Captivate 9 - HTML5 Content Will Not Load

[Guest]

Using Captivate v9.0.1.324. I have a couple of projects that will not load in a browser when published as HTML5. When trying to load the index.htm page you see the loading icon (spinning circle) and that is all. I've tested with different browsers and on different computers and still have the same problem. The projects work just fine as SWF and there are no errors/notices in the HTML5 tracker.

Unfortunately the site we use for review only allows Captivate projects to be published as HTML5 in a .zip package. Since the project never loads reviewers are unable to make any comments. I've googled and searched the Adobe forums and haven't found any solutions.

Any suggestions on how to track the problem down would be greatly appreciated.

[Lilybiri]

Did you upload to a webserver? Only in that case you'll be able to see the full functionality.

[Guest]

Lilybiri,

Thank you for your response. Can you explain what you mean by "full functionality"? I currently have zero functionality on the projects I'm having issues with. They have been uploaded to a web server (the review site we use) and the symptoms are the same as trying to open the HTML5 content locally (the loading icon displays but the player and content never load).

I have other projects published as HTML5 that load just fine locally and work without issue on our review site, this leads me to believe it is something specific to those projects that is causing the problem.

[Lilybiri · Accepted solution]

Some features like the Learning interactions will only play from a server, but apparently it is not the case here.

It could be a corrupt object somewhere, or more than one. Do you have question slides? Do you use learning interactions?

The difficulty is to find the 'culprit'. A possible work flow is to hide a lot of slides, publish and test again, then gradually add more slides until you bump onto the cause of your problems. I suppose you used the Project, HTML tracker?

[BDuckWorks]

It sounds like you're publishing and testing locally, and then trying to upload the zip file to a server for review, is that right?

1) Check your server to see if the unzipping has completed, we had a 10 minute process suddenly take 4 - 6 hours last week and were ONLY INFORMED of this when we called for support.

2) Try publishing your zip to SCORM.COM with a free account, it will give feedback if the zip causes errors.

3) Try publishing the Cp file as HTML to a folder, and zipping the folder yourself.Upload that to SCORM.com and your server for testing.

4) Revisit the SCORM setting dialogues in Cp and compare with the target LMSs settings.

Project Info -> Quiz Reporting:

Click configure:

Underscores indicate NO SPACES ALLOWED.

Any difference?

[Lilybiri]

@BDuckWorks You probably missed the OP's answer that the project IS uploaded to a webserver. Not every project needs to be a SCO,

[BDuckWorks]

Nope, I didn't miss that at all. I was confirming the assumption.

[Lilybiri]

Fine. I didn't ask if it is a SCO or just a zipped package.

[Guest]

Thank you everyone for your assistance. I'm going to just lump all my replies into one message because I need to get back to work.

I used the show/hide slides to narrow down the problem to a single slide with a drag and drop interaction. I'm picking up from another developer who had a thing for always using default Captivate names for objects and never bothered to rename anything.

The resolution was to remove the drag and drop interaction on the slide and recreate it using sensible type interaction names (DragSource1/DragTarget1, DragSource2/DragTarget2, etc.). This appears to have resolved the issue.

[Lilybiri]

Captivate is very sensitive to labeling, never use same name for two items, or variables or actions or decisions if you want to avoid issues. Great, you figured it out quite quickly

[muchelleb]

I've just had the same thing happen to me and thought that I would post my resolution for anyone who's out there desperately searching forums - just in case it might help!

My 'corrupt' items were my question pool slides. The question pool names had hyphens in them.

I removed the hyphens and my project worked fine from thereon - all seems to be loading.

Michelle

[Lilybiri]

Thanks for posting, having weird/reservered characters in names is too often at the origin of issues like yours.  Due to my DOS-past, I am very much aware of that, not always realize how that is no longer in the DNA of more recent users of IT.

[Trainer_Mike]

I had the same problem. The project would not load in html5 preview, nor when uploaded to the LMS.

