Studio files not saving properly when updating a course

Hi Jada!

Hi Leslie,

All our work is always done locally on the C: drives.  Files are copied to a network drive once we're done, we never do any edits from this location.  While I did see the piece about packages earlier, that was never something we'd done and we've been using '13 since it became available.  This issue has never been seen before out of all of the courses we've done.  I did about 40 courses in December-February where I copied them back, did the save as, etc because there were updates and not one of them had an issue. 

Was there a change made recently to require the package utility that was not mentioned in any updates?

Hi Jada, 

You can see all the release notes and fixes/updates included here, and I don't see anything that would have changed - but we've always recommended working locally and if needing to share with another user via a network or USB drive to follow the process Leslie mentioned. 

With Studio '13 there was a change in regards to how the .quiz files and .intr files are stored as described here. 

Hi Jada!

We have not had any updates to Studio '13 since December and as shared above, we have always encouraged users to utilize the Presenter Package. 

I guess what I'm not understanding (and I will say again, we always, always, always, work locally.  The storing files elsewhere and pulling them back down is for updates that can happen later, someone else might be working on them than did the original) is why this behavior has changed.

Literally before a week ago, we'd copy files back, do a save as to change the file name, this would create a new PPT and PPTA with all the content and everything would update fine.

Now, not only are the new PPTAs not being created but the .quiz and .intr files are *not* being updated.  I will make changes, the .quiz files and .intr files do not have new date modified dates on them and if you open them standalone, the changes have not been made in these files.  I'm not sure if I can explain this any better but this behavior is completely new.

Hi Jada!

When you insert an Articulate Quizmaker quiz or Articulate Engage interaction into your Articulate Presenter course, a copy of the original *.quiz or *.intr file is stored within the course's *.ppta file. This means that if you ever lose the original quiz or interaction file, you'll still be able to edit and publish it in Presenter. Please review this article for more information.

Perhaps something has changed within your setup.

The only thing that changed was that back in January, we updated to version 5. As we've done courses with no issue since then, I don't think that could be the problem.

I make a change, via the powerpoint, to quiz1.quiz.  Prior to this issue, after I make the change, and do save and close, the quiz1.quiz file would have updated dates on it as well as the PPT and PPTA files. If we would go into the .quiz file standalone, you would see the changes reflected there as well.

Now, that .quiz file is *not* updating.  This is the part that I do not understand.  I understand that there is a backup happening in the PPTA file but the .quiz files and the .intr files do not have the changes saved in them.  It seems like the 'backup' has taken the place of needing those .quiz and .intr files and that doesn't make a lot of sense.

Hi Jada! Based on your description, have you moved the files since adding them to your course? Have you tried to delete/re-insert the quiz to establish the new relationship to the original file? As the document states, if the original cannot be found, then the project relies on the .ppta file.

I think I had said this earlier but to try to be more clear.  Our process is, create a course on the C: drive of a computer.  When the course is complete, the Entire folder structure is moved to another location.  We do not have missing pieces because the entire folder is moved which includes a lot more than just the PPT, PPTA, .quiz and .intr files.

When a course is updated, a new folder is created with an updated name (usually a MonthYear added to the end) on the C: drive of whoever is updating the course.  This might be different from the original person who had done it.  Then the Entire folder from the orignal course is copied into the new folder.  All items are copied so we preserve the orignal for backup, then start work on the new copy.  We frequently will also do a save-as for the PPT, to save it with the new course name.  In the past, this has always created a new PPTA to match.  Updating engages and quizzes has resulted in the .quiz and .intr files being updated as well in the new folder.

It has worked this way for every course we have done since Articulate '13 was released, with no issue.

This project, that I tried to update starting a week ago, is having unexpected behavior.  The orignal was created months ago on a C: drive, completed and archived on a different hard drive.  The archive copy was copied back to the C; drive where I tried to work on it.  Doing a Save-as on the PPT is not giving me the PPTA copy, as it did before.  The engage and quiz files are not updating, as they always did before.  The only change that has been made to that piece of hardware was back in January when Update 5 was installed. 

To get my quiz files to update correctly, I had to delete the originals and reimport them.  Which means outlines, slide levelling, notes pages, all of that needed to be fixed as well.  This is not something that is time effective for large courses. 

Hi Jada,

Thanks for the detailed description of the behavior. If I understand the issue correctly, you previously made changes to an embedded interaction in your course and successfully saved those changes, but now they're gone. Is that right? It's possible that your changes could have been overwritten by an earlier version if your project files have been moved more than once. Here's a hypothetical scenario:

The workflow is this:

Project was created on Computer A on the C: drive.  All updates were made on that machine, locally.  After the project was completed and delivered, our files were moved to an archiving location.  The *Entire* project was moved.  We have a folder structure that all our people use that contains all the source material, all the presenter files, all the audio, etc. in a parent folder.  And no, the source PPTs and the working files are not kept in the same folders.  The entire structure is moved, so it is not possible to have lost pieces.

After a certain amount of time, the files would have been deleted off Computer A (for space reasons, it's not active, etc.) so the only copy would be in the archive location.

