The storyline's published content is always named "story.swf". How can we change this file name, say to "articles.swf" and the whole thing still works? Currently if I change the file name, the file won't work at all, it will give me this error message: "ERROR: Could not load the file 'articles_content/data.swf'".
Note: How will I have many lessons published on Storyline located on the same folders if ALL the files use the same file name? That's why I am looking for a way to change rename the files. Or I'd appreciate if you can let me know if there are any other alternatives to achieve the purpose.
I did try changing the file name, but still couldn't get the file to work. If you could help take a quick look at how I did it and share with me your comments what you think I have not done right, i will really appreciate it.
Here is what I did:
1. I published the project (for online viewing): here I had exactly the same file names regardless on the project name I earlier set on the program. These files are: "story.swf", "story.html", "meta.xml" and "story_content" folder
2. I didn't need the "html" file since my LMS can play any swf content in a browser, so I got rid of it. (Here, I still could play the "story.swf" no problem)
3. I changed "story.swf" to, say, "tenses.swf". (At this point, the "tenses.swf" won't work anymore. It gave an error message saying that it couldn't find the "tenses_content/data.swf" file. ----> so i went ahead with step 4.
4. I changed "story_content" folder to "tenses_content" hoping that now it would work --- the tenses.swf still didn't work BUT with NO error message. It only kept loading and never played the content. ---> so I moved on to try step 5
5. I edited codes on the meta.xml file, changing anything associated with "story_content......" to "tenses_content....." and saved the changes. (STILL the "tenses.swf" file doesn't work.)
----- And as the matter of fact, I have a feeling that WITH of WITHOUT the meta.xml file, the .swf behaves the same, which is in step 2, the "story.swf" file worked even after I had deleted the "meta.xml", and for step 5. with or without the edited "meta.xml", my "tenstes.swf" wouldn't work just the same)
Anything I should try differently? Or how else do you do it?
Although the files that are generated are editable, they are not meant to be edited.
Project files are to be kept named as they are generated.
When you upload your projects on your LMS then their directory structure & filenames need to be uploaded as such. What you want to do is have all story.html files (renamed) in 1 directory. This is NOT possible!
This is how my LMS works; all the content files need to be in one single folder called "lessons". But in that "lessons" folder, I can put as many folders as I wish. I have set it up in a way that each type of media or content is in a separate folder, say "vdos", "sounds", "swf", "html" and so on.
Currently I have many .swf lessons (produced from my own flash programs) named differently based on their content, i.e nouns.swf, vocabs_animals.swf, and so on. They are all in the same "swf" folder. But now if I want to use SL to produce my lessons, and if all of them are called "story.swf", I will have no way to put all the lessons in this one folder. And it will make file management more difficult as the number of lessons grows.
Anyway, I'll try one more thing as suggested by you or someone in the other post I put up. I will try putting each of the "story.swf" and its related files and story_content folder in a separate folder (under my "lessons/swf" folders and named that folder by its own distinct content.) That means under my "lessons/swf" folder, there will be many other folders called differently, but files in those folders are basically called the same names (story.swf, story.html, story_content) though they are actually NOT the same lessons. The only question is that I don't know is wheter my LMS system will be able to manage that. But i'll do it now and will see how it goes.
but are you sure that the already published file names cannot be changed? sorry for persistently asking this very same question Or do you know if we can CHOOSE a different file name BEFORE we publish the final content? I can't seem to find any info saying I can or i can't do that.
There are reasons to change the name of the folder and swf file. We already have our storyline output up on a website. When we update in Storyline and reload it to the website, the users could crash if they haven't cleared their browser's cache. To prevent this, we wanted to rename the swf file and story_content folders.
I thought adding the same prefix to the swf file and to the story_content folder would work, but it looks as if something is looking for story_content folder regardless of the name that is specified.
Changing the name of the folder is curing the symptoms and not the disease. Most of our users are not very sophisticated either. What we’ve done is to have a disclaimer page.
You could have a similar page stating that in case of error he/she should empty the cache (ctrl-F5) or other if using another browser… In this case you have warned them about a possible problem and have given them the solution to solve it. In this case, you’ll have nothing to change when publishing and the responsibility of using your training course lies entirely with them.
I want to have a few Storyline SWF in the same course. But my authoring tool does not allow you to select where the SWF files sit as a resource. So the only method would to have each Storyline file with a different name.
You mentioned an "authoring tool" so I'm assuming you're not combining these within Storyline? If you could offer a bit more about how you have it currently set up and what you'd prefer to do that would help the community in offering a solution.
I thought adding the same prefix to the swf file and to the story_content folder would work, but it looks as if something is looking for story_content folder regardless of the name that is specified.
So true... The xxx.swf is looking for xxx_content folder to load data.swf but fails afterwards to load content.
Any clue ? I too need to put several courses in a common folder.
14 Replies
Hi Nai,
Here's an other no :(
it is not possioble to change the name from story.xyz to something else.
Yet I do not see a reason for having to do this.
Eachtime you publish a project/course, SL will always propose to publish them in a separate directory.
Thus, you'll have as many story.abc files and directory structures as you have projects/course, yet they will all be in separate directories.
