Weetbicks Trivia 1.0

By Daniel Wood, 3 July 2012

Introduction

A little while ago I received an e-mail asking for ideas on how to implement a multiple choice testing database. It just so happens that I had begun to build a database a few years ago which does just that. While it is not finished, I have decided to release a first version for people to download, dissect and use.

Weetbicks Trivia

This database was built around 2008 and the original purpose behind it was to create a trivia database that could be placed on a FileMaker Server and where the database users would be able to take quizzes to test their knowledge in a range of areas - mainly FileMaker related. It was to be built up to be a nice certification training tool, or just to brush up on FileMaker knowledge.

However other things got in the way and it was never finished. The toughest part was simply coming up with numerous FileMaker related questions. As with a lot of projects, the motivation disappeared and it sat around on my hard drive for years unfinished.

Revival

With an e-mail received recently asking about this type of database structure, I decided to brush off the database, give it a spruce up for FileMaker 12, and release it here for anyone to download.

Hopefully if there is enough interest in the database I will continue to finish it.

Currently it only contains a practise mode where you can choose one/all categories of questions, and you are presented with question after question until you can take no more testing :)

Future Versions

The plan has always been to make the database quite comprehensive and have different gameplay modes such as:

  • Beat the Clock: X questions in Y minutes as a quick-fire mode, kind of like the certification exam.
  • Challenge: Pit your knowledge against another user by challenging them to a test.
  • Tournament: One or more database users enter into a longer format challenge which can span multiple tests over multiple days to find an overall victor.

Stay tuned for future releases. The plan is to release a new version once enough new functionality is added, perhaps one mode at a time.

Download

Download Weetbicks Trivia 1.0

Any feedback, comments, bugs, suggestions etc are very much appreciated, thanks!

Something to say? Post a comment...

Comments

  • Peter 03/04/2015 4:19am (9 years ago)

    You only have to look at what is available for budding developers (like me) to realize that there is an opportunity here.

    If this really is the beginning of a FileMaker aid to learning and testing system then it must be able to handle multiple choice/answer questions, single answer questions and to accommodate pictures in the question part of the data.

    I have a load of questions and answers for FileMaker 12 and 13 if someone wants to work jointly on this concept as a commercial project.

  • Daniel Wood 27/08/2012 10:16am (12 years ago)

    Hi Charles,
    Yes it is unfortunate you have to manually reproduce accounts and privilege sets in files and it can be time consuming for sure. The trivia database being a much simpler system I decided individual accounts a the FM security level would be overkill, and in addition to that it would require users to be setup in the system prior to logging in.

    The idea originally was that the database logs in automatically with a given account and password (via File -> file options and specifying account to login as). Upon login they go to a login layout where there they can type their given username/password and log in. This is more like a fake login really, they aren't logging in under a different FM level account and password, but rather users are stored in a user table, one record per user, this lets us store info about users such as login times, username, or any other user preferences.

    It also affords new users the ability to setup their accounts if they login and don't have an account. This area was not used in the end but might be used in future.

    Things you could look at are the Login script group and the scripts 'New user Button', 'Create new user account' and 'login'. I use globals to capture the users entered details and then check them against their user record eg username/password entered correctly, or if they are creating a new account their password has to meet certain requirements. Note it is never really a good idea to ever store passwords in a database and if I were to implement this I'd probably look at hashing the password at the very least but thats another story.

    One last thing - the login layout uses a hidden tab control to alternate between the login view and the add new user view. You should be able to locate it and change the tab control width to something like 30pt to look at the new user tab.

  • Charles Huff 27/08/2012 8:54am (12 years ago)

    I stumbled across your Trivia example while looking for an example of how to login to a hosted file from another hosted file that has all the usernames and and passwords (fmp security). I don't want to duplicate hundreds of security entries, and filemaker does not allow export.

    Your trivia example has scripts for new user, login, etc but they are not used? Can you point me to an example? I enjoyed the trivia, altho I am new to creating a one record user interface...

  • George J 04/07/2012 10:55pm (12 years ago)

    Wonderful.

    Hoping Weetbicks Trivia 1.0 will become an LMS like Moodle.
    If we could replicate the features of Prometrics testing environment, am pretty sure a lot of professional trainees and certification candidates will be interested in your solution.

    May Singularity bless you Daniel.

  • Daniel Wood 04/07/2012 1:24pm (12 years ago)

    Good idea Lyndsay! I'll see what I can whip up to put a database up on a public server for people to submit questions through, cheers!

  • Lyndsay Howarth 04/07/2012 12:22pm (12 years ago)

    Well Daniel,
    'eieio' ... LOL
    I'd be happy to submit a few Q's for the cause. Perhaps we put a shell up on a server for Q submission and put the link & password here for everyone to contribute.
    We could not only make them FM knowledge but also FM culture:
    What nation do DF hail from? Austria, USA, NZ or Antartic
    Who was the first MD of Asia Pacific? What company sold FM before FMI? Which version of FM was the first to be relational? etc.

    I was actually surprised how many of the US-centric Qs I got right. Even the sport...

  • Daniel Wood 04/07/2012 10:27am (12 years ago)

    Thanks for the suggestions Doug! I like the progress bar indication and that will be suitable for other modes of question answering. The practice mode intention is just to be one question after another with no progress limit, it is just random fire questions where you can answer as many or as few as you want and finish when you want. There would definitely be progress bar for other modes.

    For the randomization of questions you are right there should definitely be code in place to prevent duplicates even during practice mode, I will look at making this fix for a future version cheers!

  • Doug 04/07/2012 10:15am (12 years ago)

    Hi Daniel,

    Nice little demo app. Suggestions for improvement:

    ? a progress bar to indicate how many questions remain
    ? I tested one section and got the same questions more than once. One solution to this might be, instead of just generating a question at a time randomly, rather generate a list of Question IDs randomly initially, screen the list to ensure that there are no duplicates, then put them in a Global Variable or Global field and proceed through the list.

  • Daniel Wood 04/07/2012 9:59am (12 years ago)

    Thanks for the comment Lyndsay, yes you are right having some feedback on a timeout would be a good idea, I must have overlooked that one, will look at putting it in the next version.

    The questions are very US-centric, I paid some $ when I developed it to purchase some trivia questions (its impossible to find free ones in the required format!) but most of them are american, good for some folks I guess!

    Writing the FM questions is so tedious, I really empathise with those who have to write the certification exam :) Which is why it would be great if there was some assistance from the community in submitting questions for it ;) ;)

  • Lyndsay Howarth 03/07/2012 8:03pm (12 years ago)

    Interesting, Daniel!

    I too (in about 2006/7) did a "Trivia" database. Yes I added the obligatory Q&A but focused instead on the dilemma of running a Trivia Night for a fundraising Event.... including all the pre and post stuff.

    In yours I'm wondering why there is no highlight on the correct answer after a timeout? Timely feedback is the key educational advantage of this kind of tool.

    Most immediately you need more FileMaker questions... or at least 2 different ones... LOL... plus I'm not good all those US-centric Qs. Maybe also a number of Qs to ask field so you can have it auto-stop.

RSS feed for comments on this page | RSS feed for all comments

Categories(show all)

Subscribe

Tags