Engage issue - or is it Presenter's fault ? Or the audio, maybe ?

Jun 24, 2011

Greetings,

I'm tweaking an "old" INTR file (labeled graphic), and am facing a smallish issue. Here's the situation:

1. The INTR is set to launch in Presentation playback mode

2. Each Label is coupled with some audio

When I play the finished Presenter deck locally, all goes well. The INTR loads, appears, audio starts and all steps proceed nicely.

I then place it on a secured Web server, for my sponsors' review. Upon testing, the INTR loads, appears, but the audio doesn't launch - and the slide therefore stays stuck with the display of the first Label. I can move to a different slide, but that one just won't play. The only way to display the different labels, is to grab the progress meter below, and drag it.

We tried many thing - exporting the INTR outside the deck, saving it under a different location, nothing worked. I thought I had something at one point, because the original deck was a PPT and not a PPTX. No cigar there. We even thought of the relative path, so we moved the compiled output to a shorter server path. Problem remained.

Last thing I tried, was to change the playback mode. I put it in Interactive  mode, and that solved the blocking issue - but that probably won't be satisfactory... The INTR then loads fine, and you can move along in that INTR by either mouse or keyboard.

Oh - and I have no audio... I should still have audio, even if I'm in Interactive or Linear mode, right ?

I'm beginning to wonder if this could be somewhere at the root of the problem ? But I'm a bit stuck now.

So - any help on this one would be most appreciated. There's a drink to be gained - I hope you won't mind my being located near fantastic winerise, like Southern France ?

Thanks again, and I look forward to hearing from y'all !

12 Replies
Brian Batt

Hi Steph and welcome to Heroes,

When you upload your project to the web server, are you using FTP?  If so, please verify that your FTP client is set to upload in Binary mode instead of Auto or ASCII.  Uploading using any method except for Binary may corrupt the XML files associated with your project.  Thus, the audio will not be properly called.

Another reason for this issue could be the server itself.  Some servers aren't set up to handle the MP3 file type.  Thus, you have to manually add a mime type to the server.  For example, see the link below regarding MP4 files:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=3204

See the link below for more information on how to specifically add the MP3 mime type:

http://www.w3schools.com/media/media_mimeref.asp

Steph Van de Velde

Greetings again, and thanks for the prompt response.

I am indeed using Binary FTP transfer, I've had this type of discussions before

I should also add that I've been using Articulate products for a few years now, I have something like thirty Presenter decks online at all times, as well as a few finely tweaked Quizzes. Not implying that I'm an old salt (even for a grandfather), just that it's a new bug for me after a rather lengthy experience with your products.

Ah - and it also implies that all my other decks work fine - and that this is just the one INTR that won't play nicely from a deck that has a couple more, which play just fine. The only difference is that this one is the only Labeled Graphic with audio at each step.

Steph Van de Velde

Case closed, I thought I'd let everybody know how dangerous Speech can be - only kidding there !


Here's what I did:


In my previous tests, I had noticed that selecing a playback mode other than Presentation, my interaction would progress just fine, but silently. Where was the audio ? So I thought maybe that was just the culprit I was looking for ? How about trying in intentional silent mode, then ?

1. I copied all MP3 files of that Engage Interaction from the compiled package to a different folder (simple way to export, and also there's no such option that I could find);
2. I listened to each of them, to confirm which ones they were - audio1.mp3 isn't very talkative... intro.mp3 a lot more in my ears;
3. I deleted each Audio from the different labels;
4. I compiled the Presenter package with no audio in the Engage interaction, and re-loaded on my server;

First note: the Interaction was playing just fine !

5. Having noted that I had "forgotten to remove" one of the audio clips and it worked, I then re-imported all others (saved in step 1 above), SAVE for the Introduction label. It was the first one to launch, so I thought maybe it was the cluprit. I also noted that there were two ways to edit the Intro label: by using the dedicated button, or by going through Edit Labels - selcting the Intro label. More on this shortly.
6. I compiled the almost complete package, re-loaded it on my web server, and confirmed that the deck played just fine. It stayed on the Intro label for some five seconds, then moved to the next ones where the audio played just fine as well.

