Completing My First Storyline Project: JavaScript for the Win!

 

This week, I have finished creating my flagship Articulate Storyline 360 project. It’s based on using heart rate training to prepare for a marathon. I still need to create a write-up to include with my portfolio and clean up some loose items, but the hay is in the barn. I’ll share more once my portfolio website is ready for public consumption. I have learned a lot in creating the project, but I am most proud of the JavaScript I implemented.

I took a required C programming class in college. I made webpages in the late 90’s, just as Microsoft FrontPage became mainstream. In the late 2000’s, I learned PHP and MySQL for creating web pages. I may have used JavaScript for a clock on a late 1990’s website. While I have been successful in these endeavors, I don’t consider myself a programmer. In creating my flagship project, I thought it would be nice to include a Karvonen target heart rate calculator based on the user’s maximum and resting heart rates. I knew that Storyline could execute JavaScript code. I knew the Karvonen formula was straightforward, so I found an online JavaScript editor and started programming. After a few searches on how to pass inputs from Storyline to JavaScript and how to set the variables and return them to Storyline, I was set. I am so proud of this customizable element in my flagship project. 

The JavaScript worked as expected, but I wanted to validate the data entry. The basics are that the maximum heart rate should be between 0 and 220. (Of course, it should be higher than 0, but I did not want to research the typical lower bound for maximum heart rate.)  The resting rate should be between 0 and the maximum heart rate. I started by overcomplicating the whole process, but after some trial and error, I discovered how to use the built-in conditions in Storyline with states to get some rudimentary data validation. Getting data validation implemented was my second proudest moment.

What are you proud about from this week? I would love to read about it in the comments below.

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