Callees Not working

[CabralWendz]

Hi,

I created a course in Adobe Captivate 2017 with multiple simulations that are called out by buttons. The published files of the simulations are kept in callees folder, then in their individual subfolders. The course and simulations are working when accessing the index.html file.

However, when the files are uploaded into the LMS (cornerstone), the course is unable to find the simulation files. Need your advice on how we can make the simulation files in the callees folder work on the LMS.

I appreciate any information.

Thanks!

[RodWard]

When you say the files inside the callees folders are 'called' by buttons, I am assuming you used the Open URL or File action for these buttons.  If that is correct, what is the format of the hyperlinks you are using to open the URL?  What I mean is: Are these Relative links or Absolute links? 

If they are Relative links and you tested this successfully from a web server before publishing to SCORM for the LMS, then it might be that the LMS is blocking the links because they are not listed in the imsmanifest.xml file.

However, if these are Absolute links, and you tested the HTML file from your local system (not from a web server) the in all likelihood that is the reason they are not working because once you upload the content to a web server or LMS then the absolute links will be broken.  Relative links are better, especially for LMS delivery.

[CabralWendz]

Thank you for the reply @RodWard. Here is a more detailed explanation on how I created the links to the simulations:

1. Created a button on the slide and then .

2. In the Property Inspector, selected the option in On Success: Open another Project. 

3. Clicked the browse icon, and use the Open dialog box to link to the file or project.

4. Deleted the system path, to make sure that only the filename is displayed in the Project field.

When I published the simulation files, (published to a folder), I moved the folder containing the published files to the callees folder of the main eLearning course. 

Yes, I did test the HTML file from my local system (not from a web server) and it worked. When uploaded into the LMS, got the error of File Not Found.

P.S. This is where I got the instructions in linking the simulation files:

https://helpx.adobe.com/captivate/using/link-captivate-projects.html

Thanks!

[RodWard]

OK. The Open Another Project action is a hangover from some of the very first Captivate versions and should NOT be used nowadays.  It creates absolute links that will fail when your content gets uploaded to a location away from your system.

It was developed (back in the day) with the mistaken expectation that Captivate developers would always be publishing output from a .CP or  .CPTX file to the same folder location as the CPTX itself.  So, when you open the dialog for the Open Another Project action it only really gives you the option of seleccting a Captivate project or template files (.cp, cptx, .cptl as well SWFs).  When you do select the file, it expects to find published output from that selected file in the same folder and creates a link to an index.html file in that folder location.

But this workflow is NOT the way that most Captivate developers work nowadays.  We generally keep our CPTX files anywhere BUT the same location as our published output because there exists a real danger of one day inadvertently deleting the project folder when deleting older redundant output.  We generally set up special folders to hold project files and output separately.

The preferred action to use for linking to other content is the Open URL or File action and the best type of link to use is a relative link, not an absolute link that starts from the drive letter of your computer hard drive.  The link has to start from the root folder of the published output (where the index.html file of the HTML5 output is located) and drill down to the location of the target file being called. It's called a 'relative link' because it's linking to the target file's location relative to the calling file's folder location.

In your case, you have manually placed the output inside the callees folder of the HTML5 output, then you will need to structure the relationship of the Open URL link so that it goes DOWN one level into the callees folder and then down another level into any subfolder there that contains the HTML file you need to link to.  You have to create this link manually in Captivate and you will have to place that special content in the callees folder every time you republish the HTML5 output (because it usually overwrites all of the previous output each time).

If all of this talk about relative and absolute links is unfamiliar to you, then do some Googling about it.  It's a basic concept of web design.

[Lilybiri]

As Rod points out, that command worked only when using SWF output (worked fine) but is obsolete for HTML5 output.

[CabralWendz]

Thank you for the information. I will revised my course and use the Open URL or File action instead.

[RodWard]

Can I also recommend that you test your final output in SCORM Cloud before trying it in Cornerstone LMS? You should also be aware that calling this content could have the undesirable effect of breaking the SCORM data transfer with your LMS. Hence the reason why you should do extensive testing. If these simulations have been set up to report to the LMS, but the LMS is not aware of them because the LMS has not invoked their call, then you may find you get no reporting when the user completes the simulations.