How to force the LMS to call index_lms_html5.html?

We want ONLY the HTML5 version of a particular course to load in the LMS (Cornerstone OnDemand). We are all good on how to output to HTML5 and we have tested the file locally. When we publish from Storyline 2 update 7 we get both the SWF and the HTML5 files in the output. I am guessing there are dependencies.

It seems, however, that we're going to have to do some manual editing of the manifest file and possibly some other files in the output in order to get the LMS to launch ONLY the HTML5. Before I try brutal hacks like removing the index_lms.html file or manual trial and error edits—does anyone know how to do this already?

UPDATE: One of my IDs has figured out how to work around the LMS and browser hiccups and force HTML5 to load in any compatible browser.

Not sure if this link will take you directly to his post (with screenshots) but if not, it's on page 3 of this thread. Thanks a million @BrettBerish.

https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/how-to-force-the-lms-to-call-index_lms_html5-html?page=3#

Thanks to Phil, Steve, Mike and Ashley.

97 Replies

Christie Pollick

over 5 years ago09/23/15 at 1:55 pm (UTC)

Hi, Dave -- As we cannot provide support for modifications to the published output, I will go ahead and defer to the members of the community to chime in and assist you further. :)

Matthew Bibby
Hero

over 5 years ago09/23/15 at 10:47 pm (UTC)

Hey Dave,

Try this:

Delete story.html from your published output
Rename story_html5.html to story.html
Zip, upload, test thoroughly.

It should work, although the course will fail to launch if viewed in a browser that doesn't support HTML5 and it won't even show the 'unsupported' message that it normally does...

Hope that helps!

Edit: See Phil's comment here.

over 5 years ago09/24/15 at 4:47 am (UTC)

Thanks, Matt but that doesn't work. The LMS alerts as a non-critical error that the story_html5.html file is missing. (It is referenced in the manifest file). We published it anyway and the course wouldn't load in any browser. You also can't modify both "story" HTML files and get the course to load in IE, Chrome or Firefox.

On the subject of LMS being the correct domain for certificates, I would suggest to the Articulate staff to look at what some of them offer (#keywordSuck). With so many IDs posting about certificates, maybe it's time to look at giving us what we need. We're designers. We wouldn't design something we didn't need and with so many workarounds that don't work... Just sayin'.

Captivate allowed us to have a certificate slide but we needed a special script to allow us to print it without printing the player too. We're trying to use what we've learned from this article https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/storyline-2-example-generating-a-pdf-certificate-for-users-who-successfully-complete-a-quiz-html5 and this article https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/populate-a-pdf-from-storyline to have the course call a script to populate a certificate with a decent-looking design, background, logo in a new HTML window so the user can print or download it.

It would really suck to have a certification program that results in Times New Roman, black, 14 point, centered on a white background, half-page, portrait orientation. #Ewwww

over 5 years ago09/24/15 at 4:56 am (UTC)

Dave Howard

Thanks, Matt but that doesn't work. The LMS alerts as a non-critical error that the story_html5.html file is missing. (It is referenced in the manifest file). We published it anyway and the course wouldn't load in any browser. You also can't modify both "story" HTML files and get the course to load in IE, Chrome or Firefox.

That's interesting, my quick test on SCORM Cloud worked as I expected, but I didn't test it thoroughly. You could remove the reference to the story_html5.html file from the manifest or alternatively just dump a blank file with that name in the output...

You might be better to dig around in the story.html file and change it to always serve up the html5 version. I don't know exactly what needs to be changed to achieve that, but with a bit of fiddling you should be able to figure it out.

over 5 years ago09/24/15 at 5:07 am (UTC)

Dave Howard

On the subject of LMS being the correct domain for certificates, I would suggest to the Articulate staff to look at what some of them offer (#keywordSuck). With so many IDs posting about certificates, maybe it's time to look at giving us what we need. We're designers. We wouldn't design something we didn't need and with so many workarounds that don't work... Just sayin'.

Captivate allowed us to have a certificate slide but we needed a special script to allow us to print it without printing the player too. We're trying to use what we've learned from this article https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/storyline-2-example-generating-a-pdf-certificate-for-users-who-successfully-complete-a-quiz-html5 and this article https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/populate-a-pdf-from-storyline to have the course call a script to populate a certificate with a decent-looking design, background, logo in a new HTML window so the user can print or download it.

It would really suck to have a certification program that results in Times New Roman, black, 14 point, centered on a white background, half-page, portrait orientation. #Ewwww

I agree with Articulate on this point, but I do understand that not everyone thinks along the same line. You should submit a feature request (if you haven't already) and let Articulate know that this is important to you.

