Capture text entered as answers and email

[amandac77299807]

I have set up an advanced option to email to an address on submission with the text boxes I wanted to see in the same option, but how do I capture the text entered by the student in that email?

[TLCMediaDesign]

It's easy enough to capture the text entered as it's in an assigned variable. How are you opening the email client?

You would need to use JavaScript to assign the body of the email with the text entered. The problem is that when the email client opens the user can change the text.

You would need to use a server side script such as PHP to send the email behind the scenes, but you cannot use server side scripts in a hosted LMS.

[amandac77299807]

Hi,

Thanks for the response. I'm really new to Captivate and I was asked to look at it before we decide whether or not to buy it in. I am now running out of trial time and getting really frustrated trying to do things which should be relatively simple.

I inserted a text entry box, then used advanced actions to direct the email (which opens the users email which is fine for the purpose of what I want to use this for), but there seems to be no link from the text box to the submit button. I've never used Java so would have no clue how to do this to capture the entered text.

Amanda 

[Lilybiri]

As moderator: please do not post your personal credentials in a public forum. I took them out this time, but you don't want to get spammers.

The result of an entry in a Text Entry Box is always stored in the associated variable. Learn the basics of a Text Entry Box in this blog:

http://blog.lilybiri.com/text-entry-boxes-back-to-basics

Mailing results is not a good idea, and comes with limitations as TLCMediaDesign points out.  The learner has full control  over his mail client. That was even the case before GDPR (Europe). 

[RodWard]

As you have mentioned, you are a new user of Captivate, and I am assuming that also means you have (so far) had little or no real training in how to use it. On this forum we are very accustomed to hearing complaints from new users about "issues" that would have been quite easily resolved with some basic training.

Please remember that Captivate is a full-on professional-level e-learning authoring tool.  Those who know the tool well can use it to build almost any kind of e-learning content.

However, that doesn't mean that it has no limitations.  One such limitation is exactly what you are talking about.

Yes you can easily use the (poorly named) Send Email action to spawn a new email message on the end user's PC (as long as their email client is a desktop software app like Outlook and not a web-based system like Gmail).  But that does not mean you can automatically populate said email's body content with any type of dynamic (variable) information you wish AND automatically send the email without the learner's permission.  The action doesn't actually SEND the email. That part still has to be done by the user.

YOU might think your requirement should be a walkover, but there are technical reasons why it's not that simple.  Dave has kindly told you about some of them.

The bottom line is that FIRST you need to learn more about what Captivate CAN do, and THEN you need to be able to accept that no software app is going to do everything you might want.  That's going to be the case regardless of which elearning authoring tool you happen to choose.

But by all means feel free to keep looking. 

Each of these apps has their strengths and weakensses.  Captivate's strength is power, not simplicity.

[TLCMediaDesign]

This is not a limitation of Captivate, it's a limitation of putting your course on someone elses server. If they let you put server-side scripts, you could do most amything with them on their server.

I know of no way to send email that the user can't edit without PHP or some other server-side scripting.