AS2 Loader Widget for Adobe Captivate 4

I have recently had quite a lot of issues with Captivate 4 SWFs imported into other Captivate 4 SWFs. In a lot of cases it seems like the imported animations start playing even though they could be on slide 10 of the “master project”. When you launch the “Master project” you could also hear a lot of weird clicking going on making the whole project unstable.

I have tried everything possible to fix these projects-gone-bad but it seems like there is no solution once it’s screwed up. I even used the general lifesaver of copying all slides from my project to a blank project in order to remove any weird behaviour stuck behind the scenes, but that didn’t work either.

Due to this I have now created this Loader Widget for Adobe Captivate 4. Basically you insert the widget on a slide and you define the filename that it should load in the widget parameters. The advantage of using this Loader Widget is that loaded animations are separated from the main Captivate SWF by the Flash loader layer. Another benefit is that your animation will not be loaded until the user opens the actual slide, which means that you wont get any occurences of fully played animations when you reach slide 10 of your project. Finally if you need to change anything in the external animation there is no need to open the Master project again – just update the external file and that’s it.

Buy the Loader Widget for Adobe Captivate (US$10):

NB. The widget will not work in Adobe Captivate projects published to Adobe Connect Pro due to limitations in Connect Pro.

NB! The widget will not work with Adobe Captivate projects published as EXE files!

Adobe Captivate 4 Quiz Widgets (AS3)

The developer team behind Adobe Captivate posted some widgets on their blog a while ago. These widgets can be used to manipulate the way that your quizzes behave and look.

 The widgets should be inserted on your first slide and set to “display for rest of project”

Read the full post and instructions here: http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2009/09/widgets_to_streamline_your_qui.html

Download Widget to hide the skip button

Download Widget to hide the clear and submit button

The widgets are AS3 widgets so you can only use them in Adobe Captivate AS3 projects.

/Michael

AS2 Domain Lock Widget for Adobe Captivate updated

Yesterday I finished the update of the AS2 Domain Lock widget. You are now able to define up to three separate domains as authorized domains. This can be useful if you have multiple domains from where you want to allow your content to be played from.

Another feature is that I have included a feature where you can select if you want to have the widget open a link for you if your content is played from a non-authorized domain. If you tick the link checkbox then the widget will open up your first listed authorized domain in a new window.

I also added a function to take small and capital letters into account when you enter your domain names in the Widget.

Existing buyers will recieve the updated Widget via mail any second now.

For more information about or to buy the AS2 Domain Lock widget click here.

For more information about or to buy the AS3 Domain Lock Widget click here.

Sneak peak of Adobe Captivate for Mac

RJ Jacquez, Senior Product Evangelist at Adobe, just posted a sneak peak of the upcoming Adobe Captivate for Mac on his blog.

Check out the post here: http://blogs.adobe.com/rjacquez/2009/11/a_sneak_peek_of_adobe_captivat.html

or the videopresentation of Adobe Captivate for Mac here: http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/p55601646/

RJ is also a very active Twitter user and announced that he will be giving away a free copy of Adobe Captivate for Mac (when it becomes available) once he reaches 2.000 followers. He will randomly pick one of the followers that will recieve the gift. So.. If you aren’t already then start following RJ on Twitter at @rjacquez

/Michael

Twitter Widget for Adobe Captivate

I read in the updates from Adobe Learning Summit that they were working on a Twitter Widget for Adobe Captivate and plan to release it in a few weeks.

I have been messing around with the same idea for a while now and have managed to get my 5 tweets into Captivate now.

Here is a preview of what I have so far: http://www.cpguru.com/demonstrations/twitterWidget/twitterTest.htm

Right now it’s just a mockup without any fancy desing but I have just been testing the waters.

The biggest issues that I have encountered are the crossdomain policy and the need for a PHP file to parse the XML into something Flash can use.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Adobe will create their Twitter Widget.

/Michael

Status and upcoming widgets

Just thought I’d post a little update here today. I have been working on a couple of interesting things the last couple of weeks. They sure have kept me busy, but now things a looking a bit brighter.

