Quiz engine

[TJ_Tigger]

I am in the process of building an Quiz engine that will take test in .txt format and randomize the questions and answers for each question. Below is a link to the compressed exe for this test. I am looking for comments on the usability of the test. The test is stored in the Docs folder and can be replaced easily with a test of your own if you like. The duration and questions to ask are controlled by an ini file in the same folder as the test. The final version of the test will actually be encrypted and not called Test.txt or Answers.txt, which are their current names.

Tigg

Quiz app (http://s94928149.onlinehome.us/pub/Quizzingapp.exe)

Note: There is a review button and click here button that are not defined at this time. They are there for future use. I will upload a new version that hides these buttons.

[Worm]

Great Stuff there Tig!

Taking the quiz worked well. Can't wait to see the whole deal!


I am in the process of building an Quiz engine that will take test in .txt format and randomize the questions and answers for each question. Below is a link to the compressed exe for this test. I am looking for comments on the usability of the test. The test is stored in the Docs folder and can be replaced easily with a test of your own if you like. The duration and questions to ask are controlled by an ini file in the same folder as the test. The final version of the test will actually be encrypted and not called Test.txt or Answers.txt, which are their current names.

Tigg

Quiz app (http://s94928149.onlinehome.us/pub/Quizzingapp.exe)

[pjhiggins]

Worked great for me also. No problems.

I particularly liked the ability to either type or click to answer.

The intro kills my PC though. Not just yours but all of those fade in/out intros. Took my P3 1.2MHz w/512MB about 5 mins to work all the way through the fade up and down.

[Worm]

I ran it on my Notebook (P3 1.2 GHZ, 512MB RAM) and it ran very smooth. I wonder what gives. Any other apps open that may hog resources too?


Worked great for me also. No problems.

I particularly liked the ability to either type or click to answer.

The intro kills my PC though. Not just yours but all of those fade in/out intros. Took my P3 1.2MHz w/512MB about 5 mins to work all the way through the fade up and down.

[TJ_Tigger]

What OS are you running? I have run this on a laptop with Win2K PIII 800Mhz w/256 RAM and it fades in/out relatively quickly. Nothing near 5 Min. Maybe I will add a check box that will allow you to skip the fade in/out intro.

Worked great for me also. No problems.

I particularly liked the ability to either type or click to answer.

The intro kills my PC though. Not just yours but all of those fade in/out intros. Took my P3 1.2MHz w/512MB about 5 mins to work all the way through the fade up and down.

[Corey]

Seems OK here. Nice job BTW Tigg, tres snazzifico!!! :yes

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[Stefan_M]

Hi Tig,

it works on my machine (P3 800, 512 MB Ram, win2000 SP4).
On my double monitor system it looks a little bit strange.

What can I do if I reach the last page (Showing score information)?
only close the application or is there a "start again" button?


Stefan

[TJ_Tigger]

Hi Tig,

it works on my machine (P3 800, 512 MB Ram, win2000 SP4).
On my double monitor system it looks a little bit strange.

What can I do if I reach the last page (Showing score information)?
only close the application or is there a "start again" button?


Stefan

Thanks for pointing that out Stefan. I was thinking of adding buttons to take you back to take the test again if one wanted to allow such a thing. Another option would be to take you back to the review section or maybe e-mail your scores along with user name to the test giver so they could review how everyone did. I will make a couple of quick changes and reupload the file so it has those extra buttons.

Tigg

[longedge]

Intro took 3 or 4 minutes on my 1.2GHz, 512MB, XP HomeEd laptop and at one stage I thought it was locked up but after that everything was fine.

Looks good - but I always goes for fullscreen - not windowed - grab 100% of the users attention. Is that bad form?

[TJ_Tigger]

Intro took 3 or 4 minutes on my 1.2GHz, 512MB, XP HomeEd laptop and at one stage I thought it was locked up but after that everything was fine.

Looks good - but I always goes for fullscreen - not windowed - grab 100% of the users attention. Is that bad form?


Ok I have reduced the number of colors that were used in the splash image in hopes that it would load faster. If you would care to try it now. I have uploaded a new version of the quiz with the new image.

Tigg

[Corey]

I always goes for fullscreen - not windowed - grab 100% of the users attention. Is that bad form?

What is considered bad form in one area may not be in another. For example a kids e-learning application or video game which goes full screen is great whereas a Virtual Business Card or Address Book application which goes full screen is probably bad form functionally speaking. A good way to assess this is to look around at your ten largest competitors and see what they are doing, this will generally give you a good idea of what the market expects from your type of application. :)

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[longedge]

Tried it again for updated version. Still taking just under 3 minutes for intro and using 100% cpu for most of that time . Tried second time after closing all open apps, networking firewall virus protection etc. but made no difference. As soon as the intro finishes cpu usage drops to 3% and all is well.

