After opening a PDF in a Captivate 9 mobile app (on my iPhone) I can't get out of the pdf without hitting the home button - how do I go back to the app?

Report · Mar 07, 2017

I'm using Captivate to publish a mobile app and it's working on my iPhone fine. I've set up a button to open a pdf, which it does, but then I can't get out of the pdf without clicking on the Home button and going back into the app from the start, which is hopeless. I've got mobile gestures enabled and that is working fine for everything else, but not when I view the pdf when embedded this way.

I've tried the web object but it doesn't view the whole pdf and I have no pinch to zoom options, or any other options to zoom. I can swipe left & right on this and it gets me out of it ok, but I need to be able to zoom, so this isn't an option either. This is what the web object looks like on my iPhone 5 & 6:

Is there a better way to embed a PDF that can be viewed as part of the app so you can go back and forwards from the pdf back to the app and have the ability to zoom as well?

Report · Mar 08, 2017

It sounds like you're making great strides with this, I hope you'll consider building some 'how-to' materials that will help others who are struggling.

IMHO, you should try adding an exit button to your project that will publish as visible within the PDF and allow someone to click the button to exit the PDF.

you mention 'back to the app,' so this is a variation from the typical LMS/CMS interface.

Most LMS/CMS want to see that exit event to trigger a reload and return to the LMS/CMS interface.

In your case, returning to an open app in iOS, you'll want to trigger the closing of the PDF and/or the return to the app.

You may need to experiment a bit, so take the time to review docs on opening a URI, not quite a URL, to open the app within iOS.

See if you can just embed a URI within the PDF to switch to the app within iOS and test it. The quest then becomes, how do you trigger the closing of the PDF?

Report · Mar 09, 2017

Thanks for the idea and you're right, this is a standalone app, not run through an LMS (we don't have one yet, hence why I'm building an app). But even if I work the button out, which I'm sure I can, the other problem I have is the pdf won't zoom, so imagine trying to view an A4 pdf on your tiny mobile phone screen..

I've done another work around which is to link to the pdf via a URL which is hosted online, so the pdf opens up in the phone's web browser and allows zooming which is great. I've just put a note on the app that the pdf will open in their browser and they can return to this page when the reopen the app (instead of resetting it to the start of the app which I would normally do). Not totally ideal, means 2 clicks instead of a swipe left to return, but I can live with it for now.