I also finally decided to get rid of my Vista 64-bit system and install the new Windows 7 64-bit. Anyone who have been trying to reinstall everything again from scratch knows that it’s not a thing you do in a couple of hours. The install of Win7 was pretty painless but it’s the installation of all the programs, addons, documents etc that takes the time. I also had major problems with getting my Adobe Suites to register again as it said my registration keys were invalid. After contacting Adobe support that also got sorted out. In the middle of my switching to Windows 7 my webhost decided to switch to the IMAP mail protocol instead of the regular POP3. Only problem was that they didn’t actually tell me that so getting my mail back online took some time as well.

Well now everything seems to work again and I must say that Windows 7 is looking good. It feels much better than Vista and my overall impression of it is very positive.

At this moment I am working on an upgrade to the AS2 Domain Lock Widget. I have recieved some great feedback from Rick Stone, who is one of the Captivate wizards prowling the Adobe Captivate forum. The update contains some changes in the wording used in the widget, but more importantly it will also allow you to specify more than one authorized domain. Another feature is that you will be able to have the widget open up your website if your content is played from a non-authorized domain. That way the user will be sent to the proper location where he/she can view the content. I expect to have the modifications completed tuesday or wednesday this week. Existing buyers will recieve a new download link to the updated Widget.

Another thing I’m working on at the moment is a widget that will allow you to transfer data between individually published Captivate SWFs. I already created a free Widget for Adobe Captivate 4 called Persistent Username Widget, which allows you to transfer the username between individual Captivate files. This new widget will allow you to pass up to 20 separate variables between your projects.

Last but not least I am working on a Loader Widget. This widget will load external SWFs into Captivate at run-time. I recently had a lot of problems with Adobe Captivate 4 projects where I had to insert smaller Captivate 4 animation into the main project. It seems like these scenarios cause confusion in Captivate because if I placed an Captivate 4 animation on Slide 10 of my master Captivate 4 project then it had already played to the finish when I got to slide 10. Naturally these animations shouldn’t play before you are actually viewing the slide where they are inserted. I also had some weird clicking sounds when the Master Project starts up and this only happened when I had inserted additional Captivate 4 animations in the main project. The Widget will allow you to specify the name of a SWF in the widget parameters and then it will load that on the slide where you placed the widget once the user gets to that slide.

I think that pretty much covers it. Now back to some coding..

/Michael

AS3 DomainLock Widget for Adobe Captivate 4

I have created an AS3 version of the DomainLock Widget for Adobe Captivate 4. This widget will allow you to lock your Captivate content to only play on the domain(s) that you authorize.

In the AS3 version you have the option to authorize multiple domains to play your content. You can also define a custom stop message that will be displayed if the domain check fails.

Requirements

The component uses ActionScript 3.0 and requires at least Flash Player 9 to work. Adobe Captivate 4 is also required.

Demonstration

Example of an Adobe Captivate project playing from an authorized domain:
http://www.cpguru.com/demonstrations/domainLockWidget(domainOk)/domainLockWidget(domainOk).htm

Example of an Adobe Captivate project playing from an unauthorized domain:
http://www.cpguru.com/demonstrations/domainLockWidget(domainNotOk)/domainLockWidget(domainNotOk).htm

The example above on the unauthorized domain is set to accept “localhost” as the domain so if you were to download this movie it would play on your computer locally, but not on any other domain or intranet.

Buy the component

Single User Licence (US$ 20)

The single user licence grants you, the Purchaser, a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to make use of and display the product that you acquire but limited to either your own personal use or for projects within the company where you are employeed.

You are allowed to use the product as many times as you like for personal use or for projects within your company / organization. However, if you use this product in a one of your projects with the intent of resale to a client outside of your company / organization you are required to repurchase the product the appropriate number of times or purchase an enterprise license.

Multiple User Licence (US$ 100)

The multiple user licence grants you and any number of employees of your company / organization, a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to make use of and display the product that you have acquired to either your own personal use or for projects within your own company.

