Unusal JS code section

Question

So I am a total JS novice, but I had someone write some code to be used within Qualtics survey. That code is now broken and I am trying to fix it up, there is an error with this line:

var timingObj=${e://Field/TimingObj};

I was hoping someone could help explain this line to me so I may be able to fix it up. (I have to full code, but that seemed a bit long to have someone go through.) I understand the first part is setting the variable named timingobj equal to something.

What that is is confusing to me, especially with the "//" which I understand to denote a note and not code. This code had worked in the past but now gives me an error. Any help understanding what I am working with would be amazing.

Thanks!

Update full code as provided to me:

//configurations
var bindInterval=10;

//initiate
var timingObj=${e://Field/TimingObj};



timingObj.version=3;

var startTiming=function(tag){
var currentTimeObj=timingObj[tag];
if (!currentTimeObj) {
    currentTimeObj={};
    currentTimeObj.startTimes=[];
    currentTimeObj.elapseTimes=[];
    currentTimeObj.totalElapsed=0;
    timingObj[tag]=currentTimeObj;
} 
var time=(new Date()).getTime();
currentTimeObj.startTimes.push(time);
currentTimeObj.startTime=time;
timingObj.activateTag=tag;
};

var closePopupCallback=function(){
//stop timing
var time=(new Date()).getTime();
var currentTag = timingObj.activateTag;
var currentTimeObj = timingObj[currentTag];
var elapsed=time - currentTimeObj.startTime;
currentTimeObj.elapseTimes.push(elapsed);
var totalElapsed=currentTimeObj.totalElapsed + elapsed;
currentTimeObj.totalElapsed=totalElapsed;
Qualtrics.SurveyEngine.setEmbeddedData(currentTag+'_Time',totalElapsed);
    Qualtrics.SurveyEngine.setEmbeddedData(currentTag+'_Count',currentTimeObj.startTimes.length);
var timingObjSerialized=Object.toJSON(timingObj);
Qualtrics.SurveyEngine.setEmbeddedData('TimingObj',timingObjSerialized);

};


var bindCloseEvent=function() {
//window.document.observe('dom:loaded',func) and document.observe('dom:loaded',func) did not work
var closeButton=$('bottomNavClose');
if (closeButton) {
    closeButton.observe('click', closePopupCallback);
} else{
    setTimeout(bindCloseEvent,bindInterval);
}
};
// bad smell
var bindLightBoxCloseEvent=function(){
var lightBox=$('lightbox');
if (lightBox) {
    lightBox.observe('click', closePopupCallback);
} else{
    setTimeout(bindLightBoxCloseEvent,bindInterval);
}
};

bindLightBoxCloseEvent();
bindCloseEvent();

Qualtrics.SurveyEngine.addOnload(function(){

});

Answer 1

This should be an easy fix:

try:

var timingObj = "${e://Field/TimingObj}";

When using Qualtrics piped text in JavaScript, you must enclose the piped text in quotes.

If the piped text is a number that you plan on using and manipulating, as I am assuming, you should use parseInt() to ensure you don't have issues:

var timingObj = parseInt("${e://Field/TimingObj}");

Since the full code makes it clear that the item you are passing in is meant to be an object, I am assuming it is being passed in valid JSON, you should parse it as such:

var timingObj = JSON.parse("${e://Field/TimingObj}");