Later, the course would need to be updated.  So the archive copy would be copied to a local system, possibly the same computer, possibly not if someone else was assigned the work.  The archive copy is left alone to preserve all the originals for backup purposes. No work is ever done on the archive location.

Prior to a couple weeks ago, we could just start working from that copy that was newly moved to the C; drive.  You could save the powerpoint with a new name, it would create a new PPTA file, and all the other files would be updated.  This is no longer happening.  Quizzes and Engages are not being updated in their own files.  We occasionally need to send standalone publishes of these things so just having it in the PPTA is not useful.  Again - this is New behavior. 

In re: creating a package file.  I tried that but it is not including all files.  Engages that are used as player tabs, which is something we do very frequently, are not included in the created zip file. 

I am so glad I finally found this discussion. I am having the exact same issue!!!

I am saving my PPT, quizzes and interactions LOCALLY in the same folder. When I go to update either a quiz or interaction, it saves the updated version in some temp folder.

I then have to find them in this temp folder, move them to my local folder and reimport them into my PPT. 

The same issue as Jada... this has happened ever since the last update for Studio '13.

Hi Jada, 

Thanks for sharing more detail about your work flow here. You mentioned you tried to create a package, but I wanted to confirm that you've tried to do this since moving the files back and forth? You would need to do that from the beginning of the work with the Presenter files and unfortunately once the connections between the .ppta and the embedded .quiz/.intr files is not adhered to in the Presenter package form, is when odd or unusual behavior occurs. I just tested this on my own files, and added Engage/Quizmaker files as both Player tabs and slides, and then packaged the Presenter course as a whole, and all the files correctly appear there. I can then send that version back and forth, and each time you'd want to extract the files and do the work needed before repackaging to share again. 

Michelle, 

It sounds like you have a different workflow and issue than what Jada has shared. Have you already looked into the elements that Leslie and I shared previously? 

Yes, I tried it since moving the files back and forth.  Because I have no files that have not been moved.  We have used the process I've outlined for every single course we have created since Articulate '13 became available, literally hundreds, and have not had a single issue until now. 

The issue that Michelle is experiencing is exactly the same as I am seeing once we copy the *entire* project folder back to a local drive and start working on it.  There should be no breaking of any connections as no work is being done on a network drive ever.

Thank you Jada... I thought I was experiencing the same. It is very frustrating and has caused a lot of extra work for me. I am afraid of publishing my course and not having my updated interactions and quizzes included.

Good Afternoon, Jada and Michelle.

When working on an Articulate Presenter course in a collaborative environment with other developers, you will need to use this workflow to avoid file corruption, loss of resources, and other erratic behavior.  This means that you should never transfer files between your local hard drive and a network drive without first packaging up your files.

If you've ever manually copied a folder full of .ppt(x), .ppta, .quiz, and/or .intr files between your local hard drive and a network drive without first packaging up your files (even once), there is a risk that the link between those files may become severed and difficult to repair.

Not following our recommended workflow will result in erratic behavior (meaning that it might not always fail), so it may work for you sometimes and not work for you other times.  In contrast, if you use our workflow every time from the get-go, you should not run into problems.

Good luck with your projects!

Justin,

So what is the best course of action if these guidelines haven't been followed from the beginning?   We haven't had an issue before, although generally work from the C drive.  I have never used the packaging zip method and am happy to do so, but what can we do for a project moved between authors in the normal dragging to between hard drives method?  

Thanks!

Hey, Adam.

Not following our recommended workflow will result in erratic behavior (meaning that it might not always fail), so it may work for you sometimes and not work for you other times.  In other words, you could just get lucky!

Is there a specific problem you're running into with a project that has been passed back-and-forth without packaging first?  Please let us know and we'll see what we can do to help.

Sure that makes sense.  Most of us have been working individually as well so collaboration is newer here.  

There have been two issues mainly.  Quizmaker files will save to random destinations instead of to the same folder as the powerpoint.

More troubling is files passed back and forth will not reflect changes made by authors.  This is erratic though.  

For example author 1 will send over a file and author 2 will not see the updates. When author 2 makes changes and sends back, author 1 will see their own changes (which author 2 never saw) and sometimes author 2's changes.  So it's all very confusing.  These are new users also who I am trying to support.  I want them to have a successful experience so I'm looking for a path forward for this module one, after which we can use the correct packaging method.    

I generally use Storyline so wasn't expecting any of these issues with moving projects as Storyline projects are embedded in one file. 

OK thanks for clarifying, Adam.  It sounds like you have a project in-hand that is misbehaving on a couple of machines.

What I'd like you to do is to create two different Articulate Presenter packages (one from Author 1, and one from Author 2) and send both packages to us using our Support Case Submission Form.

When you do that, please be sure to (1) reference the URL of this Forum Thread when asked, and (2) when prompted for a description of the problem, tell us what specific edits we might expect to be missing from each package.

From there, we can sort through the two packages and help you to assemble a comprehensive package that will behave consistently for you moving forward.

Thanks!

Ok great.  Thanks for your quick replies!  I will send the files over in the morning when I can meet with the team working on this.  I'll send as much detail as possible and reference this thread.  

Thanks again for helping me out with this,

Adam 

Thanks again to the community and Articulate team for getting this issue resolved!