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March 8, 2010
Question

Captivate on the iPad

  • March 8, 2010
  • 8 replies
  • 24763 views

Is anyone doing any research on running Captivate movies on the iPad?

Thanks,

Erika

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    8 replies

    Participant
    November 28, 2014

    Hi All

    Well I am posting this request on 28 Nov 2014 and it is interesting to see the progression of issues over the past few years. I have just undertake Captivate 8 training and deployed my first few Captivate lesson on our University Learning Management System Blackboard. While all looked great in Captivate I have found many issues that are a problem for me as someone trying to deploy mobile and blended learning applications to students at our University.

    So far the only browser that will play my captivate without any play issues is Safari. Chrome loses some navigation functionality. It won't play on Firefox at all, and it requires internet explorer 9 but again some features don't function as designed.

    My biggest question however is this: I understood that if I added movies in MP4 to Captivate 8 and the output was HTML 5 that movies would play on an IPAD. My current project will not play movies on an IPAD. Is this an issues anyone else has discovered? Can anyone advise a solution or refer me to a fix for this?

    I also cannot get Captivate 8 to play on Blackboard Mobile? Anyone else had this issue....any solutions?

    Thanks in advance,

    Ian Boyle

    Blended Learning

    University of Western Sydney.

    Participant
    October 13, 2011

    Hi all,

    I am doing some R&D activities with the Captivate to HTML5 conversion tool in my ipad.

    well the result is ok but not upto the mark.

    1. The loading of the media files are very slow.(audio, image etc)
    2. Performance is not good, very slow
    3. Audio has some errors, some times it loads fine and some times not
    4. demo size is not automatically fitting the device screen size
    5. when i export the captivate with the left side navigation panel, the main content area is not show perfectly in the right side
    6. audio sync is not supporting, only the audio plays with out sync with the animation
    7. Mouse movement is starting from the starting of each of the slide.

    Hope thees issues will be fixed in the next version of the html5 conversion tool

    Thanks

    Siba

    
    CBJason
    Participant
    May 15, 2012

    I've been delving into the Instructional Design aspect for my job as a corporate trainer in coming up with new strategies for delivering our content to the marketplace, and the iPad is definitely on our radar.  To that end, it's important to note that we are looking at the iPad in terms of how to build out an App that can co-exist with the main SOS in a normal browser environment.

    In doing my research, came across this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdlz39M2CrQ

    It's not the most streamlined of operations, especially when you consider all that's required:

    1.  Apple Enterprise ID to both create and publish apps in your own enterprise (lots of dollars)

    2.  Captivate 5 licensing or higher

    3.  Major command line interaction from the SWF file to the IPA

    4.  You'd also likely have to have several IOS devices (think iPad, iPad2, iPad3, iPhone 3, iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPod Touch with multiple configurations on each) in order to perform the needed QA

    ROI on the capital, time, and manhours to develop even just a single iPad app that mimics a regular Captivate session?  Probably very minimal at present...once this margin increases either by decreased cost for enterprise enrollment (unlikely), simpler transition from SWF to IPA (possible), and better consistency between IOS devices (also unlikely)...

    My guess is the R&D team at Adobe is aware of the barriers and are already working on easing that transition...as it can be done, just a matter of streamlining it for better ease of use and to increase the ROI for businesses.

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 15, 2012

    You are correct that Adobe is well aware the workflow you saw would be a powerful disincentive to any corporation looking to develop adn deliver iPad-based training content. 

    To avoid going through the Apple store, you need to deliver your content purely from a browser URL, which means it needs to be HTML5.

    Adobe showed a prototype tool some months ago that converted very basic Captivate 5.5 projects to HTML5.  I stress that it was only a prototype, so it's functionality was extremely limited compared to what serious e-learning developers would require.

    You are also correct that this need to output content for normal desktop OS as well as mobile platforms is VERY much on Adobe' radar.  In a short time you (and the rest of the world) will see their answer.  (Can't say anything more...)

    March 21, 2011

    Can anyone point me in the right direction please...

    My understanding is that Adobe Captivate sims CAN now be played on ipads as an iOS application (but NOT in the iOS browser itself)

    Am I right in assuming that the process now would be to

    1.Create a Captivate project and publish as a a SWF

    2.Import the SWF into Flash CS5 Pro

    3.Publish the SWF in the iphone packager (inside of flash CS5 Pro)

    4.Then you would have an ipa file which would be uploaded into iTunes

    Is this correct?

    Does anyone know of any tutorials using Flash CS5 Pro and the iphone packager using a Captivate file?

