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Shared Object Bookmark for Adobe Captivate

by on February 25, 2009 with 33 Comments in Blog , Captivate

If you are looking for the Bookmark / Resume Widget for Adobe Captivate 4 (AS3), Adobe Captivate 5 and Adobe Captivate 5.5 click this link.

If you are looking for the Bookmark / Resume Widget for Adobe Captivate 4 (AS2) click this link.

 

Well I’m finally done with this component. It took a bit longer than expected due to computer problems and the launch of Adobe Captivate 4.

I tested the component with Adobe Captivate 2, 3 and 4. It works in all of these editions although there is a slight issue with Adobe Captivate 4. If you use this component then you need to embed it into the Adobe Captivate swf , which is the standard setting in Adobe Captivate 4 anyways. You cannot change the publishing settings and externalize the swf animations because then the bookmark function won’t work. I will dig deeper into this issue and hopefully I can solve it quickly.

The component uses Actionscript 2.0 so in Adobe Captivate 4 you can only use it with AS2 projects. I will look into an AS3 version of this component soon.

Well what does this component do?

It allows you to insert an animation into Adobe Captivate which keeps track of the users progress in your course/presentation and stores it in a shared object on the users computer. If a user exits your project before having viewed all of it then it will store the pagenumber and remember this the next time the users launces your project. The user will then be given a choice on whether to continue from where they left off or start over again.

This process is similar to what we normally do in LMS when we deploy Adobe Captivate content although the progress status is stored in the LMS database instead of on the users computer.

You can see a demonstration of it here. The demonstration consists of 5 slides. Each slide is displayed for 4 seconds. The first slide contains the bookmark swf, which is set to display for rest of project. Once you launch the demonstration it stores some data on your PC and records your progress. If you exit the demonstration before the last page and then return you will be asked if you want to continue or not. The last page of the demonstration resets the bookmark to zero again.

To buy the product click here

Notice: I will do my best to fix the issue with Adobe Captivate 4 and the problem with the bookmark not working when publishing with externalized resources. If and when I fix it the people who has bought this version will receive the new version free of charge.

I also plan on releasing a more complex bookmark function later, which will allow you to change the graphics for the box background and also customize the text in the bookmark box. I expect to make this as a Adobe Captivate 4 widget.

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  • Steve Wilhite

    This is great! Have you figured out a way to make the box that appears on the first slide (the one that gives the user a choice about returning to last slide visited or starting from the beginning) work with the canned “Self Paced Learning” setting in the new Cp4 TOC? I’ve had a forum post up for a few days asking just that question.
    http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=912&threadid=1430185

    • http://www.captivate4.com admin

      Hi Steve,

      This component is not integrated with the CP4 TOC at all. This is a standalone component. However, it should work on projects which use the TOC as well. I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t.

      Basically it stores the value of the last page the user visited in a Shared Object on the users pc and then retrieves it once they start the project again. The bookmark is reset once they reach the last page in the project.

      /Michael

  • Steve Wilhite

    Just might be worth the 35 bones, Michael. :-)

  • Jerry

    Two questions.
    (1) What if two different people use the same shared(public) computer.
    How would know the difference between the two users?

    (2) Can this be modified to read a javascript cookie that contains the last slide (data from the LMS) the user was on?
    We host our content seperate from the LMS (cross domain), so captivates bookmark feature(if it has one) does not work for us.

  • http://www.questce.com Patrick T

    What if you have 2 seperate courses loaded to a specific user profile. Both these courses use the bookmarking feature. Is there anyway to distinguish between courses for the bookmarking feature?

  • http://www.captivate4.com admin

    Steve Wilhite :

    Just might be worth the 35 bones, Michael. :-)

    I hope so ;o) It sold a couple of times now and I only received positive feedback so far.

  • http://www.captivate4.com admin

    Jerry :

    Two questions.
    (1) What if two different people use the same shared(public) computer.
    How would know the difference between the two users?

    (2) Can this be modified to read a javascript cookie that contains the last slide (data from the LMS) the user was on?
    We host our content seperate from the LMS (cross domain), so captivates bookmark feature(if it has one) does not work for us.

    Hi Jerry,

    As for question 1 – If two users use the same shared computer they would also use the same shared object. It would not be possible to distinquish between two sessions, so the bookmark would be whereever the first user left of.

    2) To read a javascript cookie you would be better of by starting from scratch and building the component in Flash. To customize this component to do that would basically mean that all the code would have to be changed.

    This component does not use the Captivate bookmark feature at all. One of the reason why I made it is that I wasn’t happy about the way Captivate handles bookmarks. The user isn’t given a choice but is simply transferred to the last visited site regardless of if they want to or not. This component should work with cross domain content as well, but of course with the limitations stated in answer 1 above.

    Best regards,
    Michael

  • http://www.captivate4.com admin

    Patrick T :

    What if you have 2 seperate courses loaded to a specific user profile. Both these courses use the bookmarking feature. Is there anyway to distinguish between courses for the bookmarking feature?