You are allowed to use the product as many times as you like for personal use or for projects within your own company / organization. However, if you use this product in a one of your projects with the intent of resale to a client outside of your company / organization you are required to repurchase the product the appropriate number of times or purchase an enterprise license.

Enterprise License (US$ 300)

The Enterprise Licence grants you and any number of employees of your company / organization, a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to make use of and display the product that you have acquired to either your own personal use, for projects within the your company or for projects with the intent of resale to external customers without limitations.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

Question: Are we able to change the text in the component ourselves?
Answer: Yes the stop message is fully customizable through the Widget parameters.

Question: When I insert the component in Adobe Captivate all I get is a blank box. Is that normal?
Answer: Yes that is perfectly normal. In Edit view in Adobe Captivate all you get is a blank box. However, once you publish your project it will work just fine.

Question: Can I use this component in a course delivered through an LMS?
Answer: Yes that is no problem at all.

Question: Can I use this component in a course delivered through our corporate intranet?
Answer: Yes as long as you have a domain name then it will be fine.

Question: I also bought the Bookmark component and want to use both of them in the same project. Is that possible?
Answer: Yes that is possible. Place the DomainLock widget on the timeline first and then the Bookmark Widget afterwards.

Question: I really would like to have this for Adobe Captivate 3. Is that possible?
Answer: This version uses AS3, which isn’t possible to use in Adobe Captivate 4. However, I can compile a special AS 2 version for Adobe Captivate 3 for you. This component would have the domain and the stop message hard coded so you would not be able to change it yourself. Send me an email with the details and I will make the component for you. Price is US$ 25.

Question: What happens if the project has a playbar?
Answer: The DomainLock Widget will disable the playbar while the domain check is in progress. If the domain is authorized the playbar will be enabled again.

Question: Can I use this widget in a project that has the TOC (Table of Contents) enabled?
Answer: Yes that is possible. Set the widget to display for rest of project then.

AS3 Bookmark / Resume Widget for Adobe Captivate 4

The Bookmark / Resume Widget for Adobe Captivate allows a user to return to your course at their last exit point. It keeps track of this by using a Local Shared Object on the users PC.

This version is the AS3 version of the component so you need to have Adobe Captivate 4 and publish to Flash Player 9 at the minimum.

If you are looking for the AS2 version of the component please click here.

Package contents:

The package contains one (1) component.

One component for Adobe Captivate 4. This component will work for projects published as SWF and EXE.

Requirements / Specifications:

The component requires Adobe Captivate 4 and at least Flash Player 9 on the users computer. Furthermore this is an AS3 version so you need to publish your project as AS3.

Please note that you should not use this component in Captivate files that contain quiz questions in the middle of your project. While it would be possible to store a users answers to questions it is not possible to inject these back into Captivate. Therefore if you have a project with quiz questions the bookmark component will only remember the location of their last visit – not if they answered any questions. Resuming a project past a bunch of questions will set them as skipped in Captivate and will almost certainly result in the user failing your quiz. The bookmark component is only suitable for project that contain regular content or non-scorable objects.

Demonstration:

Click here to see a demonstration of the AS3 Bookmark / Resume Widget in action.

Buy the component

The widget have been updated and now also contains a version for Adobe Captivate 5. Please refer to this post for buying the widget.

Customizations:

If you buy the component I offer a free change of the text in the component. If you want to change the design to match your corporate ID I can do this for a US$ 15 fee. If you purchase the Multiple User License or the Enterprise License any design modifications are free.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

Question: When I insert the component in Adobe Captivate all I get is a blank box. Is that normal?
Answer: Yes that is perfectly normal. In Edit view in Adobe Captivate all you get is a blank box. However, once you publish your project it will work just fine.