The problem: I had a drag and drop interaction that was labeled "XXXX YYYY". I renamed it to "XXXX_YYYY" and everything works.

Hope this helps.

[john-player-one]

This fixed my issue, thank you so much, well spotted!!

[denab5454630]

I had the same issue, thanks so much for the callout I would have NEVER figured that out without reading this!! Pretty absurd that one tiny little character (that it lets you use!) can take the whole course down. They really need to add more controls to prevent things like this. Thanks again! 

[workbench]

I am having the same issue, file plays fine locally, not on the server and tested on multiple browsers. I have to use the published files as that is what we were given from the vendor.

[RodWard]

Is your course HTML5 output created with a later version of Captivate 9, or any version of Captivate 2017 or later?  If so, then your web server or LMS needs to be configured to allow JSON files, otherwise the HTML5 content will not load.

[workbench]

I believe this is the correct answer. I found a similar response after a bit of searching. Now I have to locate the systems admin to make the change...

Thanks for the reply and input. Hope it works.

[BrandanL]

I hope you folks are still looking at this old post. I am having a similar issue.
I have two eLearning courses I created with Adobe Captivate 9 and published as HTML5.
The course will not open of run on our LMS, Cornerstone. however they run fine on the SCORM cloud.

I removed all test slides and all interaction slides. It did not make a difference.

I asked the Cornerstone helpdesk if JSON files are enabled , per Rod Ward's suggestion, but they can't seem to tell me if JSON files are enabled or not. I don't know why that question is so difficult for them.

The course worked fine on the LMS when I published as SWF, but I am trying to make all new courses HTML5.

I can't use fiddler here at work, so I can't send them a detailed failure report.

I don't have any "spaces" in the identifier names and like I said, I have no interactions.

I do have a Vyond animated video in the introduction and ending, but those are simple MP4 video files.

Any other suggestions? Thanks.

[Lilybiri]

Since it plays well with SCORM Cloud, the problem is really with the LMS itself, probably due to lack of JSON support on their servers. Looks amateurish f the helpdesk cannot even answer that question. You could try to re-encode the video with Adobe Media Enocder, but I I suspect the problem is with JSON used for the image files.

[Gaanf]

We use Cornerstone as well and never had problems with JSON, so whatever the issue it, it's not that. Did you get any error messages during publishing/ uploading to Cornerstone?

[Lilybiri]

Is Cornerstone always running on the same server?

[BrandanL]

Thanks for the responses.

When I asked cornerstone is they support JSON files, at first they said they would check, then later they said "We believe that JSON files are supported within the CSOD system." I don't know why it is so difficult for them to give a definitive answer.

Gaanf, I am glad to hear you have not had issues with JSON files on Cornerstone. Hopefully they support JSON completely. Do you have quizzes and interactions in your captivate HTML5 courses that you have on cornerstone?

To answer your question, I did not get any errors while publishing the course or uploading it to Cornerstone. When I go to launch the course, the course window opens, but stays blank. I verified that popups are allowed and flash player is allowed (even though flash is not being used for the HTML5 course).

Lilybiri, I don't know if Cornerstone always runs off the same server, I will ask them. Why do you ask? Are you implying they need to make sure JSON is enabled on all servers?

Also, thanks for the suggestion to recode the video with media encoder, but unless I am misunderstanding, my captivate HTML5 published course is not a video. The SCORM zip file has lots of folders, images and other files, but no video that I can find.

thanks

[Lilybiri]

You talked about a video, so I presumed you have video on the slides, for which the coded is not compatible with CP. That is why I recommended to re-encode the videos. Captivate's published output is not a video, it is an interactive movie. Interactive video is something else as well. Terminology can lead to so much confusion.

Enabling JSON is a server setting, that is why I asked about the webserver. Gaanf had no issues with JSON, but was the Cornerstone setup exactly the same as yours?