Help with a HTML5 stand-alone Captivate course

[kellym66230306]

I'm using Captivate 9. I've searched everywhere an I'm not getting the answer I need. Please help. I have to build a stand-alone HTML5 captivate course. I can publish it just fine and run it on my computer when I publish from "Publish to My Computer", with just the HTML5. (I've also checked my HTML5 tracker and thre isn't any SWFs within this at all becasue I built it from scratch with HTML5 format base in mind from the start). When I select the index.html file to run the course on a local host it lags a lot. I've tried previewing it in the preview mode as a "HTML5 Browser" and copying and pasting the link from there it runs great. Will I be able to deliver it to my client like that where they copy and paste the link once they down load the file onto their desktop or does the path break once they do that? If not how do you do a HTML5 stand-alone course that will run on a client machine without the lag from the index.file? (You can't use an EXE or a PDF either because that is SWF based and it doesn't support the HTML5 elements to run it that way). I can't use an LMS at all it has to run as a stand-alone that the client will copy from a CD onto their desktop. Any info/tutorials on this will be a huge help.

[Lilybiri]

HTML output really works well in all cases when uploaded to a webserver.

[kellym66230306]

Do you know the reason why its lagging then when I do upload it?

[Lilybiri]

How big is the output folder? Do you have heavy video/audio on slides? Do you have a large audio or video clip on the first slide? Did you keep slide timing short? Did you optimize graphics so that you don't have to rescale them in Captivate. Many possible reasons for lagging. Which bandwidth? Which browser? The good old times of SWFs loading very quickly and showing up the same way in all browsers is over and out.

[kellym66230306]

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I've got 15 lessons to build and I'm building each in separate captivate files since it will be way too big in one with that many lessons. The first slide has a blank screen before it gets to the second slide the second slide is where the OAM file plays. They are set at 30 frames per second. Its only for the desktop, no mobile, its not in a responsive format. I don't have any videos in the course, I've been making all of my large images into smart shape images, including any buttons. and using web objects for the glossary. but I'm uploading OAM files because the client wants the same look and feel as the old flash files with the interactivity and heavy animations. All the animation and audio are coming from the OAM and run really well. I'm splitting out the files as best as I can to keep them short so they don't lag and the file size down as much as possible for each OAM file. I've notice the lag with the files that have more interactivty combined with animation. (I've tried a lot of work arounds on this) As for browsers IE is the requirement at the moment but we'll be moving to Micorsoft Edge soon. When I copy and paste the index file from the published from my computer file into ME it runs perfect but I'm not sure if the path will be broken when I save the file and the link for them to copy and paste into their web broswer. Since this seems to be the only way to run a stand-alone course. Unless you have another way of doing it? I think the lag is coming from IE but not sure. Any other ideas would be greatly apprecated.

[RodWard]

As Lieve said, HTML5 is not really designed to be sent to a client and run as a standalone file as you were able to do in the old days with EXE format.  An HTML5 e-learning course module is a suite of graphics, JavaScript and multimedia files spread across several folders and all launched by an HTML web page.  There is no single file you can send to a client and have all of this work at their end when they try to view it.  They could be sent a Zip file of the entire module and all its required files, but the client would need to extract all the files at their end into a folder on their system and then launch the correct HTML file to see anything in their web browser.  Even then, the package may not work because certain things are only going to work well from a web server environment.

Your lag issue with OAM files is a known issue and, if the animations are quite heavy, you would probably observe the same issue even when the content is played from a web server as well.  This is because there is currently no default way built into Captivate to synchronise the timeline of the OAM file with the timeline of the Captivate slide (where the audio file is playing).  So the audio will gradually get out of synch.

Your strategy of keeping the slides short is good.  I also hope you have been wise enough to ONLY use JPGs and PNG files as graphics AFTER they have been resized down to the exact size they need to be displayed at.  I usually do this in a graphics app such as Photoshop before importing them into Captivate.  Otherwise you may find that your graphics are a lot bigger and heavier than they need to be, and downloading those files will then also cause slowness because HTML5 content doesn't preload assets several slides ahead as was the case in SWF.  The assets are usually downloaded as you reach each slide and that causes a slight delay which can be significant if end users are not on really good bandwidth.

The only way I have found to eliminate most of the OAM synchronization issues is to use custom JavaScript coding to synchronise the timelines.  If you are not a programmer, you'd need to find one.

[kellym66230306]

Thank you Rod, that is what I was afraid of. I'm planning on zipping all the files up on a CD that are needed for them to download onto their desktop with the instructions on how to run it on a local host. Unfortunately a staond-alone is what the client wants. I do hope Adobe comes up with a better way to do a stand-alone courses in HMTL5 because I know of a lot of courses they want to do it this way because of security reasons (And I know there are a lot of other companies in the same boat). Yes, I agree with you about the images and keeping the file size down that is the first thing I do when building a course and always keeping that in mind. I don't put the audio in Captivate I put the audio in the Animate HTML5 Canvas and then combine the HTML/JS file and package the OAM so I can keep the timing correct (sort of like replacing a SWF with an OAM) then when I load the OAM into captivate I expand the captivate time line to be the same as the Animate timeline its working well for me so far. The key thing I've learned with the OAM files when you build it in Animate you have to put each individual file into its own folder so when the OAM is published it will be a lot smaller otherwise each time you publish it all of the cached images from the other files get added into the same image folder and it keeps increasing the file size. I also do most of my interactivity in the OAM file too, so I know some programming even though Adobe has limited a lot of the coding for the HTML5 Canvas compare to Actionscript. I've needed to do work arounds between the two programs to get things to work its been a learning curve and a headache. Adding the OAM also cuts down the number of slides you have to build in captivate the file size will probably be about the same in the end either way. Loading the OAM files and some lagging on a couple of the slides within has been the only issue I've had with it and needing it to be a stand-alone course. I think I might have figured out the lagging issue in the OAM files. I've added both the preloaders from Animate and Captive to help at least keep the file running properly for the band width. I have to remove all of the listeners in the code otherwise it keeps listening for the other one before it. Thank you, for your valuable input it was a great help and much appreciated.

[RodWard]

The client is willing to distribute all the information on a CD ROM and they're worried about security?  I would have thought that putting the content on an LMS that required users to have a valid account, username and password would have been a much more secure and seamless way to deliver it.

Honestly, I have never seen a successful implementation of any course that required users to set up their own localhost web server in order to view the content.  That level of expertise is usually way outside the abilities of the vast majority of users.

If Adobe (or any other software company) has anything under development as a standalone way to deliver HTML5 courses, I haven't heard of it.  It was one of the great strengths of SWF and the Flash Player that it could create an EXE package as a self-running player.  But those days are now gone and I see nothing on the horizon so far to replace it.  Hopefully I will be wrong, because I heartily agree there is a need.

[kellym66230306]

Rob the CDs are encrypted and require a User Name, and Password, it's the only way they can access the training because they don't always have access to the LMS at times when they need to take it. That is why it's being delivered in that format. Thank you, for all your help I really appreciate it, I too hope Adobe comes up with something to be able to do a stand-alone like we have in the past. In the meantime the client is aware of the issues and we have to keep moving forward.