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A
Anonymous
October 9, 2007
Question

Captivate will not resume if project is large

  • October 9, 2007
  • 2 replies
  • 633 views
HAs anyone had the same problem as this, whatever the LMS used?

When a project contains either a large amount of slides and/or is a large file size (e.g. about 70 slides or a project of around 5mb), once uploaded to our SumTotal LMS the movie resumes correctly (after a user has started) to the correct point. That is until the movie gets towards the end, when almost every time, the movie resumes the first slide (as normal) but then just displays a white screen and does not resume!?

We are looking at the suspend data being sent from Captivate and being recorded on SumTotal and, so far, this seems to be correct. Is there a timeout in SumTotal to retrieve the resume point or it a failing in Captivate when it produces large movies?

Can anyone offer any theories or other avenues to test
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2 replies

A
Anonymous
October 10, 2007
Rick,

Thanks for this, it makes a great deal of sense! We are monitoring the calls for the suspend_data between SumTotal and Captivate and they appear to be correct so your theory offers a very plausible explanation of the issue.

We are adapting a preloader to load 100% of the swf and will be doing some more testing. Will try and remember to post the outcome in case it helps others on the forum.

Thanks again
A
Anonymous
October 12, 2007
OK, we have done some more testing and found some interesting results.

When Captivate content is resumed on an LMS it starts making various calls to the LMS for the suspend_data (Captivate 2) which appear to be correct, however, these calls happen before all the content is loaded (even if when we altered the preloader to load 100%).

It would appear that when Captivate attempts to play the slide at the resume point, as the slide is not yet physically present (because the file has not yet downloaded from the LMS), that Captivate simply stops working. This leaves the user looking at a blank screen.

Is there any way we can stall Captivates calls until the file has downloaded to the browser completely? Otherwise we are left with a physical limitation of very few slides in a movie or very small file sizes.
Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
October 9, 2007
Hi Grizgut

I'll be happy to offer up a theory as well as something you might wish to try.

First, the theory part. I'm wondering if perhaps you are using a preloader. Some folks think the sole purpose of a preloader is just to mollify the user and give them something interesting to look at while a project loads up. Certainly that's part of the deal, but here is where it really shines (as well as why you may be seeing what you are seeing)

When a preloader is used, it normally loads 60% of the project into the browser before play begins. Think about how the red playhead moves across the timeline when you preview the slide in place using F3, the little play button below the Tiimeline or the Spacebar. Imagine the playhead continually moving across slide one, then slide two. The point is, the playhead is advancing toward the end of the project. As it is advancing, the last 40% of the project is still in the process of downloading. So while the playhead has reached perhaps the 20% mark, maybe the project has now downloaded 75% of the total. The thought behind this is to make the user experience better, by them never encountering a pause while they wait for more to download.

Now imagine the following. You have a preloader. Again, 60% has downloaded before play commences. BUT, what do you think might happen if the bookmarking data is pointing to a location that hasn't arrived yet?

So here is my possible suggestion. If you are using a preloader, try turning it off and see if things change for the better.

Hopefully something here was helpful... Rick
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