[AGRO]

Started .exe, took about 3 secondes to see the splash image. The image kinda morphed into the picture. At first I saw lines like that of the effect when you motion blur an object in Photoshop, then the image. Total of 3 seconds. After that every thing worked just great. Looks good

As far as full screen or a window, I have to agree with corey on that one. I have made many for kids as a target market. If you dont go full screen they will be asking questions like "what is that behind the box".

As for a professional presentation business card, I usually try to stay in about 3 sizes. I also like to take a look at there computers to see what resolution they are using. I know that they are not the target market but it is nice to know what to show them for the approval, and who is there target market. :D

[Corey]

Goog point Agro, ultimately the client's choice is the decider. 3 choices is ideal, as you don't want to give them too many or too few.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[longedge]

It's not because I don't have AMS5 installed (yet) is it?

That sounds ridiculous doesn't it :huh - but who knows...

Re full screen - kids & teachers are the target, but really I'm lucky. I make the decisions and they get what they're given. I like full screen so I do full screen :D

[Intrigued]

That 'fade in' effect for the splash image is very nicely done TJ.

[Edit - It's works fine the way it is!]

At least I know one thing for sure... I go to TJ for a nice intro. splash image/page!

Nice job!

[pjhiggins]

What OS are you running? I have run this on a laptop with Win2K PIII 800Mhz w/256 RAM and it fades in/out relatively quickly. Nothing near 5 Min. Maybe I will add a check box that will allow you to skip the fade in/out intro.

Running XP Pro on a Dell C600 P3 1.2GHz Notebook with 512RAM. Fully service packed and updated.

I just ran your app on my CD burner PC. A beater P2 450MHz w/256RAM running Win2K and it works great. 3-5 seconds I'd guess for the full effect to run.

As far as what else is running to slow things down on the notebook... Nothing unusual. McAfee's is the next major app for CPU and memory utilization but way low.

I'm going to test around some and see if I can't nail down the cause. Those splash screens are too cool and if there is some logic we can come up with to identify problem PCs so it can be bypassed then I'm all for it :)

[TJ_Tigger]

That 'fade in' effect for the splash image is very nicely done TJ.

[Edit - It's works fine the way it is!]

At least I know one thing for sure... I go to TJ for a nice intro. splash image/page!

Nice job!


Not me That is a Worm thing (http://www.indigorose.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7323) . :)

It's 99% Worm, and 1% Tigg.

[Corey]

It's 99% Worm, and 1% Tigg.

Godzilla vs. Wigg.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[longedge]

the dip was between fade up and start of fade out.

[Derek]

Nice job there Tigg - it ran well here.
Just a thought, the other guys having probs .. could it be video card prob? CPU seems ok etc! Just diggin for possible reasons.

[StealthFD]

Tigger,

Nice... no problems here with the fade or intro... I was really impressed, now I have to figgure out how you did that! :)

The test itself works very well... except for the review section at the end of the test, found it a little confusing because of the layout/design. -Just my 2 cents!!!

I could really use this for the Fire Service Training apps that I am working on! -hint- -hint-

Great job!

[TJ_Tigger]

The test itself works very well... except for the review section at the end of the test, found it a little confusing because of the layout/design. -Just my 2 cents!!!


What was confusing about the review section. I wanted to provide the ability to quickly go through the answers that were selected for each question. I am open to suggestions on making it more userfriendly and intuitive.

Tigg

[pjhiggins]

Just an update...

McAfee is what was killing my PC during the fade in/out.
I was able to disable McAfee and the intro ran in about 15 seconds.

*funny*
When I say "disable McAfee" what I really mean is I managed to turn off scanning for the roughly 3 minutes it took for my system to be polled and to have it turned back on for me.

Ah, the joys of corporate life... :rolleyes

[StealthFD]

What was confusing about the review section. I wanted to provide the ability to quickly go through the answers that were selected for each question. I am open to suggestions on making it more userfriendly and intuitive.

Tigg

I think the spacing between the question and the chosen answer is what is throwing me off... maybe group the question & answer... or not as much verticle space between them.

Another suggestion - Add the question number and answer tags, that might help a little too.
Instead of:
--------------------------------------------
The number 20 is greater than 30?


False

What is after 4?


