Adobe Captivate published project opens in browser blank

[ALVIN23195287u8b3]

I am using Adobe Captivate 12.2.0.19.

I was working on an Adobe Captivate project and was able to publish it. I was able to view it and then made some edits to the slides, but now i publish the project and cannot view the contents via the index.html. When i launch the index.html, all i see is a blank web browser screen with the URL showing it is opening the local index.html file.

Any ideas? I'd hate to lose the work i did. 

Thanks in advance. 

[RodWard · Accepted solution]

You need to be aware that Captivate's HTML5 output usually needs to be viewed from within a web server environment.

When you Preview as HTML or Publish to HTML from Captivate the output is displayed to you from within a temporary localhost web server environment.  That's why it worked the first time you viewed it.

However, if you try to just launch the index.html file from the hard drive or LAN folder where it was published, that is NOT going to be a web server environment and you may not see anything.

Next time you publish or preview the project in Captivate, take special note of the HTTP address in the web browser.  It will have localhost stated there.

[Stagprime]

Shot in the dark here but how long did you wait?

I have tried launching many a "New Captivate" project that others have posted in the community and have literally waited minutes before it appeared on screen.

[ALVIN23195287u8b3]

I waited about 10minutes and nothing showed. 

[Stagprime]

That's fair. I just know I have tried launching projects right off the eLearning Community and had to wait a ridiculous amount of time for them to open. Early on I often just closed it thinking it didn't work and one time I left the tab open to do something else and finally it appeared.

If you don't have a server to place the project - you might look into something like Amazon's AWS Free Tier

[Lilybiri]

First of all, please update to 12.3.0.12.

No published project should be viewed locally, except when you are invited to do so immediately after publishing. Just launching the index.html file is mostly not working. You need to upload the published output to a webserver to be able to have all the functionality. That has not changed in the new version. You can use a webserver which you have set up, or you can use an external server, like AWS.

[ALVIN23195287u8b3]

The end environment of this publication does not have a web server. How would I create a standalone viewing of this project?

[Lilybiri]

You can only publish to HTML5, which means that you are creating a website. Each website needs to be viewed from a webserver. Standalone was only possible in the SWF period, but not anymore. If you used Captivate Classic,  and had created a non-responsive project, you could publish to MP4 but that is a passive video format. In that case you would lose all interactions.

What is the end environment? 

[ALVIN23195287u8b3]

The end environment is a standalone Dell Workstation running Windows 10 in a secure facility. There is no network connectivity to the workstation. 

The previous time i used Adobe Captivate was with Adobe Captivate 2019 version 11.8.0.586 and i had also done an HTML5/SWF publish which is the SWF period then. I guess since that was my experience, i hadn't thought much about how the project published. 

Is my only option to host a web server to view the published project? 

[Lilybiri]

I am sorry but that is indeed the case. Flash player is now banned from all browsers. In version 11.8.0 priority was already to HTML5 publishing. In 11.8.2 all references to SWF have been taken out completely.

Indeed you need a webserver, you could install one on that workstation. 

[ALVIN23195287u8b3]

Do you know if Adobe Captivate perhaps has a guide on how to do this on Windows 10? I am not very familiar with setting up a web server to run the website.

[Lilybiri]

I just searched on YouTube and there are lots of videos explaining how to intall a webserver. I made that suggestion because you said the workstation wouldn't have access to the internet. I post my tutorials published with Captiate on a subdomain of my domain but of course you would need access to the WWW in that case to view the course.

[ALVIN23195287u8b3]

Ok. I could view the tutorial on this machine which is not connected to the workstation the project is developed on or the workstation the project will be published to. I would just view it on the WWW for reference then do it in the offline environment if that makes sense.