Question: What’s all this license stuff. I just want to use it in my projects?
Answer: The license stuff is actually pretty simple. If you want to use this component in your projects (personal or professionally) then in 90% of the cases you just need to buy the Single User License. This license can be used by you in any number of projects for any number of users. The projects can be personal or for the company where you work. However, the projects need to be used internally in the company where you work. You cannot add this component to a course / project that you intend to resale to an external client. In that case you would need to re-purchase the Single User License again per external project.

The Multiple User License is just like above, but here all your developers in your company can use it. What if you are only 3 developers? Well then just buy 3 x Single User Licenses. If you are more than 5 people that needs to use it then the Multiple User License is cheaper for you.

The Enterprise License gives you the right to use the component in all your courses – internal or external, resale or giveaways you name it. I can even modify the component with your own Corporate ID & Brand if you want that.

Question: We have a shared computer but people login to the computer/domain with their own user details. Will the bookmark be stored for each user?
Answer: Yes if your users logon to a computer with a unique sign-on then the bookmark will be stored for each user individually.

Question: Are we able to change the text in the component ourselves?
Answer: No not at this time. However, I offer a free customization service for text alterations. If you purchase the component just send me a mail afterwards with the new text you want to have added.

Question: I really would like to change the design of the component so it has my company logo and corporate identity. Is it possible to change that?
Answer: Yes it’s possible. I charge a fee of US$15 to do the design modifications for you. I need the relevant graphics as well as a mock-up of how you would like the final result to look like.

Question: Can I use this component together with the TOC in Adobe Captivate 4?
Answer: Yes as long as you disable the “Self Paced Learning” option in the TOC settings then it will work just fine.

Question: Can I use this component in a course delivered through an LMS?
Answer: Yes that is no problem at all. However, if you published the SCORM package directly from Captivate then you need to be sure that “Never send resume data” is deselected first in the Reporting settings.

Question: What if I buy it and it doesn’t work. Can I get a refund?
Answer: No if you purchase the product you can’t get a refund. The component has been tested extensively on all types of systems, browsers etc. without any issues. However, I can provide you with a test version of the bookmark component if you are worried about it not working. Send me an email and I will send you a demo version of the component back by email.

Question: I also bought the DomainLock Widget and want to use both of them in the same project. Is that possible?
Answer: Yes that is possible. Place the DomainLock widget on the timeline first and then the Bookmark Widget afterwards.

Adobe Captivate Lifesavers

Sometimes Adobe Captivate 3 and Adobe Captivate 4 behaves rather odd and some things that worked fine 5 minutes ago doesn’t work anymore. This can be anything from buttons, click boxes, inserted animations, text animations etc.

I have never found any real explanation to why this happens, but luckily there are some workarounds that will help you 90% of the time.

If something suddenly stops to work in your Adobe Captivate project then try and identify the slide where it goes wrong. If your buttons and project work until a certain slide is reached then that is most likely the culprit. Simply delete the slide and reconstruct it from the beginning again. Check if your project works now.

If this doesn’t work then open up a new instance of Adobe Captivate and open a blank project with the same dimensions as your original project. Then select all of your slides in the original project (easily done from the storyboard view) and right-click to copy. Switch to your new blank project and paste the slides into that. Check if your project works.

These two procedures has saved me quite a few times.

/Michael

Locking content in Adobe Captivate 4

In some courses / projects it might be a good idea to lock some content so the user can’t access it before completing some required slides in your project. This is especially relevant when using the TOC as the user can navigate to any slide in the project as they please.

Normally this is handled by an LMS, but you could also do it by using Advanced Actions in Captivate 4.

This is how you would do it:

On each of the required content slides you would assign a variable with a value. Then on your locked content you create an advanced action that checks for the values of these variables. If the values are okay then you display the content. If not, then you put a highlight box over the content and display a text box stating that they need to complete some required content before accessing this page.

Click here to see an example of locking content in Adobe Captivate 4

In the example project linked above I have created 5 slides and 5 variables. On slide enter these variables are assigned the value 1. On my locked content slide I perfomr a check to see if all variables are equal to 1 and then take appropriate actions.

You can download the Adobe Captivate 4 project file here: lockedContent (185)

/Michael