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A
Anonymous
February 2, 2011
Answered

CAPTIVATE 5 - DAISY CHAIN WILL NOT WORK

  • February 2, 2011
  • 6 replies
  • 8272 views

I've been digging through the forum and I give up.

I have several parts of 1 cptx built separately based on topic.  I have 6 topics.  I want to keep 6 different files & link them - which you do w/ daisy chain.

Currently, when it gets to the end of topic one, it stops & just sits there. 

When publishing, I publish topic 1 & in publish settings, link to topic 2.  I publish topic 2 & link to topic 3.  I am setting the Start & End to open another project & pointing at the cptx file - correct? 

SO - when publishing - I publish topic 1 first and then link to the cptx of topic 2?  Then publish topic 2 and link to the cptx of topic 3?  I'm publishing them to the same folder - the files are all published together.

I cannot get it to work.  What am I doing wrong?  I've watched the goofy tutorial on Diasy chaining & it explains the obvious stuff - not the nuances of publishing.

HELP!!!!!

Thank you.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Captiv8r

    Thanks for all the quick follow-up & help:

    1 - I don't get any type of error whatsoever -  either when publishing or viewing the htm file.

    I unzipped, & tried this out.  It does not work for me.  Maybe there is a browser setting preventing the next project from opening?  It gets to the end of project 1 & sits there - no error - no attempt to launch the next project.

    I'm going to try one of the files i've daisy chained on another pc to see if it will work.  Any idea what could be blocking it?


    Hi there

    Have you flagged the folder where you are testing this as safe as described in the link below?

    Click here to view

    Cheers... Rick

    Helpful and Handy Links

    Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

    Adobe Certified Captivate Training

    SorcerStone Blog

    Captivate eBooks

    6 replies

    N
    nancyparrishnrs
    Participant
    March 25, 2011

    Still not working.  I don't think the issue has anything to do with relative or absolute paths - forward slashes or backslashes.  When I preview the project in my browser, it displays backslashes......I really don't think this is the issue.   The links do not work - regardless of whether or not I use a project file or place a link to a URL

    ----------

    Nancy

    http://www.cashsurveys.net

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 25, 2011

    Download this zip file, unzip to your hard drive somewhere:

    http://www.infosemantics.com.au/assets/testpit/adobe/DaisyChainTest.zip

    Inside the DaisyChainTest folder there are three folders named project1, project2, and project3 and the three almost identical Captivate project files that created them.

    Open any one of these folders and launch the HTM file.  The three projects should daisy chain from one to another endlessly.

    Does this work for you?

    If not, try this:

    2. Add the folder location of your published Captivate files to the Trusted Locations list
    3. Now try and play the daisy chaining example above again. 
    4. If the issue preventing it from working before was related to Flash Player security settings, it should now work.

    C
    ckhug
    Participant
    February 27, 2011

    Thanks so much for the advice.  I will definitely look into Aggregator as a solution to this project.  I have never created a training tutorial of this scale so this is all new territory for me but that sounds exactly what I am looking for.

    Thank you again for your quick response.

    C
    ckhug
    Participant
    February 27, 2011

    Well I have tried each option in the 'Project end options' (pointing to.htm file, .swf and an .exe) using both "Open URL or File" and "Open another project" but no luck with any of them.  I have also tried linking to different files using buttons but they load in a browser window rather than the executable.

    I will have 10 "chapters" of simulation training that I need to package as a full screen executable and I am pretty sure it will be too large to do in one file (it will be over an hour in length).

    Is this a known issue or am I trying to do something that Captivate 5 just doesn't handle?

    Thanks!

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 27, 2011

    Daisy chaining is most often used  with HTM/SWF content.  Each published chapter calling the next one on exit.  However, users report mixed success, and the issues usually seem to relate to browser or file folder security issues, plus Flash player security issues, interfering with the daisy chaining, especially when the content is being run from a network drive or CD ROM.

    In my experience, daisy chaining is most likely to be successful when run from a web server as HTM/SWF content, not as EXE.

    If you have 10 chapters of simulation it is highly unlikely that the user will want to just sit there and watch all of this in a single sitting.  So while daisy chaining might be one option, I think the better approach would be to have a menu or Table of Contents that allowed the user to navigate your lessons.

    Have you considered using the Captivate Aggregator to bundle up all lessons with a combined TOC?  If you need the content to play full screen, you can try setting the HTM publish option to Fullscreen.

