Issues with legacy SL-1 HTML5 versions

Aug 02, 2020

Hi,
We have lots of units created in SL1, published with HTML5 enabled.
Since it is an old version of HTML5 (which evolved) - some of the versions produced an HTML5 content that currently doesn't load to Chrome. You can see the player, if there was a layout - images on that might show as well - all the rest appears as white slides. 
Since the old publishing created a story.html and a story_html5.html files - I cannot even point the learners\LMS to a Flash file that will work (with activation of Flash) on Chrome; Since the story.html file will reroute them to the HTML5 version.

We have a massive amount of content created in SL1, so started opening files to examine which version they were created with.
Found this problem on files published with versions 1.5.1401.2415 and 1.6.1407.2208.
Not sure what but these older versions still works well: 1.3.1305.2012 and 1.4.1311.817.

Anyone else encountering these issues? 
Is there a way to leave the learners on story.html so they are not get sent to the story_html5.html when they use Chrome?

We had ~10 urgent files that we found the sources and republished in SL3. 
But this is not a reasonable effort for hundreds of files. 
 
(I've tested the files directly from the server and not through the LMS, so it is not an issue with the LMS)

Thanks!

4 Replies
Phil Mayor

The HTML5 in SL1 is poor, supported by a narrow window of browsers and I am surprised it works at all on modern browsers.  Ideally, you would set a program in place to update to SL3.

There have been hotfixes for SL1 content that will swap files on the server and may need to raise a support case for this and it may not be that issue that is causing the problem.

Efrat Maor

Phil,

As I said some earlier builds (1.3 and 1.4) are still working well. While others do not. Weird. 
It is not reasonable for us to allocate source files for hundreds of units created ~4-5 years ago, by stuff no longer working with us. Nor to put the effort to republish them manually (this is more than just opening them and publishing, all player definitions are not carried from SL 1 to SL3).

What was the hotfix intended to fix?  
A solution that requires automation on the server is the direction we prefer.
Even getting instructions on what needs to be modified that just the Flash version will play - and that we'll write automation that will convert all story.html files created by specific build versions - is a good direction. 

Thank you for the prompt response (on Sunday!). 

Phil Mayor

It is odd that some builds work and others don’t I would raise a support case. I think the fixes were for browser changes so support should be able to help you.

I do believe that when flash ends at the end of this year that SL1 and SL2 will no longer be supported by Articulate or at least will be classified as legacy.

I am not sure if you can force flash especially as you are using chrome.

Efrat Maor

Thank you Phil. 
I already see them as legacy :P 

You can push browser definitions to all employees' Chrome browser (toggle off "ASk first" or "Block sites with Flash"). Since content and definitions are push regularly, it is just another one.. 

From my past experience with Articulate products, it sounds totally reasonable to me that different versions behave differently. For example, when iPad 1 the latest thing and we developed content for it, there was a build that did not support the iPad well, and no one was able to figure what was happening and how to fix it (including Articulate support. Which did not even suggest that might be due to the latest build). Downgrading builds and the bug was gone.    

I'll open a support ticket. 

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