At my company I'm required to keep my Storyline output files on the network so they can be accessed and added to the LMS. Previously, I've always published/worked from my local drive and then copied the outputs onto the shared network drive. Recently, we've found that the moment they are copied or moved, certain images do not display (always the same each time- some are png, others jpg.)
I tried publishing straight to the network, again, it works but then once copied or moved (within the same network) it will be corrupted. I don't get any errors normally, although when I tried zipping it/unzipping it was coming up with errors on file length of images etc (something I don't have control over as they're renamed titles).
Happy to investigate this with you. You mentioned that images are disappearing once the output is copied to a network drive.
Have you tried uploading the published output (one saved on the local drive) to a learning management system? If so, do the images appear correctly there?
Windows does indeed place a limit on how long your file path/name can be (I'm assuming you are on windows). They recommend keeping it under 260 total characters.
So, if you try to copy files from your local drive to a destination that already has a long file path (e.g. directories within directories within directories, etc...) it is not surprising that some of the files fail to transfer.
Try shortening the path to your copy location, if this is possible. For example, instead of copying to a folder called "output files for my course on xyz that I am copying to the network", copy it to a folder called "xyz" on the network drive. That way you don't break the course but the overall file path/length is shorter.
Of course, I am only guessing at the issue here, so apologies if this does not help you. Russ
The original reason I was republishing the files was because once on the LMS, some of the interactions were failing (e.g. drag and drops) so we were actually experiencing some issues on there too. I've been guessing that the reason they were failing was that some of the invisible images may have not been there. I also tried pressing tab to 'reveal' where the hidden image should be but it was not appearing in the drop area I was expecting.
I can try these again on the LMS but something is definitely changing simply by moving the folder to a different location - even on the same drive. I've also published for web (non-SCORM) and the issue was the same. Works perfectly in the initial publish location but corrupts upon being moved.
I'm unable to keep my files published to a shorter directory as this is a corporate file structure and I can't keep my publishes in a random location further down the chain.
I agree with Russell. I ran into the same scenario last year with a colleague who worked with an Articulate Package I had sent. The way I figured it was to compare, side-by-side, the content folder of the SCORM package that worked and the one that did not. Visually, it was quite obvious that several files with extraordinarily long file names were missing from the side that failed. On the good side, I opened the long filenames, and saw it was indeed the missing images.
Now, you may be able to fix this and still use the corporate file structure.
You would have to identify the missing files, then rename them with a really short file name, and then change them out in the presentation and republish.
4 Replies
Hi Thomas,
Happy to investigate this with you. You mentioned that images are disappearing once the output is copied to a network drive.
Have you tried uploading the published output (one saved on the local drive) to a learning management system? If so, do the images appear correctly there?
Windows does indeed place a limit on how long your file path/name can be (I'm assuming you are on windows). They recommend keeping it under 260 total characters.
So, if you try to copy files from your local drive to a destination that already has a long file path (e.g. directories within directories within directories, etc...) it is not surprising that some of the files fail to transfer.
Try shortening the path to your copy location, if this is possible. For example, instead of copying to a folder called "output files for my course on xyz that I am copying to the network", copy it to a folder called "xyz" on the network drive. That way you don't break the course but the overall file path/length is shorter.
Of course, I am only guessing at the issue here, so apologies if this does not help you.
Russ
This article explains it if you are interested: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/FileIO/naming-a-file
Hi Alyssa,
The original reason I was republishing the files was because once on the LMS, some of the interactions were failing (e.g. drag and drops) so we were actually experiencing some issues on there too. I've been guessing that the reason they were failing was that some of the invisible images may have not been there. I also tried pressing tab to 'reveal' where the hidden image should be but it was not appearing in the drop area I was expecting.
I can try these again on the LMS but something is definitely changing simply by moving the folder to a different location - even on the same drive. I've also published for web (non-SCORM) and the issue was the same. Works perfectly in the initial publish location but corrupts upon being moved.
I'm unable to keep my files published to a shorter directory as this is a corporate file structure and I can't keep my publishes in a random location further down the chain.
I agree with Russell. I ran into the same scenario last year with a colleague who worked with an Articulate Package I had sent. The way I figured it was to compare, side-by-side, the content folder of the SCORM package that worked and the one that did not. Visually, it was quite obvious that several files with extraordinarily long file names were missing from the side that failed. On the good side, I opened the long filenames, and saw it was indeed the missing images.
Now, you may be able to fix this and still use the corporate file structure.
You would have to identify the missing files, then rename them with a really short file name, and then change them out in the presentation and republish.
I hope that helps!
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