Where can I put resources for the mobile player?

Sep 13, 2012

I'm using Storyline with Articulate Online. A test on my iPad and your supporting documentation tells me the resources link in the upper right corner isn't viewable in the mobile player. Is there another spot where resource files can be placed so the learner with an iPad can access them?

Thanks!

18 Replies
Gerry Wasiluk

Renee Lubaway said:

That link didn't work "thread".

If I attach a link to a pdf file on a slide, will they be able to open it in the mobile player? Not sure I know how it would load without it being in Resources, though.


Thanks--try this link.

Have not tried this myself yet.  The iPad will need Adobe Reader installed, which it does not come with out of the box.  Don't know if users will get prompted or not to install it from the Apple App Store or they have to have it pre-installed.

Renee Lubaway

Here's an update - I created a slide for the links, URLs work great. However, the pdfs won't open. I downloaded a free pdf reader on my iPad2, still, the pdf links won't open. When I tested the course, I didn't like the way it behaved in the player so I removed that option and reloaded the course. A test, however, of the course through the browser on my iPad, simply got stuck on loading - like forever. Back to square one - have to use the player and have to find a way to link pdfs.

I know I'm close - I figure I need to change something in the following:

C:\\Users\\Renee\\Documents\\_MAC\\2012 eLearning\\OpenMeetingsAct\\OMA-mcl-act-267-of-1976.pdf

Renee Lubaway

Got a little desparate and submitted a support ticket. In the meantime I found clear documentation that says the mobile player does not support file links. I'm wondering, though, if there is a creative workaround for this. I suppose I could post the pdf file on our site and link to it, but it needs to be non-public, not reachable by search engines. Currently use a getpdf.php command for secure content but in Articulate Online, user won't be on our site.

Running out of playing time.

Barry Galvin

Hello Renee,

I've just created a Web Object in a slide that shows a PDF, and it also worked on the iPad 2 via the Articulate Mobile Player. It also worked perfectly when I view as Offline version too.

Perhaps you could have a Resources slide with the names of the PDFs in there, and then when clicked, opens up individual slides with PDFs inserted as web objects.

Hope that helps.
Barry

Renee Lubaway

Thanks gentlemen - I added the slide and posted the pdfs to html on our site. I'll play with web objects next. For now - this works

However - Now I can't seem to REMOVE the courses from the device player - I even deleted the app to start fresh, reuploaded without the check to allow offline and still can't find a way to remove it from the library on the device player.

?

Renee Lubaway

Hi Chad, I found the best way to do this is to provide a slide of Resources at the very end - I include a reference in the navigational tour as to where mobile devices can find Resources since it's not available in the app player. I also found I had to post the pdf files to our website domain so it will open in the mobile device browser since we can't assume users have the ability to open a pdf with their device. I simply list the documents with clickable link that will open them in a browser on that last slide. Helps that I'm the webmaster for this client, too!

Wendy Lowe

Hi Barry,

I have used Mike Enders procedure (see below) for opening a PDF as a web object, on the basis that it would work for the Articulate Mobile Player (and offline) - by using a URL rather than a file, it should work in AMP? I have tested it in a variety of browsers on the PC, and initially for the AMP via dropbox, and all worked fine. I have now uploaded to my LMS and find I have two problems viewing it in AMP:

a) I only see the first page of the PDF with no option to scroll

b) the web object has resized to that it now covers a Return button which closes the layer with the web object on it (I had some problems hiding the layer in html5 (despite having the latest Articulate Storyline 1) so have to do this a roundabout way as well!)

Mike's method:

1. Create a folder.

2. In that folder, place your PDF document.

3. Open up Notepad.

4. Paste the PDF embed code from this site: http://pdfobject.com/markup/index.php into notepad

5. Make sure to change the name of the .PDF in the code to match your PDF doc

6. Save that notepad file as index.html

7. Place the index.html file in the same folder as your .PDF

8. In Storyline, insert a web object

9. Use the folder icon to the right of the URL entry field to browse to your folder.  (you only have to select the folder, not the index file).

10. Publish.  (your folder and two files will be a part of the published output)

11. Post Storyline output to the web

12. Voila!

How did you get it working?

Thanks,

Wendy

Katie Evans

Hello,

Do you copy the entire code? (<object data="myfile.pdf" type="application/pdf" width="100%" height="100%">
 
  <p>It appears you don't have a PDF plugin for this browser.
  No biggie... you can <a href="myfile.pdf">click here to
  download the PDF file.</a></p>
 
</object>)

And, which .PDF do you change to your file name?

Wendy Lowe

Hi Katie,

Thanks for your reply. In fact it has helped me to resolve one of my issues! I had modified the original index file to use a picture as a link (the CLASSIC.png file in the code below) and had omitted the <object data> code, not really understanding what it was for. I added that back in and now at least, the web object isn't resizing and covering the Return button. It still only loads the first page with no scrolling option.

Here is my code for the index.html file:

<object data="MRC_CLASSIC_5yr.pdf" type="application/pdf" width="100%" height="100%">

<a href="MRC_CLASSIC_5yr.pdf"><img src="CLASSICPDF.png" alt="Please select this link to download the PDF of the MRC CLASSICC trial."></a>

</object>

so that extra code (I initially just used the a href part of it) sizes the web object, but it also automatically loads the PDF if the machine has a reader, which is even better.

In response to your second comment, you can save a file in notepad to html by selecting all files form the dropdown list on the save as dialog.

Thanks,

Wendy

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