How to force the LMS to call index_lms_html5.html?

Sep 22, 2015

Dave Howard
By Dave Howard

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.

87 Replies
Steve Flowers
8 years ago03/09/16 at 10:00 pm (UTC)

Shouldn't make a difference. Since it's not loading, not getting that far. Would still try the substitution methods above to see if the behavior changes. Since it is currently loading the story_html5 file after loading the story.html file on CSOD, it should work directly connecting to the story_html5 file or renaming the story_html5.html file to story.html.

No idea why the index_lms_html5 fix isn't working.  Wish CSOD had a public test site.

Phil Mayor
8 years ago03/11/16 at 8:17 am (UTC)

This is really odd, it, I even signed up to a trial account to test this. It works fine in Safari, Firefox and Chrome on Mac and PC but IE refuses to open it, my first thought was that it wasn't a supported browser but it is loading nothing at all and my file had nothing in that IE should choke on.

I tried everything I could, but then i tried disabling flash on Internet explorer and adding a course without any modifications and this refused to load the HTML5 in Cornerstone, enabling flash and worked as expected.  I wonder if the Cornerstone Player/Launcher window used for IE is different to the other browsers and is expecting flash content? I could not get HTML5 content to play in IE in Cornerstone at all.

Brian Allen
8 years ago03/11/16 at 1:47 pm (UTC)
Steve Flowers

Could be a setting in the admin configuration to get around this.

I was doing some testing on this earlier this week, unfortunately Cornerstone isn't alone in this issue... I'm working with SumTotal and I can get a little further than Dave but still don't get a functional course.

There is an admin setting in SumT that supposedly helps IE play HTML5 content, but it isn't working apparently.

The SumT content player opens in IE by default in quirks mode, basically setting the browser to IE6.  There is a setting that can/should be selected for HTML5 SCORM content that supposedly keeps modern IE browsers from being forced into quirks mode and allow the content to run in native mode, but there is still something bad wrong with HTML5 content.

And it's not just IE, I tested in Chrome with the exact same results.

Thankfully the HTML5 content *DOES* play well in mobile browsers on iOS devices.

Here's the admin setting in SumT...

Aubrey Berish
8 years ago03/17/16 at 6:29 pm (UTC)

Hey all, I think I have a possible solution on how to force HTML5. Instead of trying to restructure the SCORM manifest or other files (which LMSes can be quite fussy about) we're going to make the browser check think you're on an Android device. This makes Articulate's output go directly to it's HTML5 setup and not even try Flash.

This works on CornerStone for sure, kudos to Dave on finding the tucked-away setting to change. (I'll be pointing out where). I also tested in IE11 and desktop Chrome.

1. Publish your project from Storyline.

Have it set to LMS output, HTML5 turned on, iPad output turned off. Everything else configured as needed for your course.

2. Click "open" on the publish screen, then locate these two files.

(Leave the little publish dialogue box open, it'll be handy later.) You'll be editing story.html and index_lms.html, not the versions that say HTML5.

4. Open index_lms.html in an editor and revise this line of code

I'm using Notepad since everyone has it, but Dreamweaver and Notepad++ people go for it. We're going to change the 8th line in this file to say var g_bAndroid = true; here is a before and after.

Save and close.

5. Open story.html and revise these two lines

Same concept, we'll be changing the 51st and 54th lines of this file to say var g_bAndroid = true; and var g_bRedirectHTML5 = true; respectively. Before and after:

Save and close.

6. Zip & Upload to your LMS

This is why I suggested keeping the publish dialogue open, you can just hit Zip in there. Other zipping utilities, including the baked in Windows one, can do a folder-in-a-folder or have the zip name be weird, which can confuse some LMSes, CornerStone included

7. [Cornerstone Specific] Disable compatibility mode before final publish

Cornerstone just loves to hide lots of functions behind incredibly tiny unlabeled buttons. It's like an easter egg hunt, excellent user interface design! when you publish your project on the LMS, here's where the option hides.

 

Tada. Let me know if this works or doesn't, or if you know of simpler ways to accomplish this.

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