Captivate 8 - Buttons Containing URLs to .pdfs Not Working

[SturgeonPatti]

I am relatively new to Captivate, and creating a dashboard with buttons with a url to pdf files on a public drive. When previewing, these buttons do not work. I've triple checked my paths and they are correct.  The only thing I can see that might be an issue, is when it errors, it says:

" Windows cannot find 'file//\\...'.Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

I find //\\ to be strange, as it automatically fills in 'file:// when my path starts with \\.

I'm using windows 10....

What am I doing wrong?

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

First I would make sure I was running the latest version of Captivate 8, which is version 8.0.3.290. You can get more information here:

https://www.adobe.com/support/captivate/downloads.html

I just tried your scenario with my copy of Cp8. I don't have a public drive but I do have a network location I can link to. It worked fine. My guess is that your drive you are accessing requires some login credentials that are taken care of by your computer login. Since your system doesn't recognise the call for the file from Adobe Captivate software (instead of your default browser) it's not letting your access the PDF file.

You may have to work with your IT department to get this to work, or alternatively you may have package local copies of the files.

Best of luck.

[BDuckWorks]

If you're getting an error that the path isn't working and the path starts with file://, this means you've created an absolute link to the file, on your computer. Publishing the project will appear to work, while you view it from your computer.

Instead of creating a link within the project that will resolve to http://<servername>/<foldername> in a URL, you've generated a link that will only resolve while playing on your computer, and on your network!

If  you have published the PDF's to a server or LMS, you need to update their links with the links to the file where it is hosted on the server.

For example, if you wanted to link to the Adobe Help file for 9.0.2 on this page: (mouseover to see the path without opening the page.)

Adobe Captivate Help | Archive

The 'fully qualified' url is:

https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/captivate_reference.pdf

If you put this into a button within Captivate and select 'Open URL,' this link will resolve to the file and the learner will see the PDF.

If you only provide the filename, you've generated a relative url:

captivate_reference.pdf​

Also, this will work if you publish the PDF's to your project folder!

So, in your situation I would determine:

1) Are the PDF's hosted already and have a tested, working url?

     If so, update you links with that ​fully qualified path.

2) Are you able to publish the PDF's to your webserver / LMS with the rest of your project?

     If so, use the relative url by just putting the filename in the path field.

     Put the files into the folder identified by the location field of the publish to my computer dialogue.

     (Note that after you publish to this folder, or re-publish the project, you will need to re-copy these files!)

     AND, you'll need to zip this folder manually to publish as a SCORM file to an LMS.

[SturgeonPatti]

Hello

Thanks for the quick response. All I want is for them to view a .pdf, or a website I direct them to. I have everything saved in the same folder. The buttons that point to websites work, it’s just the pdf’s that don’t. It’s an internal dashboard so only people on my network will see. I chose a shared drive that everyone has access to. When I preview it and click the button, it literally does nothing. Not even an error anymore.

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

...But that shared drive probably still requires some security credentials. For example, my guess is that if I walked into your office and plugged in my laptop using an Ethernet cable, I would not be able to access that dashboard. It is likely protected by your single-sign-on which extends to your browser as well. Your single sign on may not cover the access through a Captivate web object. I have some experience with this working with a previous organization. Please check with your IT department on this point.

[Captiv8r]

What is your output type? SWF? If so, you will need to adjust the flash security permissions.

Click here to see how to do this

Cheers... Rick

[SturgeonPatti]

I haven’t gotten that far because it doesn’t even work in the preview. I’ll try moving my pdf’s to a html server.

[Lilybiri]

It is important! The only Preview methods that work almost like after publishing are Preview in Browser (F12) and Preview HTML in Browser (F11). So you have to make the choice based on the wanted output. Even with those browser previews not all functionality will be present, and links to files or URL's are best tested after publishing and uploading to a webserver or a LMS (for a SCO).

[SturgeonPatti]

Thank you, I had no idea. Like I said, I’ll move my .pdf’s to an html server, and then I’ll publish and see how it works.