Externalize Resources

Report · Feb 26, 2013

What are the pros and cons of externalizing resources?

If you externalize a skin can you reuse it on another project?

Report · Feb 26, 2013

Hi there,

Welcome to Adobe Community.

I did not quite understand what exactly you are referring to when you say externalize resources.

Could you please elaborate a little more on what exactly you are trying to accomplish here?

Also which version of Captivate you have and what operating system you have?

Thanks!

Report · Feb 26, 2013

In the preferences window under the Project/Publish Settings are options to externalize resources. I played with that today at work in CP5. I see it at home on my CP6 version too. When I played with it at work it made a separate swf for the skin for the project that I published after selecting Externalice Resource and checked the box by skin.

Now I'm wondering what that actually did for me? Does it make the file smaller so it loads faster? Can I reuse a skin Swif that I've published between projects?

Susan Wright (Equilady)

Remember, the mighty oak was just a nut that held its ground.

http://www.equilady.com

Report · Mar 04, 2013

I'm bumping this because I'd really like to know what externalizing resources like the skin does for me?

When externalize something like a skin can you use that externalized skin in other projects?

Report · Mar 04, 2013

Hi there,

By selecting that option what captivate does is it knows that you have certain external objects and it will keep them while publishing.

Thanks!

Shekhar

Report · Mar 05, 2013

Thanks but can you reuse these external objects?

Does doing this save you anything size wise?

Is it a good idea to externalize resources?

Report · Mar 05, 2013

Hi there,

Yes you can use the option to externalize resources.

It will create a copy of the externalized object in the published folder. You can use these external objects later on.

Thanks!

Report · Mar 15, 2013

I am using Captivate 6 and every time I publish a SWF file, captivate externalized the imbedded videos. How Can I stop this from happening? The externalize resources button is not checked in the publishing preferences so this should not e happening.

Report · Jul 24, 2013

Apparently there is no answer for this and/or apparently the folks at Adobe don't have time to discover this Q and answer it. Forums are a nice cheap way for developers to get free support for their customers without having to answer to them I guess.

Frankly I'm fed up at this point. I must have spent nearly two full days agonizing and trying to find a solution. I had to because there were other problems as well. WIth the externalized files, when I send a link to co-workers, they hear audio and see the initial screen but after that it is just frozen with a black timer-like box spinning as if it is looking for the mouse animation in the FMV Demo. You can't use a link so you have to navigate there on your own... I tell them to paste the address I provide in text format, into Windows Explorer. And before someone asks, yes I publish to swf and I don't have externalize resources checked for anything. I get dozens of huge .mp4 files that I really want inside the .swf.

I could go on and on but the bottom line is that Captivate 6 has been a headache for me. 5.5 was working fine, made a single .SWF that worked fine with links and looked great. Version 6 has cost me dearly and since it is a corporate license I have not been able to go back to 5.

Report · Jul 24, 2013

Videos are always externalized by default now in all versions of Captivate since version 5. There is no way to change this. With some other types of assets (e.g. widgets, animations, FMR) you can select options in preferences.

From the description of your issue that published files you've sent to other users are not working, my first question would be whether or not your published files are being played from the end-user's hard drive or from a web server. If from a hard drive, then are your end users aware of the need to configure the published content folder as a trusted location in Flash Global Security in order to play those files? If not, here is a page that explains why and how to do this:

http://www.infosemantics.com.au/adobe-captivate-troubleshooting/how-to-set-up-flash-global-security

If you sent this content to your end users as a zipped file, did you tell them to unzip to a suitable folder location first before trying to play the content? Some people just open the package with Winzip and try to play without extracting properly. This won't work.

If your files were published with SCORM or LMS reporting turned on, then your users may be seeing the content attempting to connect to the SCORM API but not finding it. In Cp6 you need to ONLY play SCORM content from the LMS. If publishing to HTML/SWF just for reviewers to check content, turn off SCORM reporting first and then publish.

Report · Jul 24, 2013

Hi There,

I know about these options and thank you for the response. I have given up on this because it was just eating up too much of my time.