Cheers
Geert
When you publish your story project , you could name a different title or choose a different folder. Hope that'll help.
Thank you both Geert and Jon for your comments,
@ Jon
I did try changing the file name, but still couldn't get the file to work. If you could help take a quick look at how I did it and share with me your comments what you think I have not done right, i will really appreciate it.
Here is what I did:
1. I published the project (for online viewing): here I had exactly the same file names regardless on the project name I earlier set on the program. These files are: "story.swf", "story.html", "meta.xml" and "story_content" folder
2. I didn't need the "html" file since my LMS can play any swf content in a browser, so I got rid of it. (Here, I still could play the "story.swf" no problem)
3. I changed "story.swf" to, say, "tenses.swf". (At this point, the "tenses.swf" won't work anymore. It gave an error message saying that it couldn't find the "tenses_content/data.swf" file. ----> so i went ahead with step 4.
4. I changed "story_content" folder to "tenses_content" hoping that now it would work --- the tenses.swf still didn't work BUT with NO error message. It only kept loading and never played the content. ---> so I moved on to try step 5
5. I edited codes on the meta.xml file, changing anything associated with "story_content......" to "tenses_content....." and saved the changes. (STILL the "tenses.swf" file doesn't work.)
----- And as the matter of fact, I have a feeling that WITH of WITHOUT the meta.xml file, the .swf behaves the same, which is in step 2, the "story.swf" file worked even after I had deleted the "meta.xml", and for step 5. with or without the edited "meta.xml", my "tenstes.swf" wouldn't work just the same)
Anything I should try differently? Or how else do you do it?
Thanks
Hi Nai,
Although the files that are generated are editable, they are not meant to be edited.
Project files are to be kept named as they are generated.
When you upload your projects on your LMS then their directory structure & filenames need to be uploaded as such. What you want to do is have all story.html files (renamed) in 1 directory. This is NOT possible!
Why would you want to rename them?
cheerrs
Geert
Geert,
This is how my LMS works; all the content files need to be in one single folder called "lessons". But in that "lessons" folder, I can put as many folders as I wish. I have set it up in a way that each type of media or content is in a separate folder, say "vdos", "sounds", "swf", "html" and so on.
Currently I have many .swf lessons (produced from my own flash programs) named differently based on their content, i.e nouns.swf, vocabs_animals.swf, and so on. They are all in the same "swf" folder. But now if I want to use SL to produce my lessons, and if all of them are called "story.swf", I will have no way to put all the lessons in this one folder. And it will make file management more difficult as the number of lessons grows.
Anyway, I'll try one more thing as suggested by you or someone in the other post I put up. I will try putting each of the "story.swf" and its related files and story_content folder in a separate folder (under my "lessons/swf" folders and named that folder by its own distinct content.) That means under my "lessons/swf" folder, there will be many other folders called differently, but files in those folders are basically called the same names (story.swf, story.html, story_content) though they are actually NOT the same lessons. The only question is that I don't know is wheter my LMS system will be able to manage that. But i'll do it now and will see how it goes.
but are you sure that the already published file names cannot be changed? sorry for persistently asking this very same question
Or do you know if we can CHOOSE a different file name BEFORE we publish the final content? I can't seem to find any info saying I can or i can't do that.
thanks a million!
nai
Hi Nai,
I am pretty sure about you can not change the names.
Putting your files in their respective directories is the way to go.
Cheers
Geert
There are reasons to change the name of the folder and swf file. We already have our storyline output up on a website. When we update in Storyline and reload it to the website, the users could crash if they haven't cleared their browser's cache. To prevent this, we wanted to rename the swf file and story_content folders.
I thought adding the same prefix to the swf file and to the story_content folder would work, but it looks as if something is looking for story_content folder regardless of the name that is specified.
Hi Kit
When you upload a newer version of our course, you can ask the users to clear their cache with Ctrl-F5
Cheers
Geert
Geert,
That doesn't work on a large public site with unsophisticated users. I can't even get content developers to do that even after I tell them to.
This is not part of a course.
Kit
Hi Kit,
Changing the name of the folder is curing the symptoms and not the disease. Most of our users are not very sophisticated either. What we’ve done is to have a disclaimer page.
You could have a similar page stating that in case of error he/she should empty the cache (ctrl-F5) or other if using another browser… In this case you have warned them about a possible problem and have given them the solution to solve it. In this case, you’ll have nothing to change when publishing and the responsibility of using your training course lies entirely with them.
Geert
I have same issue too.
I want to have a few Storyline SWF in the same course. But my authoring tool does not allow you to select where the SWF files sit as a resource. So the only method would to have each Storyline file with a different name.
Hi Trav and welcome to Heroes!
You mentioned an "authoring tool" so I'm assuming you're not combining these within Storyline? If you could offer a bit more about how you have it currently set up and what you'd prefer to do that would help the community in offering a solution.
So true... The xxx.swf is looking for xxx_content folder to load data.swf but fails afterwards to load content.
Any clue ? I too need to put several courses in a common folder.
Well... it looks hopeless because data.swf contains paths to all SWF assets with many "story_content/"
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