Captivate programming?

[Pete47]

I am searching for a new authoring environment. I've worked with Articulate Storyline 2 and older versions of Captivate. I've searched a bit for an answer but not finding any encouraging information on this forum.

I'd like to know if the current version of Captivate has any sort of programming language that I could use to manipulate content through code to help produce content faster, make global changes, or access an external database for live content. I'd like to be able to write a bit of code to do something like find every occurrence of a named object throughout a fifty slide lesson and move it, change its text (or caption if it were a button), change its color, or hide and show it as needed. My old authoring system would let me do all of that and a lot more, but it has been sold and resold and resold again and each time support by the new owner has shrunk until today, it isn't being actively supported at all.

So far it looks like the current crop of popular authoring systems are rather 'locked down' and don't allow an advanced user to get behind the scenes to use the make the tool do more than the GUI permits.

Thanks,

Pete

[Captiv8r]

All you will find with Captivate is the Advanced Actions. These are a "point and click" method of advanced manipulation of code. There is no command line interface or anything natively in Captivate that would allow you to access an external database for live content.

Captivate does offer "widgets" that may be programmed. This would require knowledge of Adobe Flash to create the widget.

Cheers... Rick

[Pete47]

Thank you for your quick reply. Unfortunately, you have confirmed my expectations. ActionScript 3 wouldn't be a problem but if the system isn't designed to permit this sort of manipulation, then I won't be able to do what I'd like to do with Captivate. Oh well...

Thanks again,

Pete

[TLCMediaDesign]

Out of curiosity, what was the program you were using?

Building courses with html5 is the way to go for what you want. We build lots of templates for interactions to make development easier.  Coders actually build the course, not instructional designers.

[teamperform]

Cp 8 has an Execute JavaScript window.  It's a type of advanced action and it works well.  For example, insert a button, in the Properties Panel, click on "Actions";  the in the "On Success" dropdown menu choose "Execute JavaScript".  Then type or paste your JS code into the script window.

[Lilybiri]

Execute JavaScript has been along since many versions, just to clarify. However in CP8 there is a unique API for JS valid both for HTML5 and SWF output.

[teamperform]

Thanks for the clarification, Lilybiri.  The new API seems to have helped the interface significantly.

You don't have to put the bulk of the code in the script window.  It can reside in an external JS file so it can be used by multiple Cp projects.

[Lilybiri]

Yes, I'm aware of that. It was more to clarify the sentence 'CP8 has....' because it looked like being a new feature which is not the case.

[teamperform]

Yes, Lilybiri, I know you're very aware of the changes to Cp8 and the advanced techniques.

Are you still planning to come out with a book?  Hopefully, it will include JS for Cp.  We're going to need it since CaptivateDev is shutting down - that's a big loss.

[Lilybiri]

Book should be about Quizzing only, JS in Captivate is another very broad topic. And I personally will miss Jim a lot concerning JS. David (TLCMediaDesign) is helping a lot with JS.  My specialty is more in Advanced/Shared actions.

[TLCMediaDesign]

Thanks Lieve. We are in the process of getting a bunch more JavaScript solutions together as well as an online Captivate training program, focusing on real-world applications for CP going beyond the essentials.

[Lilybiri]

@TLCMediaDesign

That is good news, David, something I have been dreaming about: being able to offer online training for advanced use cases. But no one seems to be interested, most CP-users just want basic training.

@Pete  Every event that can trigger an advanced/shared action can launch a JS script as well. This post has a free table to download, with a description of all events.

Events and (advanced) Actions - Captivate blog

[Pete47]

Thank you for that link to the JS API. I'll dig into that later today.

One last question if I may: I'd want to output to HTML5 in almost all cases. I imagine post editing of the resulting code is possible, but is it necessary? Meaning, I'd prefer to avoid having to manipulate published code simply because it is something to repeat every time the lesson is published.

Thanks again,

Pete

[teamperform]

Pete, you don't have to repeat it every time a project is published and you can reuse the JS on other projects if it's in an external file.  Pretty efficient, especially compared to dropdown-menu programming.

[TLCMediaDesign]

Sometimes you need to edit it post publishing. You course is basically published in the CPM.js file which is generated by DLL's. You can create functions and store them in the standard.js file which will be published every time.

You can edit some of the template files used to create your project to save post-publish editing.