However, I would love to know how to publish an SWF file with imbedded video that will run for the user without the connection error. Every few months I ask about this but nothing seems to work.

Any suggestions?

Best!

Rhonda Neswald-Potter, PhD, LPCC, ACS

Program Coordinator: M.S. in Mental Health Counseling

Walden University

100 Washington Avenue South

Suite 900

Minneapolis, MN 55401-2511

Rhonda.neswald-potter@waldenu.edu<mailto:Rhonda.neswald-potter@waldenu.edu>

1 (505) 227-3329 (direct)

Mailing Address: 5916 Anaheim NE, Suite A

Albuquerque, NM 87113

Report · Jul 24, 2013

Rhonda, read RodWards post above yours. All mp4 are externalized now and you can't change that.

Report · Jul 24, 2013

Thank you,

But I gave up on this issue and really do appreciate your follow up.

How about my question related to embedded video working for the end user in a published SWF file? The only way I have been able to get the videos to work is by publishing the project as an EXE file. Otherwise all the user gets is the famou7s “connection error.”

Is there a resolution for that one yet? I would be very grateful and eager to hear about it!

Rhonda Neswald-Potter, PhD, LPCC, ACS

Program Coordinator: M.S. in Mental Health Counseling

Walden University

100 Washington Avenue South

Suite 900

Minneapolis, MN 55401-2511

Rhonda.neswald-potter@waldenu.edu<mailto:Rhonda.neswald-potter@waldenu.edu>

1 (505) 227-3329 (direct)

Mailing Address: 5916 Anaheim NE, Suite A

Albuquerque, NM 87113

Report · Jul 24, 2013

I don't know the answer. I have been publishing as shown below. I have to dbl click the picture to show it, not sure how it is supposed to work but I do publish to SWF, Fullscreen

Settings are 30 FramesPerSec, Include Mouse, Include Audio, Publish Audio as Mono

Custom Settings with no boxes checked and Bmp: High(24bit) and Jpeg: 100% (not compressing anythying)

The .swf file is a bit small but will do. The "_fs.htm" is the one I prefer as it takes up the whole screen and I hide playback and ToC controls using overlay etc. Hover mouse to reveal them.

Report · Jul 24, 2013

@Videation,

Please do me this one favour and at least read the information on the page I linked to in my last post about Flash Global Security.

It will only take you a few moments to set the LAN drive folder as a trusted location in your Flash Global Security settings. Reboot your browser after making this change and then try to play the content on the LAN drive via playing the HTM file, not the SWF.

If the video still does not play, what happens if you copy all of the published files back to a folder on your own hard drive and try to play from there? If that folder is a trusted location but the embedded video file still does not play, what type of video is it? Event video or multi-slide synchronized video? What form is the link to the video? Is it a relative link or an absolute link?

Report · Jul 25, 2013

Ok Rod, I did it. I set the network folder as a trusted location and the results are the same, using links to the folder does not work, even after rebooting the PC, as and extra measure. However that Adobe link you provided was VERY useful. It recommends not using a LAN and warns of using Links. Odd that my addressing those issues and making the published folder a trusted one did not fix though.

Then I copied that same entire folder to my local PC hard drive and it works perfectly. I have not set my local hard drive as a trusted location so it must be by default I suppose, but in any case it works there but not on the network drive. I emailed myself a link to C:\temp, which is where the publish folder was copied and used that to navigate from the email to the copied folder.

VIDEO: I'm not sure what "Event video" is or what "multi-slide synchronized video" is. I can only tell you that I'm using Captivate's Video Demo recording mode ("Demonstration" is the Mode selected in the Modes dialog), 16 bit, with Show Mouse in Video Demo Mode checked. All objects are the defaults. The working folder is on my local hard drive. My setup is very straight forward. I record mp3 audio on a blank slide and then save it to the network so I can play it back using Windows Player in order to guide me when I create the video portion. If I like the video I then import that same mp3 back to the video slide and it is done. Most of my slides just have that mp3 imported and an externalized mp4.

