Release 11.8.0 published file not playing in Chrome

[Gwendolyn5FCD]

Our team recently updated to Captivate 2019 Release 11.8.0. We need to share files with our clients for their review; normally, we publish the file as HTML5 (creating a zip file), then post the zip file for the client to download locally and run from the index.html file. However, after the change to Release 11.8.0, this method does not work if the browser is Chrome or Edge. For example, I am using Chrome Version 100.0.4896.88 (Official Build).

Anybody else having this issue? How do we fix this?

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

Adobe Captivate is designed to run its published output from a web server. If you were able to preview the project in Chrome or Edge you shouldn't have any problems, just upload it to a webserver like Amazon AWS. I have a video that explains how to do this here: https://youtu.be/wajNZA9oVnw

[Gwendolyn5FCD]

We cannot load this content to a public-facing webserver; the customer content requires a clearance to view and cannot be hosted outside their firewall. 

Normally, we upload the files to a file transfer site inside their firewall, ... they download, ... and load locally. Then, play locally.

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

You could suggest they upload it to their LMS or webserver for testing.

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

An even better solution is to use a service like Review My eLearning. This service allows your reviewers to provide feedback directly in the tool and also test for LMS type reporting functionality as well. Plus it just looks so much more professional than sending a zip file: https://youtu.be/MDzpoHLLlFQ

[Gwendolyn5FCD]

To clarify, our team generally does not publish from Captivate using SCORM setting for these "design reviews"; it is not the final file and it will not be deployed. Using an LMS to do these reviews is not an option; the client wants to open the course in a browser (and does not want to load to an LMS or deal with their LMS administrator (for design reviews). Their LMS deploy environment is not for pre-deployment testing, ... and their sandbox environment is massive and can be difficult to get access to. Therefore, what I am looking for, ... is the "how to run courses locally" ... without an LMS ... this used to work easily and without issues (before Captivate 2019) ... and was not difficult before Release 11.8.0 ... 

Anybody else having more trouble since 11.8.0 came out? Anybody know how to make the browser run the course from the index file locally? 

[RodWard]

Previously it might have been possible to launch Captivate published modules without having a web server environment.  (It was certainly possble in the Flash/SWF days before Flash was killed off.)  But HTML5 is a very different animal, and like it or not, the only guaranteed way to make sure it works is to play the content from some kind of web server.   

You do not need to publish as SCORM and launch from an LMS for the purposes of doing content reviews and approvals.  But you DO at least need to be able to have access to some kind of web server space from which you can give reviewers and approvers a hyperlink to the index.html file that launches your HTML5 module. 

As you said, once upon a time in the early days of HTML5, this extra complexity of using a web server was not always necessary.  But since Captivate 2019 was launched almost 4 years ago now there have been a lot of changes to the way web browser security works.  There have been many security updates over the past few years, and each time the security has become more strict.  This is another reason why you are not able to achieve playback in the same way you might have done it years ago.

Bottom line here is that the problem is not Captivate.  It's simply a side effect of the way HTML5 web content now works on today's generation of web browsers.

I am a contractor creating e-learning for corportate clients and I run up against the same issues as you are describing here.  I regularly have to set up some kind of web server environment to give managers and approvers access to my content long before we get to the point of posting it to the LMS.  You need to start talking to your IT department and find out how this can be achieved within the company firewall.

[Lilybiri]

It has never been a good idea to launch a website (a Captivate course is a website) locally. It may have worked sometimes because you were lucky. A published course needs to be uploaded to a webserver or - if you created a SCO - to a LMS to play with all functionality. The only time it will play properly locally is when you are invited to see it after publishing without zipping to HTML.