Requiring text in text entry box

[re_volver]

I've spent half of my afternoon scouring the internet to figure out how to do this, with no luck so far...

I need to have a text entry box where the user is required to enter text before they can click the "submit" button.  Initially I tried to do this with a short answer question slide, where I could simply employ the "incomplete" caption, but the text entry needs to be multiple-line, and scrolling if necessary.  Short answer slides are not the answer.

For a default text entry box, the "submit" button is clickable even if the box is empty. How do I (and is it even possilbe) set up a TEB requirement for something (anything) to be entered before the "submit" button is accessible?

Thank you!! 

[Lilybiri · Accepted solution]

Have a look at this blog post, the HTML edition of a 10 years old, very well visited article. How did you miss it?

http://blog.lilybiri.com/where-is-null-in-cp2017

[re_volver]

Thank you Lilybiri,

I'm trying, but I'm unable to make this work...  My need is very simple.  I only need one slide to recognize whether text has been entered, and if not, show a caption informing the user they must enter something, then allow them to retry. 

I guess I'm still not understanding variables very well.  I've tried to apply your workflow, but I must be missing something.

[Lilybiri]

Show what you did, step by step.:

• Associated variable to Text Entry Box?
• User variable v_null created?
• Warning message created and hidden in output?
• ...

[re_volver]

I created the warning message as a group, with a button to hide it.  Group is hidden in output.

I created the variable v_null, with no value entered.  Is it this variable that needs to be associated with the TEB, or the v_name variable? What value is v_name supposed to have?
I created the conditional action by examining your screenshots. 

The warning message does not appear... I'm definitely missing something here.

[Lilybiri]

When you define a Text Entry Box, by default a variable is associated to that TEB. That variable has the same name as the TEB, which may be very confusing. That is the reason I will always use another variable, which you can define using the X button in the Properties panel of the TEB:

That variable will store what has been entered in the TEB by the learner.

Because Captivate has no different types of variable values (string, number...) you need the empty variable v_null to compare with the entry to the TEB, entry which is stored in v_name (or Text_Entry_Box_x if you kept the generic name).

Essentially you are then asking 'IF the entry in the TEB is empty', by comparing the values of the variables v_name and v_null.

[re_volver]

Thank you Lilybiri, I sure appreciate the help.  

What value is supposed to be assigned to v_name? 

I've tried simplifying the advanced action, just rying to get the first step of the warning message to appear, but I can't figure out what I'm missing...  

[Lilybiri]

No value... it will get the value from the TEB when it has something entered. If nothing is entered, it remains as empty as v_null.

Please insert a screenshot of your 'simplified' advanced action. And one of the Timeline with the group selected.

[re_volver]

I figured out what the problem was...  

My slide contains a very large TEB.  The It takes up most of the room on the slide, so I placed my warning message and button on top of it, then hid them in the output.  The action was working, but Captivate was showing the warning message BEHIND the TEB, and because I appled a fill to the TEB, I couldn't see the warning.  

Even though I'd placed the warning on top of all other objects on the stage, it was being hidden by the TEB.

I've run into stacking-order challenges with advanced answer feeback on quiz slides before, so this doesn't surprise me.  

Thank you again for the help, Lilybiri...!!

[Lilybiri]

Text Entry Box is always on top of the stack.

Embedded obects in quiz slides are also always on top of the stack.

There is quite a lot of knowledge you are missing.

In a TEB the maximum amount of characters that can be entered is limited to about 150. What is than the purpose of making such a big TEB.

You may consider using a Scrolling Text interaction in that case.