    I think you'll find that the EXE output is more designed for single standalone lessons than for multiple lessons intended to be viewed as a daisy-chained set.  Plus, EXE files can run into lots of issues due to virus checkers, and other security restrictions.

    S
    SSchwa
    Inspiring
    March 23, 2011

    Hi there,

    I've been reviewing this posting to see if I might find a solution to a problem I've been having using daisy chaining for a project I've created in training mode. I was able to successfully use daisy chaining for a project I created in demonstration mode, but in training mode (so there's pretty much a text entry or click box on each slide), it looks like on the last slide of the first project, I have to set the click/text entry box to open another project on success... not just select this option from the end settings. This works when I'm completing the interaction in the project, but if I try to advance forward using the playbar, the last slide of the first project freezes and does not load the second project. I would like the user to be able to use the playbar to seemlessly move forward to the next project. Is there a workaround for this? Thanks for any help you might provide. I am using Captivate 5.

    C
    ckhug
    Participant
    February 26, 2011

    Has anyone had success in getting daisy chaining to work when publishing to an executable file?  I have successfully created a daisy chain based on the examples posted earlier in this thread but when I try to publish 'project1.cptx' as a Window's .exe file it doesn't work - it just hangs on the end of 'project1'. 

    I have recently created a daisy chain for a project at work and was able to have the first movie load the second movie but instead of loading it within the fullscreen executable it launched it in a browser window (since I pointed the the .htm file in the Project End Options section, I assume?).

    Any advice on how to do this would be much appreciated - thanks! 

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 27, 2011

    Are you trying to get one Captivate published executable to open another published executable?

    J
    JudyWiessner
    Known Participant
    February 3, 2011

    Just a note to thank you for this thread.  Your problem may not be solved, but the thread has given me some ideas...

    Thanks!

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 3, 2011

    Try this:

    • Publish all topics into their own subfolders of a master folder.  This ensures that you keep all of the files for each topic together but won't risk having conflicts between topics.  So each topic will have it's own uniquely named HTML and SWF files within its own folder.
    • If you use Open Other Project as your daisy chaining option it's still only going to be looking for an HTML file anyway (yeah I know it doesn't make sense) because your end user will be viewing only content that a web browser can open, and IE/Firefox don't open CPTX files.  So I would recommend you use the other option to Open URL or File instead and then make sure that your path is a correct relative path to the HTML file of the second project (not absolute path starting with a drive letter).

    So what you'll have is the Start and End settings to link from one published file to the HTML file of the next published topic.

    Does this work better for you?

    A
    Anonymous
    February 3, 2011

    RE: second bullet point:

    I used "Open URL or FIle" & pointed to the HTML file that I had just published so it would be the file opened at the end of the project I'm publishing.  Now, when you're saying to make sure the path is a correct relative path to the HTML file of the 2nd project, I'm assuming that just means:

  • I've tried both - and neither work.  I cannot get this to start the 2nd project. I tried buttons too - won't work. Just sits there - nothing happens.......??
    • A
    Anonymous
    February 3, 2011

    You're almost there.

    You need to get a better understanding of relative links.

    Here's a (cheesy but simple) tutorial about it: http://www.compugoddess.com/relvsabs.htm

    Here's another one: http://www.boogiejack.com/server_paths.html

    So, if you have two lessons, and each is inside their own folder (lesson1, lesson2) and you want lesson1 to link to lesson2 at the end, then your link needs to look something like this: ../lesson2/lesson2.html

    The ../ says "go up one level, then find a folder called lesson2, go inside this folder and find a file called lesson2.html to open.

    Does this help?


    I'm sorry - I  need an example.  The tutorials refer to coding html on websites & that's not what I'm doing.

    • I am saving captivate hmtl files to:  C:\captivate\

    • Each project is published into a project sub-folder in the captivate folder on C:  project1, project2, project2, etc.

    • I save project2.htm in:  C:\captivate\project2 - making that path - C:\captivate\project2\project2.htm

    • I am going to publish project 1 so it opens project 2 at the end.  So when I publish, I need to make sure the path points to:

      • C:\captivate\project2\project2.htm

    What part of the path above is not correct?  Is it just the drive letter?  Do I just need to change that to the pc name?  My pc name is jason-pc - do I change it to:

    I'm literally just trying to test this on my local pc - just publishing it locally & running it.

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