For a while now, I have been trying to find time to explore GoogleDocs, forms and spreadsheets and how they could be used with Storyline. One obvious option is to embed a Google document into a Storyline web object. With that, you can either display content that is stored in your GoogleDrive or you can make a document (e.g. a form) available for users to edit/update. There is a great screenr available which shows how to do just that.
I was ore interested in another, less obvious option: I wanted to have Storyline variables populate fields in a Google spreadsheet. The idea is to pass Storyline variables into a JavaScript that in turn uses an Ajax call to connect to the spreadsheet and updates its columns. I found some basic info on this topic in an Articulate community thread, but it still required lots of fiddling and testing to:
- get the spreadsheet set up for sharing
- find the required form indentifiers that Google uses to access the access each column and adapt an Ajax routine to ‘talk’ to my spreadsheet.
- explore publishing options for the spreadsheet.
It’s not for the faint of heart, but once I got it to work it created whole new world of possibilities. For example, you could use a Google spreadsheet as a “poor man’s LMS” to keep track of scores and quiz results. Here some more advanced info on making API calls to Google spreadsheets.
My idea was to build a Storyline project that lets users select the two teams that will play in the final of the soccer world cup in Brasil next year. Once a user picks teams and selects the winner, they can also view the picks other users made before them. A spreadsheet is used to keep the picks for TeamA, TeamB and the Winner. When you keep the lightbox open that shows the ‘raw’ spreadsheet data, you can actually watch as other users submit their pick… pretty cool!
To display the results, I chose two options; one is a web report that is generated every time the spreadsheet is updated and the other is a view of the spreadsheet itself.
Note: I didn’t spent any time formatting the reports, I just wanted to figure out the technical issues behind the scenes. Also, ironically, neither the spreadsheet nor the web report were displayed in Storyline with Google Chrome. It worked fine in IE, Firefox and Safari. I might come back to this issue later and try to find an answer. All I wanted to do for now is to test out the general process of passing Storyline variables into a spreadsheet.
Here is what I cam up with. What was my pick you ask? Germany vs. Italy, with Germany winning this time!
Is there any possibility that you could either share your story file or do a screenr on how to start using Google Spreadsheets with Storyline.
Hi Mark, my file wouldn’t help you, because the Storyline variables, the URL and entryIDs of your GoogleDoc will be different from mine. All the info you need to gets started is in this discussion thread from the Articulate eLearning Heroes community: http://community.articulate.com/forums/t/22519.aspx
Michael, did you test that the solution works on multiple browsers? I seem to be able to get it working in Chrome but not on IE9.
I had tested in Chrome, FF, Safari and IE11.
Hi MIchael,
My question is a little bit different. I do realize that this is an old post, but I am hoping you would be able to help me. I have been searching an answer for a couple of days, and I am about to lose my hope.
I created an online course using Storyline for my dissertation. I have no coding experience; although, I have been using Storyline for close to four years.
I am gonna suffocate you with details, but I want to track if my learner visits a certain page, and even if he or she does, how many times they visit the page to get more information to solve a problem.
I tried a method without using a code, but I can’t get to report the number of visit to neither my result slide nor Blackboard LMS. Maybe I should try with a google sheet. But how should I set up my variable or how I code in a way that I can see my learners’ navigation pattern? I appreciate any help! Thank you.
You might want to post this question in the Articulate Storyline community: https://community.articulate.com/forums/articulate-storyline
Hi Michael,
Would it be possible to at least share your javascript file? I’ve been having some issues with mine and I could also use some tips on how to easily find the id number for each of the cells and columns on the spreadsheet.
Best regards,
Simos
My JS file would be of no use to you, because it reflects the structure and IDs of the spreadsheet I used. I suggest the check the Articulate eLearning community for info and code samples. Here is one of many discussions around this topic: https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/exporting-variables-into-a-google-spreadsheet