How to “not” automatically go fullscreen with HTML5 on Android browsers

Sep 01, 2016

This is not regarding the Articulate Mobile Player, but rather the HTML5 browser output/presentation. On all my android tablets, viewing a SL 2 (Updated 10) test results in the browser going fullscreen. The experience is typically this:

1.       I see the standard SL preloader.

2.       A large, round play button appears, requiring a tap to begin viewing the HTML5 content.

3.       I tap the play button and the browser immediately goes full screen and shows a notification along the top, “Drag from top and touch the back button to exit full screen.” or “This site has gone fullscreen. Drag from top to exit.”

So yes, a user could exit full screen, and it’s certainly nice that they’ve automatically gotten the larger screen benefit of going full screen (most aren’t gonna complain here!). But I like having control and options over projects I work on.

FWIW, one of the UX scenarios I’m thinking of is when a SL has various PDFs that the user can open (in other browser tabs). Once they do that, they exit full screen and another tab opens…and the user is now out of full screen for good. I like the idea of preventing that kind of UX shift and staying in “not” full screen the entire time if that’s the experience I want to maintain.

Another scenario is that keep the browser tab awareness in check for users for cases where they intend on switching between tabs frequently.

I’m sure there is JavaScript that is controlling this, and is doing so automatically. For example, in the “\mobile\player_compiled.js” file, there is “.requestFullScreen” related code. This is probably triggered by the initial touch event handler when pressing the large play buttobn. If I edit this JavaScript file and, for example, change the 8 instances of that code to something slightly different (which technically could cause a error), and reload my test on Android tablets, it no longer goes fullscreen. Okay, kudos to that…but I don’t want to hack code for every project, every time I (re)publish it. I suppose I could edit the globally-referenced JS file where SL is installed (at “C:\Program Files (x86)\Articulate\Articulate Storyline 2\Content\mobile”). But I’m looking to see what others think, have experienced or tried, and what Articulate recommends if one wanted control over fullscreen.

A feature request maybe, unless I missed where this can be controlled.

3 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Scott,

Thanks for reaching out here and a detailed explanation of what you see and what you tried so far. Really helpful to have all that. It would be something that's a feature request at this time, which you're welcome to submit here.  As you mentioned, there may be some ways to edit this in the JS files or the published output - but both of those are areas I'll have to defer to the community about, as it's not something I can assist with. 

If you find a solution and are able to share it here with the community, we'd always appreciate knowing what you were able to accomplish! 

Scott L

Thanks for the guidance, Ashley! I've submitted a feature request: 00881401.

With a JavaScript hack, I can remove the fullscreen feature on Android browsers (the feature already doesn't occur for iOS devices).

Again, overall it's a great thing to have (on Android browsers) for most people! I'm just a guy who likes to have control over when & what for RE:the behavior of a browser.

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