Inspiring

Answered

Captivate 8.01 Link multiple HTML 5

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
May 7, 2015
3 replies
1438 views

Hello all,

[ Background ]

I use Captivate 8.01 in a very simple manner. (Any simpler and it would be PowerPoint!)

All the output is SWF

I do not use any LMS.

All the content is stored on a simple internal server.

I do not require any logging on or user identification.

Everything works really well as it stands.

[ The way I work is ]

I use a project file for a Menu, and then separate projects for Topic1, Topic2 Topic3 etc.

The menu calls the topics, and when finished the topics call the menu again.

All this has been working exactly as I need it to in SWF format.

[ What I want to do ]

However, I am now trying to do the same in HTML5 format, and am having problems.

[ What I have learned ]

From searching the forums and various web pages what I gather about HTML 5 is that when linking a Menu to a Topic, the Topic needs to be a subfolder of the menu. MENU/TOPIC1

This works, but then when the Topic needs to link back to the Menu, the Menu has to be a subfolder of the Topic subfolder. MENU/TOPIC1/MENU

And then if user decides to run the Topic again, the Topic has to be a subfolder of the subfolder etc etc. MENU/TOPIC1/MENU/TOPIC1/ etc etc

[ My Questions ]

1) Am I correct in thinking that this is the way it is designed?

2) Is it possible to link the Menu to the Topics, (but without using any other features such as TOC, LMS, Aggregator, additional non-Captivate pages), just using the projects that I already have.

Any help and suggestions will be gratefully appreciated.

Thank you,

Peter

Cardiff (Sunny but with a chilly wind)

Wales

UK

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer TLCMediaDesign

I just tested a relative link and it worked fine.

The action was Open URL or file.

I typed "../AudioTimer/index.html" and chose open in current window.

I published to a location at the same level as the AudioTimer project, which was already published.

Captivate kept the URL relative as here is the code:

cp.openURL(\'../AudioTimer/index.html\',\'_self\');

Don't "browse to the location.

P

petern33480613Author

Inspiring

ErickJ thank you for trying all those combinations and confirming that you get the same results.

TLC thank you for suggesting a solution.

[ Conclusion ]

I think the easiest course of action for me is to create my projects as a single project with all the topics in the same project.

(I prefer individual projects for each topic as I find it quicker to edit, and much easier to manage in small chunks).

Thanks all.

Peter

Cardiff (Sunny with a breeze and light showers)

Wales

UK

TLCMediaDesignCorrect answer

Inspiring

I just tested a relative link and it worked fine.

The action was Open URL or file.

I typed "../AudioTimer/index.html" and chose open in current window.

I published to a location at the same level as the AudioTimer project, which was already published.

Captivate kept the URL relative as here is the code:

cp.openURL(\'../AudioTimer/index.html\',\'_self\');

Don't "browse to the location.

P

petern33480613Author

Inspiring

TLC... it worked!

I took a break for a while and then revisted this thread and tried your suggestion of using ..\folder\index.html

It works perfectly.

The project keeps the files being referenced in their orignal location ..\folder\index.html and just links to them, rather than copyig them all to a new folder.

Thank you for your help.

Peter

Cardiff (Cloudy, grey with a little drizzle)

Wales

UK

E

ErickJ

Inspiring

Captivate versions 6 thru 8 do not require that everything always be in a subfolder. I only publish to HTML and have no problems linking to other Captivate modules. The method I use is to create a button with an action of "open URL". You can type an absolute address (http://www.yourdomain.com/path to/file.html), a relative address (/path to/file.html), or you can click the browse button and select a file on your network (this is the same as an absolute address). Use that method in your menu to select a topic and then use the same method in your topic to get back to the menu. And you don't have to use a button to use that action you can apply it to the last slide's "on exit" event for instance.

P

petern33480613Author

Inspiring

TLCMD & ErickJ

Thank you for the replies.

I always do exactly as you suggest in creating buttons and then browsing to specify a to file, but I always get the same result.

[ What I tried ]

I created a simple test, just two projects MENU and TOPIC1.

Each project has a single button that opens the index.html of the other project. (MENU calls TOPIC1) (TOPIC1 calls MENU)

There are no quiz slides or any other features.

I publish the MENU and TOPIC1 as just HTML5

As I publish a dialog always appears telling me that there are "files/projects listed below are linked to the open project. The linked files/projects may require exporting"

I do not manually move or copy any files or folders, I just leave Captivate to do the work, and it automatically copies the linked project as a subfolder of the calling project.

[ The result ]

The result I get is always as in the example below taken from the browser address bar, when I run the MENU and then click the button to go to TOPIC1, then click back to MENU again etc etc.

file:///E:/peter/TEST/MENU/TOPIC1/MENU/TOPIC1/index.html

[ Similar problem / explanation ]

A similar problem was mentioned in this post HTML5 multiple callees folders, but no firm answer.

Also the Captivate action of copying the linked files to a new calling project subfolder folder is referenced here:

"In Captivate 8.1 any linked files in Open URL / Open File / Open Project will automatically be copied to the published output folder." (Adobe Captivate 8.1 patch released | CP Guru - Adobe Captivate Widgets)

[ Current situation ]

I am stumped.

Any further help and suggestions would be much appreciated.

I will continue to try and solve the issue, and if I come up with a solution I will post.

Cheers

Peter

Cardiff (Overcast and cold)

Wales

UK

E

ErickJ

Inspiring

I thought about what you tried and I did some testing on my Captivate to try to replicate your results. First, I must say that I only tested it on version 8.0.1.242. I got exactly the results you described. Captivate tries to be too cutesie by interpreting the correct path to the file and it totally effs it up. In my opinion this is a bug, not a feature.

Instead of trying to interpret the path to the file, it should just accept the literal path that is entered into the "Open URL or file" box. I've never encountered this before because my projects always linked to a web address, not a file sitting on a hard drive or network. I also always publish to HTML.

I did observe this though: even when entering a web address, Captivate omits the protocol (http://) but fortunately it still works because modern browsers are savvy enough to navigate to the correct page in spite of this. Adobe, please fix this.

I tried selecting the file using the button in Captivate. I tried typing the path/file (E:\folder\index.html). I tried typing the path/file as the browser sees it (file:///E:/folder/index.html)
I finally tried more desperate measures (explorer.exe E:\folder\index.html) and finally, I created a shortcut to the file and selected that using the button in Captivate.

None of that worked. What did work is manually typing the path/file to the shortcut (E:\folder\shortcut.lnk) and even then, it only worked when publishing to HTML.

TLCMediaDesign

Inspiring

I would think that everything could be in a folder.

Then you would just preface all of the links with ../

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