Have Articulate Storyline grab a Learner's name from PeopleSoft ELM and insert it in your course--automatically!

I was cruising through the Articulate community today and happened across some of Super Hero Phil Mayor's handiwork, with some help from Steve Flowers  (Seriously cool guys, Phil & Steve.)  The idea of pulling my learner's name into my course...automatically?  No way.  That is too cool to be true, right?

But, yep, sure enough it's true:  Storyline courses can display a learner's full name, first name, or last name pulled from the PeopleSoft ELM (and maybe your LMS, too), in ANY course.  And the best part?  It's EASY--just one trigger, one variable, and one text box!

Here's how...

1.  Open your Storyline .story course file.
2.  On the first slide (usually the title slide), insert a  new trigger to:

• Action:  Execute JavaScript
• Script:  Click the '...' button to open the JavaScript window and paste this text:
  var player = GetPlayer();
  var myName = lmsAPI.GetStudentName();
  
  var array  = myName.split(',');
  var newName = array[1] + '  ' + array[0];
  
  player.SetVar("newName", newName);
• Click OK
• When:  Timeline Starts
• Object:  1.1 Title Slide (or whichever of your slides is first)
• Click Ok

3. Create a  new text variable and name it 'newName'.
4.  Insert a text box on the slide where you want the name to appear.  In that text box, type:  %newName%

This is what your first slide should look like with the Slide Trigger to Execute JavasScript.

This is what your text box slide will look like.

If you want only your user's first name (instead of their full name), use the same process, but:

1.  Substitute this JavaScript text:
       var player = GetPlayer();

       var myName = lmsAPI.GetStudentName();

       var array  = myName.split(',');
       var firstName = array[1];

       player.SetVar("firstName", firstName);

2.  Create a new text variable and name it 'firstName'.
3.  Insert a text box on the slide where you want the name to appear.  In that text box, type:  %firstName%.

You can use both of these options in the same course.  For example, maybe you want to welcome the learner to the course using their fist name only, then create a certification of completion at the end that includes their full name.

Here's a link to the .story file:  https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16149154/GrabNameFromELMTest.story

Just another great example of how you and Storyline can make it happen!