5
--------------------------------------------

Maybe try something like:
--------------------------------------------
Question #1: The number 20 is greater than 30?
Your Answer: False

Question #2: What is after 4?
Your Answer: 5
--------------------------------------------

-Once again, just my 2 cents... Gee, I guess I'm gonna have a nickle soon!
:lol

[TJ_Tigger]

Thanks StealfFD. That is one of the items that I started with when labeling the question/answer Review. I turned away from it so I could get the sample out that I posted. I will see about adding that in the future. What if there was a horizontal line between the q&A sets such as
_______________________________
The number 20 is greater than 30?


False
_______________________________
What is after 4?


5
_______________________________

Would that work?


I think the spacing between the question and the chosen answer is what is throwing me off... maybe group the question & answer... or not as much verticle space between them.

Another suggestion - Add the question number and answer tags, that might help a little too.
Instead of:
--------------------------------------------
The number 20 is greater than 30?


False

What is after 4?


5
--------------------------------------------

Maybe try something like:
--------------------------------------------
Question #1: The number 20 is greater than 30?
Your Answer: False

Question #2: What is after 4?
Your Answer: 5
--------------------------------------------

-Once again, just my 2 cents... Gee, I guess I'm gonna have a nickle soon!
:lol

[TJ_Tigger]

I have uploaded a new version to the link in the first post again. It has a quick fix with the Question # and Your Answer.

Let me know what you think of how it looks now.

I have another idea on the subject as well. It will have to wait for more time. I will post another soon.

Edit added link

Quiz App (http://s94928149.onlinehome.us/pub/Quizzingapp.exe)

[StealthFD]

Much better and easier to understand now.

But I still don't like the huge vertical gap between the question and the answer.

A horizontal line may be too much on that screen... Can you just group them a little more or do you need that spacing to allow for dynamic text?

If you do need the spacing like that... maybe you could use an old HTML trick - Different background color for each section... Just a thought - Ouch, that one hurt.
----------------------------------------------------------

I'm up to 6 cents now... I hope that's OK. If you don't want my money anymore... just ignore me... I will go away! :)

[TJ_Tigger]

I have made a couple of changes and uploaded a couple of other projects.

Quiz Build 1 (http://s94928149.onlinehome.us/pub/Quizzingapp1.exe)
Quiz Build 2 (http://s94928149.onlinehome.us/pub/Quizzingapp2.exe)

Build one incorporates the question and answer into the same paragraph object, very easy to read.
Build two uses colors to separate the Q&A sets

[longedge]

It's got me beat... Works perfectly on everything I try it on except my own personal laptop. Tried it at work today on two PC's, Tosh Laptop, HP Tablet all OK.

My laptop - AMD cpu, Radeon igp 320m integrated graphics card which I believe uses some system memory. Freeram still reports around 200MB free but the slow down is caused by paging out to disk I think???

Oh well - looks like 99.9% of the world won't have a problem Tig :D

[Stefan_M]

Hi Tig,

I made a mathquiz sample to learn something about AMS5.

Maybe its useful for you.

Stefan

[TJ_Tigger]

Stefan,

Yes that is a good project and I have looked at it in the past, but forget to reveiw the code when I was putting this together. I will do that tonight.

Thanks again
Tigg

Hi Tig,

I made a mathquiz sample to learn something about AMS5.

Maybe its useful for you.

Stefan

[StealthFD]

I have made a couple of changes and uploaded a couple of other projects.

Quiz Build 1 (http://s94928149.onlinehome.us/pub/Quizzingapp1.exe)
Quiz Build 2 (http://s94928149.onlinehome.us/pub/Quizzingapp2.exe)

Build one incorporates the question and answer into the same paragraph object, very easy to read.
Build two uses colors to separate the Q&A sets

Build #1 looks GGRREEAATT!!! - oops, wrong tiger! lol

[Stefan_M]

Is that correct?
1. run the quiz
2. at review page select Quiz
3. At the new Quiz the "Next" Button is renamed to "Finish"



Attached: swf file to show what I mean

[TJ_Tigger]

yeah, there were a couple of items that I have corrected with the quiz button as seen in your screen capture. I have corrected those items. The other item you will notice from your screen capture is that the timer wasn't resetting. Silly me.

Tigg

Is that correct?
1. run the quiz
2. at review page select Quiz
3. At the new Quiz the "Next" Button is renamed to "Finish"



Attached: swf file to show what I mean

[TJ_Tigger]

This one has the corrections.Quiz Build 3 (http://s94928149.onlinehome.us/pub/Quizzingapp3.exe)

[andre]

Hi there,

Dear TJ Tigger, is it possible to re-upload the build3 file.

As a registered user of AMS5, I am working on a quiz project.
Using the quiz template I build a set of 150 questions, and
I am trying a way of presenting only 15 to user (ramdomize)
Any help would be much appreciated....

Andreas