Embedding videos hosted to a local network

Report · Sep 18, 2015

Hi Captivaters!

I have a client that wants to combine 20 high quality videos and a series of quiz questions (2 per video) for inhouse training. The challenge is how to deliver the video? The course files will be hosted online on our LMS for reporting purposes. However, I'd like the videos to be on their local network (a central server) to avoid download issues. Is it possible for an online course to link to locally hosted videos? And how should I go about setting that up? Are there likely to be network or flash security issues even though the learners machines have access to the server normally?

Thanks for any help!

Paul

Report · Sep 22, 2015

If your client has a webserver setup on their intranet, you would copy the files into a published directory on the webserver, then build a HTTP:// url to access them and test the url in the browser.

If they don't have a webserver, you can place them on a shared drive, validate that all employees, or the training audience, has access to the shared drive and build a file:/// URL to access the videos and test in a browser from a workstation with network access.

You'll have to investigate within your LMS documentation how to track access and completion, but you'll likely build a course that has a link to the video element via the URL's tested above.

Within captivate you can create a link that opens the LMS links in a popup browser window. If all goes well, closing the window will notify the LMS that the video has closed, and can be marked incomplete or complete.

Report · Sep 22, 2015

Thank you BDuckWorks! I'll give the server links a try.

I want to embed the videos in the Captivate file, so I'm not too worried about the LMS tracking each individual video. I'd rather track the captivate course as a whole and use that to control the progress through the videos. If the learner watches all of the videos, they'll complete the course and the LMS will reflect that.

Thanks again for the help.

Report · Sep 22, 2015

You cannot embed videos in a Captivate SWF. And if you're publishing to HTML5 there's also no file in which you can embed the videos. They'll be located in one of the output folders and linked to the main content.

Report · Sep 22, 2015

Good point, "embed" was the wrong term to use.

What I meant was that I would like the videos to display on the slides rather than in a popup window, much like they would if it was a streaming or progressive download arrangement.

I realise the videos will be independent from the SWF. In fact, I want them to be independent, so that the SWF can be hosted and tracked via our LMS, while the videos are hosted on the client's intranet - so, an online course calling up locally hosted videos.

Report · Sep 22, 2015

You have the choice of inserting the videos into the slides as either Event Videos or Synchronized Slide Videos. Captivate allows you to specify a link pull these videos from other server locations but these are usually RTMP media streaming servers, not LAN servers. (See below)

Most Captivate users have more than enough trouble trying to get video to work even when using Progressive Download, where the video is on the same server and folder location as the main content.

I sincerely doubt you will have an easy time trying to get video to work from a local LAN server. For starters you would need all end users to configure that LAN video folder location as a trusted location in their Flash Global Security settings. Otherwise the link will not work.