Hyperlinks have stopped working.
May 03, 2023
Hi all,
We've had a suite of e-learning modules made in Storyline 360. Each module has a resources tab with links to further resources (typically a couple of webpages and a link to a OneDrive PDF file).
These all worked perfectly, and for some reason they have all recently stopped. Everything looks to be set up correctly, we've not changed anything with the triggers. It also doesn't matter whether we preview the module through Storyline or the module on Thinkific (the host LMS we use), the links have just stopped working for seemingly no discernable reason.
Is anyone aware of any changes recently to how they're meant to function?
They are currently set up with the Open trigger and with When User Clicks set to that specific individual text box.
7 Replies
Hi Jack,
here's a few troubleshooting ideas:
- Can you try to set up a new learning module and check if the same triggers with the same URLs work there?
- Can you test the links via the Test-function within the Player itself (go to Player/Resources, then doubleclick one of your resources and click the "Test"-button)?
- Can you try to switch the triggers in the existing learning module to another website, for example "www.google.com"?
Regards,
Marc
Hi Marc!
Thanks for the suggestions.
- Can you try to set up a new learning module and check if the same triggers with the same URLs work there?
I just tried this, still no luck with the links functioning. (Both within the preview and as a published item.)
- Can you test the links via the Test-function within the Player itself (go to Player/Resources, then doubleclick one of your resources and click the "Test"-button)?
So the resources are technically links under a Resources layer we made, rather than built into the player itself. However, when I add the resource to the player here, the test function works and the links open!
- Can you try to switch the triggers in the existing learning module to another website, for example "www.google.com"?
I just tried this too, sadly this also didn't work. It's as if the trigger isn't actually triggering, but the text changes colour on hover as if Storyline is recognising it's a hyperlink.
Strange.
Could you reselect the trigger to make sure, you're actually using the "Open URL/file" trigger?
As a plan B, you could try switching to the Javascript-trigger using the JavaScript:
window.open("URL");
But that's assuming JavaScript isn't blocked by your organization.
you could upload one of your courses to SCORM Cloud and check, if it is a problem of your course or of Thinkific.
Thanks both.
I've tried uploading to SCORM Cloud, however the links don't appear to work there either.
I can't find any obvious flaw in the way it's set up so I'm a bit clueless as to what's happening.
I'll try the javascript trigger and see if that works!
I was having pretty much the same issue with my course. The "mail to" link just stopped working on the last slide. The trigger still says, "when user clicks (email address), send email to (email address)." When this is live, it can be selected by keyboard and will open an email when triggered. However, when the user uses a mouse, it doesn't work (it highlights, but does not respond by opening an email).
I ended up trying Marc Cuypers' suggested Javascript code as a second trigger on the whole text box, and now you can click the email address with the mouse and it also works (so both keyboard and mouse get the response of opening an email).
Thanks for sharing what worked well for you, Rachel! I'm sure it will be helpful to others that come across this discussion.
Feel free to share any questions or discoveries in the future in the E-Learning Heroes Community!
Hope that you have a wonderful weekend and happy authoring!