"External_files" folder in published SL course has issues

Jun 06, 2013

Has anyone encountered this problem when publishing SL courses to Sharepoint 2013 or lower?

Apparently, Sharepoint has a known issue that files and folder names containg "_files" (and other) cannot be used. I am attaching the material i found:

While bulk importing content from the file system (e.g. images) via the PRIME API, I found out that SharePoint does not allow folders that end in “.files” or “_files” (which my customer just happens to have). This is apparently aknown issue (at least as early as 2008-06-28).

I have initiated a change request to correct KB 905231, as follows.

In addition, file and folder names cannot end with:

  • .files
  • _files
  • -Dateien
  • _fichiers
  • _bestanden
  • _file
  • _archivos
  • -filer
  • _tiedostot
  • _pliki
  • _soubory
  • _elemei
  • _ficheiros
  • _arquivos
  • _dosyalar
  • _datoteke
  • _fitxers
  • _failid
  • _fails
  • _bylos
  • _fajlovi
  • _fitxategiak

Unfortunately, SL courses has a folder named "external_files" when you use external files via hyperlinks. Renaming the folder in Sharepoint does not work. It brings it back to it original filename.

The problem this causes is it cant launched the linked files.

I would appreciate very much if someone can advise how to solve this problem so my SL course will work properly in Sharepoint.

Many thanks in advance.

7 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Gary,

What version of Storyline and Sharepoint are you using? This discussion links to much older versions of both, and we've yet to change that file structure in the Storyline output even in our latest versions. 

I'm not sure if Sharepoint has changed how they handle this in their newest versions, but it may be worth taking a look at what updates they offer? 

Gary Young

Hi, and thanks for the quick response—

This is actually with the current version of OneDrive offered via Office 365 (which from my understanding is basically a “flavor” of SharePoint for all intents and purposes).

I’m using the most recent OneDrive client apps, although this would appear to be a server issue, not a local app issue.

Hope this helps!

Gary Young

Crystal Horn

Hey there, Gary.  Thanks for that detail!  I can confirm that Articulate content won't work with SharePoint Online (the Microsoft Office 365 Hosted Edition), since it doesn't support HTML files. 

OneDrive, in my understanding, acts like a cloud drive system where you can store your files for retrieval on any device connected to Office 365.  If you need to host your published course online, we have some other recommendations that will work better.  Check out this article for some ideas!

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Thanks, Gary! That's helpful to know you're on the latest and greatest of OneDrive and Sharepoint. Are your files being published to OneDrive too? First, I'd always recommend publishing locally and then transferring files to OneDrive. As a general reminder to help prevent any corruption issues. 🙂

I'll leave more specifics on hosting on Sharepoint to those in the community who use it, as it's a bit outside my area! I do know lots of folks are still using that as a hosting option based on what I've seen here in ELH. 

Gary Young

Hi—just for clarity, I'm not really _publishing_ to SharePoint. I'm publishing locally, but when syncing those files to SharePoint (basically for backup), that's when I get the external_files error. So, basically it means that to avoid always having "can't sync" messages in OneDrive, I have to publish to a folder that doesn't get synced.

Hope this helps.

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