}