[teamperform]

@Lilybiri - I'm very interested in your advanced use cases idea.

@TLCMediaDesign - Very good news about help with JS solutions for Cp.  Looking forward to the announcement and your on-line training.

[Pete47]

I must apologize for being away from the internet for a few days because I missed this conversation.

I have spent the past 20 years working with Toolbook Instructor (Asymetrix > Click-to-Learn > SumtotalSystems and now SkillSoft). Obviously, with that much experience with a tool, you learn all the tricks to fast production. I am looking for a replacement system and Captivate is near the top of my list.

I wasn't aware of the ability to execute JavaScript. That offers a lot of possibilities. If I could ask just one question it would be: Can I execute a JS call from any (screen/page/slide... don't know the term in the context of Captivate) and easily detect the name of the currently displayed frame without hard coding the name. So the real question is if the frame's name property is accessible to the JS code?

I hadn't heard about CaptivateDev.com. Took a quick look and it looks like a great resource but someone mentioned it was shutting down. I don't know the backstory so I'll just ask: Is there any other site like it for Captivate?

Thanks,

Pete

[TLCMediaDesign]

There are no frame labels in Captivate like Flash. There are slide labels and frame information like current Frame.

You can execute JavaScript from slide enter and exit events, and interactive objects. Control over swf output with JavaScript if very limited, but you can do a lot more with the HTML5 output. For swf, you really need to create AS3 widgets, as you have access to much more in the way of event triggers and slide/frame info.

All of the slides and objects on the slides are created with JSON in the HTML5 output. You can tap into variable change events when registering the listener on the window object, as well as others.

Here is a link that describes the JS Interface and some of it's capabilities.

Common JS interface

[teamperform]

You can easily in this case, because there is a system variable for it (cpInfoCurrentSlideLabel) and you can just get that value through JS.  The value for the slide label would have to be set either by code (which seems like more work than it's worth) or by giving the slide a name in Captivate.  I almost always name each slide anyway either for the table of contents (TOC) or for a custom menu to help the user navigate quickly.

The API help page may answer some of your questions.  You can get an idea of what's available through Common JS interface

[teacher_needs_help]

If anyone writes a book that teaches one how to use the advanced actions with Captivate, I'm all eyes and ears.  Please let me know. I'll definitely be a buyer.  I'm new to Captivate, old to Powerpoint, and have been wanting to learn the ins and outs of the advanced actions so I can create more interactive elearning lessons.  I'm trying to teach myself JavaScript so that I will have a foundation for understanding the advanced actions interface of Captivate.

[RodWard]

There IS such a book: Master the Art of Captivate's Advanced Actions | Infosemantics Pty Ltd

Though written for all versions between 5 to 7, it would also be applicable to Captivate 8 because not much about Advanced Actions changed in the latest version.

[teacher_needs_help]

Thank you!  Ordered it this morning and can't wait to get started reading. 

I was wondering if you would take a peek at the powerpoint I am uploading on my profile page.  This is a game I created to reinforce strategies I use to help children master the threes in multiplication.  I can do lots with powerpoint, but some things I really want to do, either you can't do them with ppt or I just don't know how.  Like with this ppt, I wanted to have some kind of way to award points for correct answers, and also a way for direct user input.  As it is, the child has to choose from among answers provided, then click the flying saucer to advance to the next slide.  Can I create something like this using Captivate?  The thing I want to learn to do more than anything is to create a game-like environment to reinforce learning strategies.  However, while I am very knowledgeable about content, I am definitely not there with programming skills.  I am 62 and everything I know about anything related to the software I use (Microsoft office, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Captivate and am attempting to learn Dreamweaver) I've either taught myself (Office) or I've learned from Lynda.com.  Presently I am exploring the W3school tutorials on JavaScript, html and css.  I often find myself frustrated when I know what I want to make or do and can't figure out how to get there. 

Thanks so much for directing me to the ebook which I will dive into right away.

[teamperform]

IconLogic came out with a 3 hr mini-course.  Just finished it - pretty good.  We requested a part 2.  3 hrs isn't enough to master things like shared actions and conditional actions.

[teamperform]

Hey Rod,  Is that different from your pdf - Guide to Captivate Advanced Actions (By Rod Ward)?

[RodWard]

Yes.  I am not affiliated with Icon Logic.