LINKS: The link is a hyperlink in a MS Outlook email in the format of DriveLetter:\folder\folderabove published folder. So something like X:\Training\VideoTraining is the link address and in that VideoTraining folder resides the published folder as published by Captivate 6. Within that published folder are the .swf, .htm, _fs.htm, .mp4 (dozens), captivate.css and standard.js.

Most of the rest of the details can be found in my posts above. IMHO the option to internalize mp4 should have been included in version 6. I think that would resolve this issue. It's a big .swf in the end but much more manageable and easy to work with. Thanks for your time in any case, Rod.

Report · Jul 25, 2013

Another possible reason why the links to the videos are not working from the LAN drive is that the LAN server or network is set up only to server certain filetypes and perhaps MP4 has not been explicitly allowed. You may be able to check with your network admin to see if this is the case. Alternatively, you can usually do a quick test by trying to navigate directly to the MP4 on the LAN via Windows Explorer to see if you can directly play it. If you can, that usually means the LAN doesn't care about that file type.

Report · Jul 25, 2013

I guess you missed my earlier posts but my #11 above. Second half of second paragraph and third paragraph, it all works nicely if we don't use links. That is why I questioned some of your suggestions... then again I sure as heck don't know enough to make snap judgements and ignore suggestions so I tried them anyway. People love my training material so I'm happy with that... just not happy with the publishing limitations. I am quite sure IT won't want to lift a finger to resolve this as they are bureaucratic idiots in such issues, so I'll 'make do'.

Report · Oct 08, 2014

When I asked our network team to change the setting on the server to allow it to serve up the mp4 files, the connection issue went away. @Rhonda

Videation - If I were you, I would ask the IT Department specifically if the network server you are linking to is setup to allow MP4 files. It is not typically a default option when they set up networks, and as Rod mentions, it must be explicitly allowed. If the MIMETYPE is set to allow mp4 files, then the next step would be looking at how everyone is mapped to the drive. Since you can navigate directly to it as can your users, there also might be a specific network drive mapping methodology that links differently for folks in remote locations or that are outside of that same network. This can take some time, prodding, and purchasing of your IT folks favorite coffee to get them to look at whether everyone is mapped to the network in the same way. In the event there is a network configuration that prevents it, you may be able to work with them to see if there is a way you can get your solution to work. Perhaps, see if they can set up a web server and you can create a simple html page that links via http/s to all of your training materials. The web server, of course, will need to allow viewing of mp4 videos. If the training is internal, you may ask them to ensure it is accessible only within the network.

HTH

Report · Oct 08, 2014

If you're talking about trying to deliver Captivate content and video from a LAN server, you'll run into endless issues with Flash Global Security blocking the linking functionality. Using a web server is the far better way to go.

Report · Jul 24, 2013

Thanks very much RodWard, however I don't think any of those answers are the issue. I will investigate the "SCORM" just to be sure but I'll need to look that up as I don't even know what it is or is used for... if for Quizzes, I have never even looked at the Quiz options and all but a few basic slides with animation and text are Video Demos.

I am publishing to a network drive that we all have access to and the address is the same for every one of us. Even I cannot use a link to get to the files and then run the ".htm". ".swf" or the "_fs.htm" without having these same problems. Everything runs, animations, audio, etc. except for the mp4 video portions and it works that way for all of us when we use a link to get to the folder. If it was a "trusted" issue or anything like that, then I'd think the demos would not work in any case... but they DO work for all of us when we navigate there on our own such as cutting and pasting the text address to the folder in Windows Explorer. There is no zipping of files either.

Note that this all does work with the same exact link to the network drive and then running the .swf demo created with version 5.5. If I run the .htm, or the .swf for that matter which were created with version 6, then the externalized .mp4 files don't run. I just get that black timer box. Same folder and processes lead to different results with different versions of Captivate.

I can go to the IT department and see what they think, perhaps there is something they can do but I doubt that considering this seems to be strictly an issue starting after going to version 6.