    Hi Patrick,

    This is no problem. The component distinguishes between the courses based on the Captivate project name. Basically it strips out the name and saves a cookie for each course seperatly.

    Best regards,
    Michael

  • http://www.afap-formazione.net Nello

    Hi Michael,

    I would like to buy your Captivate Shared Object Bookmark but want to know if I can customize the text on the box to translate it into italian language.

    Thank you,
    nello

    • http://www.captivate4.com admin

      Hi Nello,

      It’s not possible for you to customize it yourself as it is built into the component.

      However – I can make a customized version of it for you with the Italian language.

      Send me an email to admin@captivate4.com with the Italian text and I can compile a new component for you.

      Also if you want to change the colors of the box / text etc. let me know and I can fix that too.

      Best regards,
      Michael

  • http://www.captivate4.com admin

    Hi Nello,

    Thanks for your email. Here is the modified Italian version of the Shared Object Bookmark. Just click the button below to purchase and you will get an email with the download link automatically.

    Buy Now

    Thanks for buying!

    Best regards,
    Michael

  • Steve

    @admin I guess what I want is to have my cake and eat it, too. I’d like to keep the progress indicators in the canned TOC, and have them persist across sessions, but since this feature also uses the shared objects approach, I’m guessing it would conflict with the Flash cookie component. Is this a valid concern?

  • Mark

    Michael,
    Will your shared object bookmarking component work if the course has been deployed on an LMS? We are using Plateau, and AICC.

    thanks

    Mark

  • http://www.captivate4.com admin

    Steve :

    @admin I guess what I want is to have my cake and eat it, too. I’d like to keep the progress indicators in the canned TOC, and have them persist across sessions, but since this feature also uses the shared objects approach, I’m guessing it would conflict with the Flash cookie component. Is this a valid concern?

    Hi Steve,

    To be honest I’m not a 100% sure if it would conflict or not. I don’t really use the TOC at all.

    I don’t think it would be a problem though. My component uses a unique cookie that is created individually on the basis of some parameters in the project it is embedded in. It fetches things like the project name etc. and creates a cookie with a unique name. Therefore you can use this component in as many projects you like and each of the projects will have a unique cookie attached and allow users to keep bookmarks of multiple projects at the same time.

    I’m pretty confident that the same would apply to the TOC. The Captivate TOC runs in it’s own instance and should contain the data within that. Therefore it’s unlikely it would cause conflicts.

    If you like I can whip up a test version of the bookmark component for you that you can integrate in your project. That way you can see if it works or not before you purchase the real component. Drop me a mail at admin@captivate4.com if you need that.

    /Michael

  • http://www.captivate4.com admin

    Mark :

    Michael,
    Will your shared object bookmarking component work if the course has been deployed on an LMS? We are using Plateau, and AICC.

    thanks

    Mark

    Hi Mark,

    That shouldn’t be a problem. I used it on an LMS before and it didn’t cause any problems. This component runs without any SCORM or AICC interactions so as long as cookies are enabled in the users browser you should be fine.

    /Michael

  • http://www.questce.com Aaron T (Patrick T colleague)

    Michael,

    Your bookmarking feature is working great on our LMS however we just noticed an issue with an audio course. While the bookmark is flowing to the right Captivate slide, the audio is playing from the beginning creating a disjointed user experience. It doesn’t make sense why this is happening as we have added the audio files to each Captivate slide.

    Aaron

    • http://www.captivate4.com admin

      Hi Aaron,

      I’m happy to hear that the component is working for you ;o)

      I haven’t experienced this problem my self, but to be completely honest I only used it in one course with audio.

      I’m just talking a shot from the hip here but does your audio on slide 1 by any chance start at 0.0 second? The bookmark component shouldn’t start before 0.5 seconds into the timeline, so perhaps the audio for slide 1 already started playing by the time the bookmark is sorted out and the user sent to the correct slide. If that is the case try and move the audio on slide 1 on the timeline so it starts after the boomark component has appeared.

      Another option could be to add a “blank” slide as your first slide which only contains the bookmark component and your graphics template. You could make the slide 1 second so it wouldn’t be a problem for the users.

      If you could try this out and see if it help I would appreciate it. You can write me directly at admin@captivate4.com

      /Michael

  • http://www.sentrymarketing.com dagius

    We are having a problem with Captivate 4. In some of our presentations, the slides are advancing 2 – 4 slides on one click. Does anybody have any info releated to this issue.

  • http://www.captivate4.com admin

    dagius :

    We are having a problem with Captivate 4. In some of our presentations, the slides are advancing 2 – 4 slides on one click. Does anybody have any info releated to this issue.

    Hi Dave,

    Personally I have never experienced this with Captivate. Maybe you could try to create a new blank project at the same size and then use the import feature to import your existing project into this new shell. Sometimes this helps on various issues with Captivate 3 and 4.

    /Michael

  • Aaron Thompson (colleague of Patrick T.)

    Michael, thanks for the help with the audio.

    A new one for you. Situation: 70 slide project; 50 slides are content and 20 are randomized exam questions. We want to have the bookmark run through the content slides but then stop prior to the exam slides. What is the best and most efficient way to do this? Thanks for your help Michael.