    Thanks

    Mike

    lefthook77
    Inspiring
    December 16, 2011

    Lol. I have painted myself into a corner. Any help would be appreciated...

    I've developed some lessons for our customer... with much faith in Adobe's "Enable SWF for conversion to iPhone application", and knowing that flash can be packaged inside an iphone app, I presumed that captivate users were ready to launch into the ipad realm.

    I'm trying to import my .swf into Flash CS5.5 to create the app, and it crashes Flash. Is there any reliable way to get my captivate .swf onto an ipad/iphone currently?

    Thanks in advance.

    lefthook77
    Inspiring
    December 16, 2011

    After some further investigation....

    I own the Master Coll 5.5 and Captivate 5.5... importing .swf from captivate into flash crashes flash. Adobe support says that I need the elearning suite. On a personal note, that put me into a bit of a black rage about having to buy a new car because I need a cigarette lighter...

    having calmed down, just thought I'd pass this tidbit along to would be iPad e-learning developers =)

    Inspiring
    October 19, 2010

    We recently got an iPad at work and I've been playing with it and Captivate 5.  As others have accurately posted, it is possible to create a demonstration only and publish it as an .f4v file.  I then used Adobe Media Encoder to convert that to an h.264 .mp4 file.  The iPad will play this mp4 file using the Safari browser just fine.  It looks and sounds great.

    My concerns are that there is no interactivity at all.  And no closed captioning nor TOC either.

    Mister C.

    S_Ayyappan
    Participating Frequently
    October 19, 2010

    Apple’s recent announcement that it has lifted restrictions on its third-party developer guidelines has direct implications for the publishing options available from Captivate 5 and Adobe eLearning Suite 2. If you have eLS2, or both Cp5and Flash Pro CS5, You can now publish interactive Cp content on to your iPad/iPhone. More details are in this blog post. http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2010/09/publish-to-iphone-from-captivate-5-and-elearning-suite-2.html

    Shameer Ayyappan

    Sr. Product Manager - Captivate | Adobe eLearning Suite

    http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate

    http://www.facebook.com/adobecaptivate

    bobelmore
    Inspiring
    October 19, 2010

    How well does interactivity work?  What happens with rollovers?

    I will try this when I get a chance and report back.  Thanks.

    Participating Frequently
    June 14, 2010

    If I may, I think the executive summary for the Captivate on Apple mobile devices issue is:

    1. Apple has banned Flash from their mobile products (iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch), so you cannot use projects published directly from Captivate.
    2. Apple has banned the ability to use Adobe Packager for iPhone to convert Adobe-generated content to an iPhone-native format (link), so no hope there.
    3. Adobe has partnered with Greystripe to create a service for converting Flash to HTML 5 on the fly (link), but it's only just been announced and is intended to deliver interactive ads; there's no guarantee it will work for Captivate-published projects.  It's also a hosted solution, so you'll be paying Greystripe a monthly fee for the service if it works for Captivate projects at all.
    4. You can convert a published Captivate project to a video format (.avi, .m4v, etc.) but doing so means it's a view-only demo with no interactivity.  This conversion must be done using a 3rd-party tool each time you republish your Captivate project.
    5. The differing screen sizes of the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch means you will likely end up targeting each published project to a specific screen size (iPad vs iPhone 3/iPad Touch vs iPhone 4) or settling for a lowest-common-denominator screen size (iPhone 3/iPod Touch).
    6. The differing screen dimensions of the Apple mobile products makes reusing project resources very difficult; some content that looks great on iPad will be unreadable at smaller screen sizes (iPhone 3/ iPod Touch).

    Basically, until Adobe forces Apple to open up the iOS through legal means or Adobe adds HTML 5 support to Captivate, the ability to use Captivate-generated content on Apple mobile devices is limited to publishing your projects and converting them as view-only videos.

    If there's anything I missed, feel free to chime in. 

    Regards,

    John

    June 14, 2010

    Such a shame.

    I thought with Adobe coming out with a Mac version of Captivate, things might be loosening up.

    I guess not.

    I think training on the iPad is definitely coming, especially since Lynda.com now has an iPhone app....

    Erika J. Pasarela

    [signature deleted by host]

    Inspiring
    June 16, 2010

    This is a good case in point. I haven't messed with the Lynda stuff too much, so someone more familiar with it please clue me in, but aren't those videos exclusively demonstrations?

