Inconsistent results with advanced actions on mobile devices

[rvl]

I'm using Captivate CC 2017.  I created some multiple choice and drag & drop quizzes using only advanced actions and publish to html5.  They work flawlessly on a desktop but one or other quiz randomly doesn't work at different times on a phone (iOS Safari) or tablet (Android Chrome).  Sometimes they all work with no problems then log in again and one or another partially doesn't work...the drag behavior doesn't work or the user feedback after submitting answers doesn't work.

I have to say we've had a lot of problems getting this thing to work 100% on mobile devices and thought we had it licked until these random failures appeared. My attitude at this point is Captivate output is OK for simple web pages and videos but not dependable for anything more advanced.  Maybe some day it will but not at this time. 

[eLearning_Pundits]

Before checking this issue further, let me ask few questions.

-- How many questions you have in quiz?

-- Does user leave the quiz in between and open it again from LMS when it

-- Is this behavior consistent with more than one project?

--Also could you confirm you LMS?

[rvl]

I have a total of four questions in the demo. Three multiple choice and one drag&drop.  Two are in one module and two in another module. You can complete all four in a few minutes so there's no reason to exit and return except when you close the browser and later replay the demo. The demo is not on an LMS - right now just reviewing on a staging server for testing purposes (Amazon web server).  This is the first time we've tried using Captivate for mobile playback so I can't say there is a history to compare. There are progressively downloaded videos in the demo and the quizzes probably require a chunk of downloaded Javascript.  I'm usually jumping from a playing video to the slide with the quiz - my first guess is that maybe not all of the javascript for the quiz has downloaded due to some bottleneck.  Yet the videos are not that big and the quiz code certainly not big enough to choke.

[RodWard]

I'd be interested to hear what happens when you test the modules WITHOUT videos.  Do the quiz questions and Drag/Drop slides work well then?

If so, my suspicion is that you may be running up against a situation where your videos are stretching the resources of the mobile devices beyond the point where they have enough to cope with the quiz questions afterwards.

Worth trying.

[Lilybiri]

Totally agree with Rod. The presence of videos was not mentioned in the original question.  You first have to detect the cause of the issues, your conclusion could be a bit 'premature' about advanced actions. I have been using Captivate for quizzes that only were meant to display on smartphones and they worked well. Many of them were custom questions, not the default type, and that meant a lot of shered actions and a couple of advanced actions, no pure JS. In the original question you menition only advanced actions, later on you are talking about JS,or do you mean the JS that is created on runtime from the advanced actions? I learned to avoid a (complicated) shared or advanced action to be triggered On Enter for the first slide, but you are probably aware of that? If you do use JS did you check if the API was loaded before executing the JS commands?

I miss some  information if you are talking about a rescalable HTML project or a responsive project? I suspect the first since you have videos.. If you created a responsive project, and use CP2017, which work flow was used?

[rvl]

After ascertaining that the problem was not the Captivate output per se (it works fine on a desktop so it should work fine anywhere) I suspected bandwidth or limited resources on mobile phone.  With a cable connection and even 4G wireless there hasn't been a problem but people had problems with WiFi (home network).  The first slide is a progressive download video and there is a video before each quiz (the quiz is about the video).  The javascript I mentioned is the JS created by Captivate.  So it sounds like the bottom line is it might not be a good idea to use complex advanced actions - such a custom quizzes -  on mobile if you also have video?   

[Lilybiri]

Would love to see those ‘complicated’ actions. I have often be able to avoid choking on big projects for clients by simplifying. Once I had to debug a project with 800 vars and almost same amount of advanced actions.After debugging, reduction to 30 vars, 25 shared actions and 30 advanced actions it ran smoothly and file size was reduced a lot.

I'm surprised that 4G is working better than WiFi. Are hose users with low-quality home networks capable of watchiing the videos without the advanced actions slides? Like Rod I suspect that not the advanced actions but the videos and the low-quality of the WiFi are the culprit.

[rvl]

I think we're all on the same page about bandwidth being the problem and that's why it might be wise to avoid certain content or combinations of content.  You are obviously far more experienced with Captivate than I am.  I could share my file with you if you want and I'd appreciate your opinion.

[Lilybiri]

You can insert screenshots of the actions. I don't accept files for debugging, but your first conclusion in the subject is in my opinion unfair towards Captivate, since the problem is not at all caused by the application.
"My attitude at this point is Captivate output is OK for simple web pages and videos but not dependable for anything more advanced."

[rvl]

OK I retract my statement. Should have been worded differently.

[Lilybiri]

Thanks! If you want me to change the wording, let me know. As a moderator i am able to do so, but would never doit without your approval and advice. Up to you!