    Aaron

  • http://www.captivate4.com admin

    Aaron Thompson (colleague of Patrick T.) :

    Michael, thanks for the help with the audio.

    A new one for you. Situation: 70 slide project; 50 slides are content and 20 are randomized exam questions. We want to have the bookmark run through the content slides but then stop prior to the exam slides. What is the best and most efficient way to do this? Thanks for your help Michael.

    Aaron

    Hi Aaron,

    I think that the best way to achieve this is to split the project into two seperate modules. One module contains your content (and the bookmark component) and the other module contains the quiz (without the bookmark component). You could use a button on the last page of your content module to launch the quiz module.

    Best regards,
    Michael

  • Pingback: Captivate Bookmark Widget | Captivate 4

  • rnmquality

    Hi Michael,

    I just installed your bookmark and it seems to be working like a charm! Initially I was concerned that since I have a log-in page that this would cause some conflict, but after I inserted it on the next page it work very well.

    A very nice product and well worth the $35 USD. And, as I have a number of modules for this course, I’ll insert this into each one.

    Thanks again and keep them coming.

    Robert

  • http://www.captivate4.com admin

    Hi Robert,

    I’m happy to hear that the component is working out for you ;o)

    /Michael

  • Aarti Vaid

    Hi Michael,

    I’m interested in purchasing this component but I have a couple of questions:

    I’m using the default TOC (with a few modifications such as no playback controls) for a project and it comes with a bookmarking feature (the little star) – what I’d like is for users to be able to bookmark when needed and UN-bookmark when needed so they can go to different slides or the start of the course etc. So far nothing seems to be able to do this – except your component that AT LEAST asks the user whether they want to start from the beginning or resume from the bookmarked spot. Is this component the only way to acheive bookmarking and “un bookmarking”?

    Also how will adding this component affect the TOC? If a user clicks on the bookmarking feature in the TOC will the project choose that bookmark or the bookmark created by your component when the user closes the window? Sorry for all the questions – I’m basically figuring out Captivate in trial and error mode!

    Thanks for your help,

    Aarti

  • http://www.captivate4.com admin

    Hi Aarti,

    Sorry for the late reply, but I have been working on a freelance project for a client.

    I don’t know if my component is the only way to achieve it but it is the only one that I am aware off. My component was originally built for Captivate 3 so at that time the TOC wasn’t available.

    I know at least one customer who bought this is using it together with the CP4 TOC. However having the Self Paced Learning enabled in the TOC and using this component at the same time will result in problems.

    In regards to your last question my guess would be that it would go to whichever bookmark gets read first. Meaning that if the TOC initializes first then that bookmark would be read – if my component initializes first then it would go to that bookmark. I don’t recommend to use these two things together.

    I got your email so I sent you a demo version of the bookmark component. That way you can try it out yourself and see if you can use it.

    Best regards,
    Michael

  • Hazel Prince

    Hello,

    I would like to purchase your shared object bookmark component, but the “To buy the product click here” link on http://www.captivate4.com/2009/02/25/captivate-shared-object-bookmark/ produces a 404 error.

    Kind regards,

    Hazel

  • http://www.captivate4.com admin

    Hi Hazel,

    Very sorry for that. I have been updating some links on the site and apparantly I missed that one.

    Here is the correct link where you can buy the component: http://www.captivate4.com/2009/05/04/captivate-bookmark-widget/

    I also updated the link in the post now.

    Thanks for letting me know!

    Best regards,
    Michael

  • Pingback: Captivate Bookmark / Resume Widget | CP Guru

  • Deepak Kumar

    Hi,

    We are using PeopleSoft ELM module and building our contents using Adobe Captivate 4. Everything works fine other than the bookmarking. Is it necessary to purchase the bookmarking widget? And, if it is.. how is it going to be utilized with PeopleSoft?

    Can any one help?

    Thanks

  • http://www.cpguru.com admin

    Hi Deepak,

    The widget should work just fine with any LMS and any CMS since it uses Shared Objects to save the bookmark. This is not affected by LMS/CMS issues at all.

    The widget will set a bookmark for any content created in Captivate 4 and take the user to their last visited page in that module. In order to use it you simple insert the component / widget on the first slide in your Captivate project and set it to display for rest of slide. That is all.

    A help document is included in the package when you purchase the widget.

    /Michael

  • Deepak Kumar

    Hi Michael,

    Can me and my team talk to you on the phone to discuss a little bit? Please feel free to email me at deepakkumar@maximus.com. We are actually going live next Monday.

    We are ready to procure the software but need more solid info, Adobe has been unresponsive.

    Thanks,

    Deepak

  • Babasaheb

    We are using Captivate 4. We have built customized course using the Table of Contents with status flags (check marks) in skin TOC settings.

    We have some interactive slide where the user clicks on the page the menu check mark gets updated.
    But on the slide where there is no activity, after clicking the next button the menu check mark is not updated.

    How can we update the menu check marks on each slide where there is no activity (Static/image/text only page)?