    Inspiring
    June 11, 2010

    I don't know how you managed to miss out on the last few months worth of Apple, Adobe, and Google power struggles. But, here's the deal: no Flash on Apple devices: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

    For public-consumption, demonstration-only screencasts, that's not much of a big deal. Cp5 will export to the YouTube-friendly f4v format. YouTube will transcode that as Apple-friendly h.264 behind the scenes. For similar stuff that can't be put on YouTube, you can export from Captivate to AVI and use a converter like FFMPEG or Handbrake to convert to h.264. 

    Another option will be HTML5 and its Canvas element, emerging standards that Adobe's authoring tools will, I suspect, eventually support. There are already some experimental converters out there (e.g. http://smokescreen.us/) which will convert SWF to HTML5 + JavaScript. The HTML5 option would provide a lot more opportunities for interactivity. And I think that Adobe could totally own this space, as the creator of HTML5 development tools, if they chose to do so. But we'll see how that shakes out.

    [I think Apple has some legitimate as well as some perfectly selfish and self-serving reasons for banning Flash from its devices. But I'll refrain from diving into that for now. I'm a fan of both Apple and Adobe, which makes me something of an odd bird of late.]

    Practically speaking, this has been a non-issue for my own screencast delivery. The consumers of the screencasts I create consume them via desktop, laptop, and netbook machines. Many people in my organization have iPhones and iPod touch devices. And quite a few have Macs (especially at home, as I do). But, as yet, there's been no strong desire to access training content via those devices. As Rick noted, the form-factor itself is an issue. The iPad (and, as they emerge, other larger-format touch devices) will be a more viable platform for delivering screencasts, but I'm still not sure that the typical usecase for these devices will be to consume training content. If trainees come beating down my door demanding to watch my SharePoint and Excel how-to demos and simulations on their iPads, I'll find a way to target them. But, for now, it's not a concern. 

    Allen_Partridge-1MiBZx
    Adobe Employee
    Adobe Employee
    June 11, 2010

    The mobile question is an interesting one. Here are my 'guiding principles for mlearning':

    1. eLearning will not be popular on mobile until it you can develop once, deliver everywhere.

    2. The content will have to scale well, perform consistently and display ubiquitously.

    3. eLearning authors prefer ease of use tools for content creation.

    4. The content needs to be ADA/508 compliant.

    5. The content should be indexed & searchable.

    6. The content should be heavily optimized / streaming (to facilitate both rich media & rapid download.)

    7. The content must be well integrated with collaboration, tracking, & reporting applications.

    8. Content creators need to own, manage and control their own content.

    9. Content should be hardware agnostic & OS agnostic.

    I'm sure there are many others, but I think these begin to set the tone for expectations. Would love to hear what others think.

    --Allen

    Known Participant
    October 19, 2010

    11 October 2010:

    Apple’s recent announcement that it has lifted restrictions on its third-party developer guidelines has direct implications for the Packager for iPhone. The feature is available for developers to use today and we will now resume development work on this feature for future releases. This is great news for developers and we’re hearing from our developer community that new AIR applications for iOS devices are already being approved for the Apple App Store. We do want to point out that Apple’s restriction on Flash content running in the browser on iOS devices remains in place.

    Inspiring
    March 8, 2010

    If --coming-- Flash 5 can convert to Apple's native format and if there's a smooth workflow integration between Captivate and Flash 5, --better yet, publish straight to Apple's format from within Captivate-- then Bob's your uncle.

    p.s: no plans to buy an iPad.

    Cheers,

    Seth

    Captiv8r
    Legend
    March 8, 2010

    Hi Erika

    My guess here is the answer is a big NO.

    When the iPad first was announced I saw lots of chatter among assorted Adobe folks as well as other Community Professionals. As I understand it, Apple totally rejects Flash. Therefore the iPad doesn't support Flash. Captivate outputs to Flash ergo no Captivate (or anything that requires Flash) on the iPad.

    For me, I see iPad as just another silly move on Apple's behalf to lock out the mainstream. They have traditionally prevented any cloning of components and have kept prices artificially high as a result. Which is why PCs dominated the marketplace. You can usually buy about four PCs for what you pay for a single Apple.

    Cheers... Rick

    Helpful and Handy Links

    Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

    Adobe Certified Captivate Training

    SorcerStone Blog

    Captivate eBooks

    March 8, 2010

    As always Rick, I appreciate your answer!!!

    Erika J. Pasarela

    [signature deleted by host]

    Lilybiri
    Legend
    March 8, 2010

    Hi Erika,

    As always Rick explained it very well. But ... am sure Adobe will find a way, Connect Pro can already function on iPhone (I'll never buy one for the same reason as Rick's), iPad...

    Lilybiri