Articulate 13. 'mailto' causing error in IE9

Hi Tony,

Unfortunately, this is one of the reasons the email feature wasn't included in Storyline and in Studio '13 - it can be unreliable. Browser versions and mail clients conflicts can cause problems. 

Here's some additional information:
"We want every feature in our software to work well. Unfortunately, there’s no way to email results easily, accurately, and consistently. For example, if you use Gmail or your computer’s security settings are high, you can’t email results. Also, you run the risk of learners tampering with results since they can access the email before it’s sent. Given these limitations, we decided not to include the email results feature in our products anymore."

 The mailto: hyperlink functionality is going to come across some of the same issues. It sounds like the email is opening successfully for you - but you're seeing an additional page load in the web browser, correct? Sounds like everything is still operational, although a bit inconvenient. 

The best option may be to suggest using a browser other than IE 9. It works, but I understand that it's not appealing. Near the mail icon, you could put some additional instructional text or a note stating that the email feature "works best with Google Chrome", etc. 

If you find any additional information, or if anyone else has some tips, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks!

Hi Christine,

Many thanks for your reply, much appreciated, although it's potentially bad news from my point of view as we don't have an LMS. I haven't ever used the 'email results function' so that's no real loss, all I want to do is open an email within Presenter to confirm the course has been completed.

That said it still works with the new HTML5 version - regardless of the browser. Our IT department would in fact prefer me to use HTML5 and the only reason I haven't is because of 2 other problems I get (only with html5).

On a number of courses I don't want to show the menu - only the notes. However despite not selecting the menu tick box it still persists in showing the course menu (ie the slides) when the course is first opened. This is depite the fact that it says'Notes' above the menu. Once you click on 'Notes' they appear and the menu disappears, never to be seen again.

The second problem is that the 'Resources' tab doesn't work properly.

These things are a little hard to describe so I've created a short mock up course by way of demonstration.

http://www.derby.gov.uk/apps/HStraining/dummy/wasps.html

If I could overcome these 2 difficulties then I could use the HTML5 option and our IT people would be delighted.

I hope someone can help.

Thanks,

Tony

Hi Tony,

Correct - I know you're not trying to use the email results feature, but it is similar in how it reacts with mail clients, browsers and the mailto: hyperlink functionality. This is why I provided that information. 

Thanks for creating the example course :)

For the course you provided, I don't see an issue with the Resources tab - can you explain what trouble you're having here, please?

Testing in Google Chrome, I do see the issues you're referring to with the menu and "Notes" tab.

Would you mind packaging that example course and sharing it here? I'd like to take a look at the file, if I may. 

Hi Christine,

I see what you mean about the 'Resources'. When I access it on my iPad it works properly. Perhaps it's something to do with our network set up here. I'm going to try it at home on both a mac and windows to see if it's ok there. The 'Menu' problem still persists though.

As requested I've created a package of the 'wasp' course. I've uploaded it as an attachment - but I can't see it here. If it doesn't appear after I post my reply I'll try again.

Thank you again for your ongoing help.

Tony

Hi Tony,

Thank you for sharing the file! Yes, it uploaded correctly :) I've done a bit of testing and I was able to reproduce the issue on my end.

Published to Articulate Online (Flash):

Testing for Tony

My test file

Published to FTP (HTML5):

Testing for Tony

My test file

In Flash, the menu seems to work correctly, but in HTML5 it does not hide unless the "Notes" tab has been accessed - as you mentioned. 

Unfortunately, it looks like this is an issue specifically with HTML5 content that needs to be investigated by our Quality Assurance team. I'm going to share my files, as well as yours, with them for testing. 

For now, if you would rather not have learners view the menu, it may be best to publish for Flash. I'll be sure to update this thread with any news regarding testing for this. 

Thank you again for the information and the test file. I appreciate it!

Hi Christine,

Thanks for the update. Fingers crossed a future update will sort out the Menu/Notes problem in HTML5. I'll continue using the Flash version although I've had to modify our instructions at the end of the course which is now just a tad more complex than simply clicking the email icon. In some courses I do use the menu tab so in these circumstances it won't be a problem.

That said I notice I still get a problem (in HTML5) with the 'Resources' tab not working properly. It does on my iPad as well as in Safari and Firefox but when I tried it in IE11 it didn't work again. I'm guessing it works in Google Chrome.

Thanks again,

Tony

Hi Tony,

I tested in Google Chrome previously (for the Resources tab) and I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. 

I just tested in Internet Explorer 10 (I don't have IE 11 installed, due to some known issues) and I'm seeing scroll bars in the player for the "Resources" tab. Now - that's a new one for me :) I'm not sure if you're seeing something similar in 11. If not, I can take a look on my secondary machine and see if the same thing happens in the newer version. 

Unfortunately, IE is not known for having the best HTML5 support. Different browsers have different support levels for HTML5 - I'm not sure if IE's limitations are causing this, but to give you a better idea, check out HTML5test.com.

For example, viewing the test page in my current version of Chrome, I see a score of 503.

In Internet Explorer, I see a score of 335 - that's a big difference. There's a lot of "No"s in the results for IE as well. 

If IE is the only browser that's displaying this issue, it might be best to avoid it, or try using a different option for sharing the resources with learners. For example, you could hyperlink within a slide dedicated to "downloads", etc. I know that may not be the most elegant option, but it may help learners that are restricted to using IE for whatever reason.