I therefore tried to re-import the Intro audio.

7. I opened the INTR file, clicked on Edit Introduction, and imported the audio.
8. I then re-loaded on my server.


Problem solved after all those steps !

I still would like to understand if there is a "real difference" between the two techniques for editing an Introduction, either with the dedicated button - or by editing Labels, and then selecting the Introduction for edition. But at least my problem is solved and I can get approval from my project sponsors !


Steph

Robert Mackay

Greetings,

I have a similar issue as the above case in as much as the initial problem.

The audio works fine until it's manually uploaded to Articulate Online and when it comes to the interaction with the audio it will not play and the timing display of that slide freezes at the beginning.

When I remove the audio from that slide the timing function displays normally between slides.

Hoping you can help.

Robert

Steph Van de Velde

Greetings, Robert!

Have you tried my "fix" ? Start by exporting all audio as MP3 from the deck, then remove it, compile and test with no audio.

If it worls with no audio, then import your MP3 at the right spot, compile and publish to your server. And let us know how it worked.

Ah - needless to say, always make a copy of the PPTX and PPTA files, before you start any work. That way you always retain a copy of the original, although problematic files.

Have a Fantastic Day !

Steph

Robert Mackay

Hi Steph,

I tested the Articulate Online invite link on my home PC last night and the audio worked fine in Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari but, in IE it did not even recognize the link as valid and it came up with a blank page.

 

So I uploaded a published web version to my test site and the results was the same, but I'm now at work and that test site does work with IE but still no sound.

This is a corporate environment so the software is usually stable but not the most current.

It is crucial that we resolve this quickly, so I hope you can make some sense of this.

Robert

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Home PC:

Windows XP Home Edition with the latest service packs etc.

Work PC:

Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600

Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.5512.xpsp_sp3_qfe.101209-1646

Presenter 09 V6.3.1103.112 Pro

Steph Van de Velde

Robert, sorry to insist - can you please tell us if you tried the recommendation I posted yesterday ?

From your post, we can't really confirm if you did apply those steps I described, or if you just tested with more browsers and on more environments.

So please do tell us once you have applied those steps and we'll then be able to further help you - and I'm sure our friends from Articulate will take the relay, I'm only a slightly tech-savvy customer myself

Oh - what version of Flash player do you have on your PC ? I mean the home PC and the work PC, of course. It might be interesting to investigate this as well, and probably a good idea to upgrade to the latest version. But once again, let's start with answering my original question, rushing things never solved anything.

Have a Fantastic Day !

Steph

Robert Mackay

Hi Steph,

Yes I have tried the "fix" many times and locally it always works exactly as it should, but it will not play the audio on the Articulate Online server or my test server.

I have found however that the audio will work on the servers only by using the "import audio" to a slide function, but all atempts to apply audio to any tab within an interaction will not play on either server and the timing display of that slide still freezes.

Also, the issue that IE will not work on either server from my home PC is a great concern but not the prority here.


Robert

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Home PC:
IE: 8.0.6001.18702
Flash: 11.0.1.152

Work PC:
Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
Presenter 09 V6.3.1103.112 Pro
IE: 6.0.2900.5512.xpsp_sp3_qfe.101209-1646
Flash: 10.1.53.64

Robert Mackay

Hi Steph,

A further update:

I've just uploaded and tested an old project on Articulate Online that was live on a client site for several years until June 2011 and it was last updated/published in January 2011.

This project with over 20 separate interactions and over 60 different audio files was uploaded as it was without re-publishing and is displaying the exact same problem of only playing the slide function "import audio" and all "tab" audio within the interactions will not play and again the timing display freezes.

Robert

Steph Van de Velde

Robert, I'm afraid my skills end there, I'll hafta defer to our friends from the Articulate support. Have you already submitted a request to them ?

Brian gave us the link earlier:

http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/

Sorry I can't be of more help this time, I'll let the Professionals take it over from here.

Have a Fantastic Day !

Steph

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