Captivate modifies the hyperlink in output (C9)

[adrianl64459434]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone else has encountered this or for a reasonable fix?

I add a hyperlink into my project. When I export to html5, the link is modified greatly and shortened. When I click the link, it does not load the page. But surprisingly, when I refresh, the link works.

It seems that captivate is modifying the link to shorten it? Is there any fixes or ways around this? I do not want to add a tinyurl etc

Cheers,

Adrian

[Lilybiri]

Can you show some screenshots please? The exact setup of that 'hyperlink' in the first place.  Is it pointing to another file or to an URL? 

[adrianl64459434]

hi li

[adrianl64459434]

Hi Lily, thanks for the reply.

Here is a screen shot below. The URL is pointing to another website.

[Lilybiri]

The link is not an URL, is not pointing to a physical location of the file neither. It looks like a link like you can have for a cloud-based file. I don't think that will be possible since you point to a 'Web page'. 

[kdmemory]

Hi Adrian,

can you still post the complete URL/link from which we can see only a segment:

plus the modified URL/link when in the browser the thing goes wrong,

plus the URL/link when you refresh and the link suddenly works.

Klaus

[kdmemory]

Hi Adrian

Is your problem still persisting?

If so, we need some more details about how you added a hyperlink into your project in order to reply with something substantial. However, I don't think that Cp is modifying or shortening links, at least not in my experience.

How did you add the hyperlink?
As far as I see, there are two basic methods:

1. You associated the action Open URL or file to an interactive object (like a button), either a) as a single action chosen in the Actions tab in the Properties panel or b) combined with other actions in an advanced action.
2. You highlighted a word or words in a Text Caption and selected the option Insert Hyperlink in the Properties panel.

So which method did you use? Or did you do something entirely different? Like writing a Javascript function with a statement like cp.openURL("https://www....","_blank");.

How does your hyperlink look like?

Can you please post us your hyperlink? As you entered or copy-pasted it into the particular URL input field in Cp.

How does the hyperlink change?

Can you also post us the modified hyperlink when things go wrong? I guess you can copy that in your browser.

How do you export to HTML5? 

Do you test in a Preview situation or do you publish your project first and then test it?

What precisely do you mean with "when I refresh"?

Refresh the page in the browser or what?

Please elaborate

cheers

Klaus

[RodWard]

I also have a question: 

• Does the link that you are adding into your project have any spaces in it when you add it?  That is, is this a link to some location on your own system or on a LAN server where the links can have spaces? 
• Or is it a proper web link where all spaces are replaced with underscores or other characters.
• Can you try copying the link you originally insert into the Captivate project and then compare it character for character with the link you see in the browser when you eventually get the link to work and open the page?   Perhaps if you can discern a difference between the two then it will become apparent why the link initially does not work.

[adrianl64459434]

HI Klaus and Rod, Thanks for replying.

How did you add the hyperlink?

1. You highlighted a word or words in a Text Caption and selected the option Insert Hyperlink in the Properties panel.

How does your hyperlink look like?

Link is below. Removed domain for privacy reasons.

***/T1Prod/CiAnywhere/Web/Prod/RedirectToFunction?sk.DocumentSetId=6618276&f=%24EMC.DOC.PROP.MNT&sui...

How does the hyperlink change?

This is the link it brings me up to when i click the hyperlink within project preview.

***T1Prod/CiAnywhere/Web/Prod/RedirectToFunction?f=%24EMC.DOC.PROP.MNT&suite=ECM&h=AlWZeD5dLy&t=118966E0

How do you export to HTML5? 

Tested in both preview to HTML5 and published in scorm packaged and tried link via LMS also

What precisely do you mean with "when I refresh"?

Yes refreshsed the browser.

• Does the link that you are adding into your project have any spaces in it when you add it?  That is, is this a link to some location on your own system or on a LAN server where the links can have spaces? No spaces in the link
• Or is it a proper web link where all spaces are replaced with underscores or other characters.Yes, see above
• Can you try copying the link you originally insert into the Captivate project and then compare it character for character with the link you see in the browser when you eventually get the link to work and open the page?   Perhaps if you can discern a difference between the two then it will become apparent why the link initially does not work. I can see that the link in Captivate project is modified and shortened compared to the original link that I inputted, once I click it within the project preview. 

Thanks heaps for all your replies and assistance, Lily, Rod and Klaus

[kdmemory]

Adrian,

I for once must pass. It looks like an URL conforming to Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (https://) patterns. In so far a proper URL. But in it is this ...RedirectToFunction?... and then follows a query string which, I reckon, is taken by this server (something ending dot-gov-dot-au 🙂 and probably in a sophisticated fashion dynamically (and magically) modified to something else. Will say, that I don't know what happens - only so much - it is propably not Captivate doing it.

Klaus

[adrianl64459434]

Haha so the link still worked even with the asterisks. Oops!

Ya thanks for answering my post Klaus. There must be some interaction which is modifying the link, as hyperlinks from other documents such as word, pdf etc all work fine. 

[RodWard]

I think you will find that all you changed with the asterisks was the diplay text of the link, not the link itself.  So clicking on it opened a browser showing the entire link.

I agree with Klaus. The reason the link works the second time is probably because the server at the other end is doing some processing magic.

Either way, although you said you didn't want to try using a tinyURL, I would suggest you at least test doing that to see if it solves your problem.  If the issue is related to the web server doing something after the links is called then you may find that evena  tinyURL doesn't solve it.  But if the problem is due to the sheer number of characters in the link then the tinyURL might be your only option.