I can attach a PDF fine via Storyline's player Resources tab, but I'd really like to do so instead via a button.
I tried inserting a Jump to URL/File trigger, but I couldn't get it to load the PDF, whether it was in the story_content folder or in the external_files subfolder. I tried an absolute reference from my C: drive and a relative one from \story_content. I'm not sure why when I use the "..." to select the file, I get double backslashes \\ everywhere in the address, but using that didn't load the PDF either when I published. I tried "insert hyperlink" from a text box but ran into the same issues.
I'm sure I must just be writing the address wrong. Could anyone point me in the right direction?
Are you seeing a Not Found error from your published course when testing from a web server? Apologies if you already know this, but url linking doesn't work locally, it needs to be on a web server to work. The course url in your browser should be an 'http://' url, not a 'file:///' url. Don't worry about the file name during the '...' authoring process. The path will be renamed to the external_files directory in the publish process.
I verified just now that placing the external content (pdf in this case) directly into the external_files directory on the server works as expected. So if the content isn't making it over to the external_content directory on your server, you can place it there manually and it should work.
If you already know all of this, perhaps there is a problem with the filename of the pdf. Sometimes spaces, dashes, etc. can confuse web servers.
No apologies necessary. I'm a real beginner at all this. Thanks SO much for your help.
I didn't realize that for adding a PDF to Resources you could just use a local link, whereas for adding a PDF as a hyperlink, you can't. At the moment, I'm storing projects on Dropbox. I just tried putting the public link to the PDF in the Dropbox external_files subdirectory into the hyperlink address field, and it worked! You just saved me hours of fruitless fiddling around.
3 Replies
Hi Dorothy,
Are you seeing a Not Found error from your published course when testing from a web server? Apologies if you already know this, but url linking doesn't work locally, it needs to be on a web server to work. The course url in your browser should be an 'http://' url, not a 'file:///' url. Don't worry about the file name during the '...' authoring process. The path will be renamed to the external_files directory in the publish process.
I verified just now that placing the external content (pdf in this case) directly into the external_files directory on the server works as expected. So if the content isn't making it over to the external_content directory on your server, you can place it there manually and it should work.
If you already know all of this, perhaps there is a problem with the filename of the pdf. Sometimes spaces, dashes, etc. can confuse web servers.
Hope this helps!
Guy
Hi Guy,
No apologies necessary. I'm a real beginner at all this. Thanks SO much for your help.
I didn't realize that for adding a PDF to Resources you could just use a local link, whereas for adding a PDF as a hyperlink, you can't. At the moment, I'm storing projects on Dropbox. I just tried putting the public link to the PDF in the Dropbox external_files subdirectory into the hyperlink address field, and it worked! You just saved me hours of fruitless fiddling around.
Dorothy
Excellent! Great way to start the weekend.
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