Assign variable with TEB

[markwatkins]

For aesthetic reasons (having to do with logos and transparency and whatnot) I'm attempting a custom TOC. I've got most of the TOC elements set up to "Display for Rest of Project" on Slide 2, and then I have the On Enter state of each successive slide executing either a ShowTOC or HideTOC Advanced Action.

One of the independent elements of the TOC is an "active" color state, which I'm toggling on or off within those Advanced Actions with conditionals that check the value of a variable "thisSection".

Since I'm taking up the On Enter state of each slide already, the only way I've found to set that variable on a slide by slide basis is with a Text Entry Box with its output visibility marked off.

My current concern is that I have to manually set the variable, the timeline length and the timeline position of the auto pause on the TEB per slide, and also that navigating backwards will be unreliable.

So, is there another way??? Seems like such a common thing.

[Jeremy Shimmerman]

If I understand your issue correctly, you could use the built in cpInfocurrentSlide variable to track progress.  

[markwatkins]

Thanks, but the TOC items refer to sections or chapters within the overall module, independent of slide number. Kind of like how you checkmark which slides you want to display in the default TOC Editor.

[markwatkins]

Yes, another problem is that the TEB doesn't seem to assign the variable when you navigate backwards via "Go to previous slide".

[Lilybiri]

I don't understand the setup at all. Why a TEB which is meant to be filled in by a user? A variable can also be associated with the Scrolling Text interaction which is not interactive, no problem with pausing points. But, as I mentioned, I don't understand the setup.

[markwatkins]

It's hacky. It's the only thing I've found so far that will let me assign a variable on a slide by slide basis, other than On Enter which I'm already using. I just tested Scrolling Text. There seems to be a perfomance hit? It basically does the same thing, though, yes.

[Lilybiri]

What do you mean by 'performance hit'? Like all iinteractions, they only work good after publishing and uploading to a server.

I really don't understand what you mean by 'On Enter which I'm already using'? You can add as much commands to the On Enter event as you want using advanced or shared actions (probably the best choice here).

[markwatkins]

Thanks for taking the time as always Lilybiri.

I'm trying to optimize for rapid building of many modules, each containing 20-50 slides. There's a noticeable lag time when I add a scrolling text. That would drive me nuts.

In the same vein I'd like my actions limited to global things that I don't have to think about. Like choosing either showTOC or hideTOC for Enter. Here's a screenshot. "showActive01" is a conditional checking the variable I mentioned above. If "thisSection" is = to 3 (set by the TEB) then showActive03 will show art behind the respective section 3 TOC item. I'm afraid this is all gibberish.

And it seems clear now that the the TEB doesn't really work, because On Enter fires before it. The variable needs to be set before entering the slide in this setup. Hmmm

Edit: I take that back. I can decrement the thisSection variable when necessary. So that limitation is solved. I'm back to thinking the TEB hack kind of works although I kind of hate it too and wonder if there's a better solution with shared actions or whatever that I haven't got my head around yet.