I am using storyline to develop a web site. How do I output an index.html file for default browser access? The default output appears to be story.html. How do I modify that?
If your story file is the only element on your index page, then follow Montse's suggestion. If your index page should show additional elements, e.g. logo, menu bar, etc. outside of the story file, then you'd have to create a page manually and embed the story file.
1. When embedding the code of the story.html into index.html, do I simply open story.html in Dreamweaver and copy/paste the code into the body of the index.html file? Would that not break the links between the different storyline files?
2. If I simply rename the story.html to index.html, does that break the links? Aren't there other storyline files looking for the "story.html" file?
3. What is the file structure of an presentations using HTML5 or flash output?
re 1.: there is no one correct answer here, because it very much depends on how exactly you link/embed your story.html, e.g. as an iFrame or a simple link.
re 2: No, renaming the story.html will not break links.
re 3: the structure of a storyline project that was published for BOTH Flash and HTML5 looks like this (not that you would have to worry about folder and file structure, because all you do is upload this complete package to a web server and then link to the story.html file).
Renaming the story.html to index.html will not break any other links within the same html file. Just go ahead and try it. Michael explained the exception but at this stage, just play with renaming the file and trying it out and we can help down the road in you are using it in a more complex web site structure.
I am not sure what you mean in question 3. Basically, if you have a flash pres, Storyline will be accessing a number of external resources other than HTML such as swf files. It works fine but the actual structure of what files being stored where is not transparent. If you have an HTML5 only output, not only can it be viewed on iPhone/iPad (which otherwise do not read Flash), but it is also a cleaner, more transparent output.
So, am I missing something here? Web browsers always look for a "main" file in a directory to launch, be it index.html or an aspx file or whatever. If we simply point a browser to a folder with the SL output files, how does it know which file to open? If the browser is HTML5 compatible, how does it open the appropriate file?
It's actually the server that determines which default file to show you. If you rename your story.html file to index.html, the server should serve that up as the default page, depending on the server OS, default file settings on the server, and whether or not there are any other default filenames in the same folder. The story.html (renamed to index.html) file itself already contains all of the code necessary to server the correct version of your course, as long as you published with HTML5 enabled.
After publishing out of Storyline, you will probably want to rename your story.html file to index.html. That seems to be the easiest approach. Test that and make sure your server sees the index.html as the default file in that directory. The other option would be to reconfigure the server to use the story.html as the default, but you probably don't want to do that, and that may not even be an option for you.
13 Replies
Hi Donald and welcome to E-Learning Heroes! This would be a manual process, not something within the Storyline application.
I do that with almost all of my portfolio demos, Donald. Just rename the story file to index and it works.
If your story file is the only element on your index page, then follow Montse's suggestion. If your index page should show additional elements, e.g. logo, menu bar, etc. outside of the story file, then you'd have to create a page manually and embed the story file.
Thanks for helping out Donald here Montse and Michael
Thank you Montse and Michael.
I have 3 questions:
1. When embedding the code of the story.html into index.html, do I simply open story.html in Dreamweaver and copy/paste the code into the body of the index.html file? Would that not break the links between the different storyline files?
2. If I simply rename the story.html to index.html, does that break the links? Aren't there other storyline files looking for the "story.html" file?
3. What is the file structure of an presentations using HTML5 or flash output?
Hi Donald,
re 1.: there is no one correct answer here, because it very much depends on how exactly you link/embed your story.html, e.g. as an iFrame or a simple link.
re 2: No, renaming the story.html will not break links.
re 3: the structure of a storyline project that was published for BOTH Flash and HTML5 looks like this (not that you would have to worry about folder and file structure, because all you do is upload this complete package to a web server and then link to the story.html file).
Hi Donald,
Renaming the story.html to index.html will not break any other links within the same html file. Just go ahead and try it. Michael explained the exception but at this stage, just play with renaming the file and trying it out and we can help down the road in you are using it in a more complex web site structure.
I am not sure what you mean in question 3. Basically, if you have a flash pres, Storyline will be accessing a number of external resources other than HTML such as swf files. It works fine but the actual structure of what files being stored where is not transparent. If you have an HTML5 only output, not only can it be viewed on iPhone/iPad (which otherwise do not read Flash), but it is also a cleaner, more transparent output.
Thanks Michael and Remi for popping back in to address Donald's additional questions. Much appreciated.
So, am I missing something here? Web browsers always look for a "main" file in a directory to launch, be it index.html or an aspx file or whatever. If we simply point a browser to a folder with the SL output files, how does it know which file to open? If the browser is HTML5 compatible, how does it open the appropriate file?
Sorry if this is dumb :-)
Hi Steve! This thread is a bit dated and I'm not sure I'm following your question. Typically we advise sharing the story.html file with your users and this user was asking a question about that. Here’s how Storyline determines which version of your content to display when learners view it.
Steve,
It's actually the server that determines which default file to show you. If you rename your story.html file to index.html, the server should serve that up as the default page, depending on the server OS, default file settings on the server, and whether or not there are any other default filenames in the same folder. The story.html (renamed to index.html) file itself already contains all of the code necessary to server the correct version of your course, as long as you published with HTML5 enabled.
Mike
Thanks, Mike! So I really don't need to copy and rename anything, right?
After publishing out of Storyline, you will probably want to rename your story.html file to index.html. That seems to be the easiest approach. Test that and make sure your server sees the index.html as the default file in that directory. The other option would be to reconfigure the server to use the story.html as the default, but you probably don't want to do that, and that may not even be an option for you.
Let us know how it works out.
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.