Qwheel: Question wheel

1 Setup

No accounts or logins required! Create a list of names from the class roster and enter in the dialog box when requested.

• You can use full names, or an abbreviated form, such as first name plus enough letters from the last name to make it unique, e.g., JaneDo; JohnS.

• Names in the list may be separated by line-breaks, semicolons, commas or spaces.

• You can create a line-break-separated list of names by simply copying from an Excel spreadsheet column, or from a file with a name in each line, and pasting it into the dialog box when requested.

• The Export option in the drop-down menu may be used to generate an URL that can be copied to re-create the name list in a different browser. (To use Qwheel without accessing the web, see Code info below.)

2 Usage

Click on SPIN to rotate the wheel:

• When a name is selected, a dialog box will appear.
• Clicking OK will remove the selected name from the list, clicking Cancel will retain the name.

3 Sessions

A sequence of spins starting with a new list of names is referred to as a session.

• The default session has a blank name.
• Alternate session names are specified using the optional session parameter in the URL and persist indefinitely in the browser (using information stored in browser's offline local storage).
• The drop-down menu may be used to switch between sessions or create a new session.
• Restarting a session will restore the original list of names.
• Deleting a session will erase it from the browser. (Deleting the default session will re-create it.)
• Exporting a session displays an URL that can be copied and pasted in a different browser.

4 Creating URLs

As an alternative to copying/pasting names, you can generate a permanent URL for creating a new session.

• Start with a list of semicolon- or comma-separated names.
• If there are any spaces within names, replace them with plus (+) signs.
• Then generate a URL string that looks like this:

https://mitotic.github.io/wheel/?session=math101&names=Jane+Doe;John+Doe;John+Smith

You can click on the above URL to see what it does. You can also store this URL as a hyperlink in a document and reuse it to restart a session, as needed.

• Note that the query symbol (?) denotes the start of the parameter list and the ampersand (&) separates different parameters.
• The optional session parameter enables multiple parallel sessions.
• Another optional parameter max may be used to specify the maximum number of names displayed (default: 30). If there are more names than this maximum, a random subset of consecutive names from the list is pre-selected and displayed in the wheel.
• If the names parameter is omitted, the list of names can be entered manually via a dialog box.

5 Sample URLs

Click on the URLs below to see them in action.

• Enter names via dialog box for default session:

  • https://mitotic.github.io/wheel/

• Default session, comma-separated first names+last initials:

  • https://mitotic.github.io/wheel/?names=JohnS,JaneD

• Named session, semicolon-separated names, max. display of 15 names:

  • https://mitotic.github.io/wheel/?session=calc101&max=15&names=John+Smith, jr.;Jane+Doe

6 Code

The source code is available on Github. You can download the code and open the file www/index.html in your browser to run Qwheel locally, even without an internet connection, by appending parameters to the file URL (file:///.../index.html?names=...).

To customize, modify the www/index.html file.
Qwheel uses the jQuery rouletteWheel software for the graphics.

7 Additional tips

• Reloading the page helps if the wheel does not appear.
• The maximum length of an URL is about 2000 characters. If names are shortened to about 10 characters each, a maximum of about 200 names can be handled in the URL. For a longer list, pasting into the dialog box should work.
• If you want Qwheel to display a full name upon selection, but a shorter name on the wheel, then use the syntax shortname/fullname for each name in the URL.
• Specify reset=1 in the URL to clear all sessions.
• An undocumented parameter stats=1 can be specified to verify the randomness of the selection algorithm.

Note: This document is created from Markdown text using Slidoc, a sister project of Qwheel. To view it as a slide show, press the ESCAPE key.