[Update 22feb2013] Adobe has supplied a fix for this bug – you can get the fix here.
In Adobe Captivate it has always been possible to execute JavaScript from within Captivate. This would typically be placed on button or on slide enter / slide exit and allowed you to do some really cool stuff.
As an example I have never used the SCORM scripts that shipped with Adobe Captivate 4 – 5.5 since they were full of bugs and errors, so instead I used my own scripts and used the Execute JavaScript functionality in Captivate to communicate with the SCORM API. This has always worked well for me.
Now – in Adobe Captivate 6 you would assume that the same would be possible, but unfortunately not.
The problem is that in Adobe Captivate 6 there is a critical bug in the Execute JavaScript functionality, which essentially means that if you are publishing your project to an LMS you cannot use ANY form of JavaScript in your Captivate projects.
So why is that you ask?
In Adobe Captivate 6 when you execute any form of JavaScript and run your course in an LMS, the execution of the JavaScript will trigger the LMSFinish function in the SCORM Driver.
When the LMSFinish function is triggered one of these two things will happen:
- The course is unloaded and closed down or;
- The course remains open but all SCORM communcation is terminated.
Which of the above that will happen in your environment depends on your LMS and on the JavaScript that is executed. In either case you can be sure that it will screw up your course.
When will this problem occur?
- When your users are viewing the course using Internet Explorer
- When you execute ANY type of JavaScript from Adobe Captivate 6
- When you publish to SCORM 1.2
Interestingly this Adobe Captivate 6 bug only occurs with Internet Explorer. If you view the course using any other browser it works just fine. However since Internet Explorer still accounts for around 30% of the browsers in the world(*1) this is a critical issue.
Furthermore users of Internet Explorer are typically corporate users where there is a much larger chance of them using an LMS to distribute eLearning courses.
SCORM 1.2 is still the most used SCORM standard by far. Rustici estimates that 65-70% of courses still use SCORM 1.2 (*2), so yet another thing adding to the severity of this bug.
Why does this problem occur?
That is an excellent question. Either it is a problem with Adobe Captivate and IE or perhaps the new SCORM Driver in Captivate 6 and IE.
Jim Leichliter thinks that the problem is in the AS3 code in the published Captivate SWF, which I think sounds very plausible.
Try it yourself
You can try this for your self by following the link below to a sample course in SCORM Cloud.
See a video demonstration of the problem
What can I do?
Well.. Nothing.. Except from reporting the issue to Adobe by following this link: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=5
The more reports that Adobe get, the better the chance of them releasing a bug fix to take care of the problem.
8 Comments
Michael, Thanks for taking the time to flush out the problem so well. I’ve been meaning to do this, but you beat me to it! I’m really hoping this can get resolved in an update that will be available for non-subscribers.
Hello and thank you so much for this detailed information.
Is the Javascript patch available somewhere else? Acrobat.com no longer hosts that file.
Thank you!
~ Sean
Thank you for publishing this! I’ve contacted Adobe about this issue and they pretty much seem to be ignoring it. I have users who are reluctant to use my learning modules when they see the errors produced in IE.
Michael, Does captivate 6 use JS to execute a right mouse click within Internet Explorer. I have recently had issues with software simulations requiring a right mouse click. I get a bug message.
Hi John,
Yes it does – the right click mouse functionality is found in the standard.js file that Captivate publishes along with your content. Is the error message specifically related to a right mouse click?
Alrigth, this is really interesting. Could it be so that it fails when published in 2004 as well? I seem to have similar problem, where the course works in Chrome but in IE8 it fails, since Terminate is called when entering the first quiz question.
Thanks, Jacob.
Hi Jacob,
Sorry for the late reply. In my tests I did not encounter the problem with SCORM 2004 content. However I only tested SCORM 2004 content with standard settings so it could be that if you publish with custom settings you could trigger the problem.
Have you forwarded the logs to the Adobe email mentioned in this post? Perhaps they can shed some light on the issue.
I am working in Captivate 6(MAC) and have currently developed a demo for a client and have published the file to SCORM 1.2. I have tested the file on our LMS and the link to the website worked. How ever, The client has posted it to their LMS and they are not able to get the link to work. Do you have any suggestions?