In Slide Web Objects Not Working

Aug 07, 2023

Andy Wood
By Andy Wood

We've been getting comments from our users that embedded web objects that had previously worked now do not. Specifically, the web objects were typically displayed in slide by a lesson built using Studio and Storyline and usually consists of an interactive activity built in Storyline and hosted on our web site. When we host the lesson on our web site, the in slide web object plays just fine. When the lesson is hosted on our LMS, the content does not play (We get the "refused to connect" error message). 

I have been doing some testing, reading articles, etc., and that led me to use the test link feature in the Web Object tool. In many cases, I got the message indicating the web object would not load in slide. However, I tried some random web sites to get one that would work when tested. When I found one that appeared to work (CNN's web site), I then used that as the URL just to see if it would work. When I uploaded the prototype slide for testing, I got the same "refused to connect" error message. 

Here's my question: What is prohibiting the web object from loading? Is it the web server with the content I'm trying to embed or is it the web site that hosts my published lesson. I assume it is the former, but I wanted to make sure because it's been difficult to find a thread on-line that discusses my specific situation. 

3 Replies
Steven Benassi
9 months ago08/08/23 at 3:03 pm (UTC)

Hi Andy!

It sounds like you've hit a snag with the Web Objects in your Storyline course. Sorry to hear that, but I'd be happy to help figure out what could be causing that!

Some websites are intentionally prevented from displaying inside an iFrame, which sounds like what you may be experiencing. Have you tried modifying the look of the web object so that it is displayed in a new browser window to see if that improves the behavior?

Another helpful step would be testing your course on SCORM Cloud. It's an online LMS environment that can be used to determine whether the issue is with the LMS being used or the Story file itself. If you test your course on SCORM cloud and it works perfectly, then your issue is LMS based.

Please let me know if you have any more questions!

Andy Wood
9 months ago08/10/23 at 8:17 pm (UTC)

Hi Steven!

I tried creating a simple Storyline presentation that had a single slide with an embedded web object. I embedded CNN's web page because I know it will work when I test the link. However, when I uploaded the lesson to SCORMCloud, I couldn't get the embedded web object to work.

I think the embedded web objects used to work just fine until some point in the recent past. When we launch the web version of the lesson from the same server as the web object, we can still get the web object to play just fine. So, the issue is definitely launching the content from a separate server. If the issue is on our web server, then maybe I can talk to our web folks to adjust the settings to get them to work. It's a long shot, but at least there's a chance. I don't think I have that same option with our LMS provider.

I have advised my co-workers to either build the content from the web object directly in their Storyline project or to launch the web object in an external window. The downside to using an external window involves narration. For some of the web objects, the instructor had narration on the slide that discussed what was in the web object. If the web object gets launched in an external window, having the narration in the slide just doesn't work well (if at all).

Sign In to Reply