Open URL Action on Shape Opens Wrong URL

Report · Aug 18, 2016

I have a course navigation menu created in Captivate v.9.0.1.320.

I have used Shapes because buttons do not allow you to change color or left justify and text boxes have limited color options.

The ACTION on the button is "Open URL or File".

The target URL is corrrect: http://www.injoysolutions.com/ReadingSecrets/evaluation-beginning/00-evaluation_beginning.htm

(dont try to open the link - the content is protected)

Here is a screenshot of that link copied and pasted into the window.

Here is a screenshot of the file uploaded to the website. It opens when I copy and paste the URL directly into a browser.

However, when I click the button on the published menu, what comes up is an OLD URL that was used in testing

I have:

- checked the ftp server, and everything is correct

- double and triple checked directory paths,

- re-published and re-uploaded the file,

- cleared the browser cache.

I am at a complete loss as to what to do. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Report · Aug 18, 2016

What is the URL of the "old" site in the browser?

Never mind, I see it now that I'm on a desktop.

Did you check "Force republish on all slides" when you published?

This is swf correct?

Report · Aug 18, 2016

Hi everyone, thank you for all of your responses!

1. Yes, by default I always check "Force republish on all slides"

2. I had not cleared the cache.

3. I always use absolute links

4. All of the new links have "cptx" removed... great catch by the way.

Further saga:
1. I published again before reading the comments, and then the entire page online was just a blank HTML document - no swf content at all. When that much weird stuff starts happening with Captivate, maybe it's just time to start over?

2. So what ended up working was that I saved the project with a completely new file name and uploaded it. That seemed to work. Maybe it was the cache thing, maybe something else.... Random miracle?

Report · Aug 18, 2016

Your 'saving the project with a completely new file name' comment made me realize another possibility.

When Cp publishes files, it creates individual files in the target directory.

Not so bad, but let's say you now want a Zip file of the same content....

If you don't change the path, or create a sub-directory....

Cp publishes files in the SAME target directory, THEN it zips those files.

So, it will over-write the earlier files (yes, it warns you), but THEN it zips each of those files into a single zip file.

And now, your individual files are GONE!

The end result I have seen when publishing into the html serving path of my webserver is, I must create the ZIP first, then publish the individual files, oh and now I can test.

ONE small change, I need to start the process over: create the zip, publish html, then test. This is MUDA, i.e. WASTE!

Report · Aug 18, 2016

Have you tried clearing the Captivate cache?

close all open projects (you should be back to Captivate Welcome Screen)
Go to the Preferences of Captivate (Adobe Captivate -> Preferences on the mac / Edit -> Preferences on Windows)
In the General Settings category (the first one at the top), click on the Clear Cache button.
Take good note of the path to the project cache
Use finder (Mac) or Explorer (Windows) to go to the cache folder and make sure it is completely empty.

When done, re-open your project, check if the correct URL is displayed in the Property Inspector of the button and re-publish.

The publication process should be a bit longer than usual, because there is no more cache to pull pre-compiled content from...

I hope it helps..

Report · Aug 18, 2016

A quick check of the action details in the Captivate file will help determine:

Are you using relative or absolute links? (the beginning part of the URL is hidden in your screengrab)

An absolute link will jump to a specific server for your content:

http://www.injoysolutions.com/ReadingSecrets/evaluation-beginning/00-evaluation_beginning. htm

This will work (provided the server referenced remains available, and content paths unchanged) wherever you publish your Cp course files. You can sell the same course files to many hosts, and they will all link to this single server for the course.

A relative link will not force a user to request content from a single server, but allow the content to be pulled from the current server hosting the files. This allows multiple versions of the content to be customized for many different host companies.

/ReadingSecrets/evaluation-beginning/00-evaluation_beginning. htm

Ensure the button actions that are set to open URL consistently use one form or the other. In this case, you want to remove the old absolute link you detailed in your post.

Also, as an aside, I would revise the .cptx.htm path by removing .cptx, unless you want your customers to guess your secrets.