I'm excited about PDFMake, I think it is a great solution for people wanting to create a PDF from within Storyline. You do need some coding knowledge to get it looking how you want, but it's all outlined in their documentation so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Alternatively, you could post a job on a site such a Fiverr and find someone who is comfortable with CSS to help design your certificate.

Dave Howard
Author

over 5 years ago09/24/15 at 5:07 am (UTC)

Life's too short to guess. We're moving on.

over 5 years ago09/24/15 at 5:09 am (UTC)

Fair enough, all the best Dave.

over 5 years ago09/24/15 at 6:05 am (UTC)

Yeah. We already have it looking awesome. Works great locally but not in the LMS. Like I said, moving on.

Sent from my mobile device. Please excuse brevity and mistypes.

Dave H.

Phil Mayor
Hero

over 5 years ago09/24/15 at 9:29 am (UTC)

Matts suggestion would work with a little modification, delete Story.html, duplicate Story_html5.sotry and rename duplicate to story.html

Bruce Holliday

over 5 years ago09/24/15 at 12:01 pm (UTC)

Hi,
I have successfully created an html certificate that carries name values from SL. Hope its useful to you.

printcertificate.zip

Leslie McKerchie
Staff

over 5 years ago09/24/15 at 1:51 pm (UTC)

Thanks everyone for popping in to share :)

over 5 years ago09/24/15 at 3:56 pm (UTC)

Bruce,

This is elegant in its simplicity. Definitely something to consider as an alternative.

Many thanks for chiming in. Cheers.

Steve Flowers
Hero

over 5 years ago10/25/15 at 2:23 am (UTC)

It looks like this thread is a little on the old side but this 6 character change does the trick for me:

1) Publish to LMS with the HTML5 option turned on.

2) Navigate to the published folder and open the imsmanifest.xml file.

3) Scroll down to the resources node. The first node within the resources node <resource ... is where the edit needs to happen.

4) Change index_lms.html to index_lms_html5.html.

The beauty of this change is it doesn't make your manifest differ from your contents. Some LMS are persnickety about manifest contents.

over 5 years ago10/25/15 at 8:04 am (UTC)

I'll try it! Thanks.

Sent from my mobile device. Please excuse brevity and mistypes.

Dave H.

Rachel Craig

over 5 years ago11/02/15 at 9:14 pm (UTC)

I've recently been having similar issues with Cornerstone OnDemand and HTML5 output. Were you able to use Steve's workaround in your course, Dave?

over 5 years ago11/02/15 at 9:18 pm (UTC)

I'm working on a new product module now.
I'll let you know when I publish it. Probably around November 9.

Thank you

over 5 years ago11/02/15 at 9:20 pm (UTC)

Cool! Thank you, Dave!

Leslie McKerchie
Staff

over 5 years ago11/02/15 at 9:24 pm (UTC)

Thanks for popping in to assist Dave! Just wanted to let you know that replying to the forums via e-mail attaches your signature. You are welcome to pop in and edit if needed.

over 5 years ago11/02/15 at 9:26 pm (UTC)

Hi Rachel

if Dave's fix doesn't work let me know, we make changes to the index_lms.html to force html5

Dave Howard
Author

over 5 years ago03/09/16 at 8:38 pm (UTC)

Doesn't work in Cornerstone LMS. We are now trying to trick the LMS into thinking the browser is not Flash-compatible or that the device is mobile (ergo no Flash) but that is difficult.

over 5 years ago03/09/16 at 8:46 pm (UTC)

Hi Dave, I hate to repeat myself from a previous post but In scormcloud changing the index file to call the story

Dave Howard
Author

over 5 years ago03/09/16 at 9:03 pm (UTC)

Doesn't work in Cornerstone LMS. But here's what we've found.

So far, we know that imsmanifest.xml, meta.xml and story.js all work together along with browsersniff.js to determine if the Flash version can load (which is what Articulate wants to happen.)

We opened Chrome with the Flash plugin turned off and without any file changes or renaming or deleting, the HTML 5 version loads. Anytime we try editing files to point to "_html5.x_ we get a big white window with nothing loading in it.

So... the only way to force HTML5 to load is to have a non-flash-compatible browser.

Phil, I'm curious, when your content loads in scormcloud, have you tried right-clicking on the window to see if it shows Flash settings and version or just HTML commands?

Steve Flowers
Hero

over 5 years ago03/09/16 at 9:15 pm (UTC)

To clarify, you've tried changing the webcontent reference in imsmanifest to point to the index_lms_html5.html file and it's loading a blank page? I've tested this in multiple systems and it's worked consistently. Don't have access to cornerstone but I can't see why it would work any differently. The LMS is *supposed* to load the file designated in the manifest file. Double-check to make sure the modification is made in the right spot and that it's entered to point to the correct file.

When looking at the browser console, what errors appear?