Link to other Storyline published file using jump to URL/File

Jun 24, 2013

Sean Donovan
By Sean Donovan

Hello,

I'm building a series of demos using Storyline and some of them had to be broken up into several parts. What I'm looking to do is, at the end of each part put a button that will allow the next published demo to open and begin so the user does not have to return to a folder and open up the next part manually.

These published files are going to be stored on the user's computer so this is not an online URL link; it would be a link to a file on the machine.

Going through and using the "jump to URL/File" option within Storyline, I did a test and tried to link two demos together. I found the appropriate file to link to (the 'story.html' file) and published everything out. However, when I went to test it the button did not work. I clicked on it and nothing happened. I went back into the Storyline file to verify the path was correct and it was, but the button still did not work. And these are files stored locally on my own computer.

My question is if I'm doing something wrong or if this is even possible to do this using Storyline? Some of these demos have up to nine parts in them and this would make the entire process easier.

For data transfer reasons, the parts cannot be combined and published in one file/part.

If anyone needs further elaboration on the process, if something is unclear, or if additional information is required please let me know.

Thank you in advance!

40 Replies
Jennifer St. George
almost 11 years ago06/24/13 at 2:55 pm (UTC)

I'm noodling on your dilemma; do your learners have access to SCORM cloud?  If so, I would create the 9 demos as branches within one SL file and then publish. 

Do the learners/users not have access to internet?  Is that why the demo has to be on their computer?  Deployment in the scenario you described above might be problematic.

Oh, wait.  What if you publish to CD doing the branching I mentioned above and then burn and ship CD's to those who need it?  Might be easier than trying to deploy to specific locations on an individual's machine.

I would build each demo as a stand alone, perfect it and then import it into a 'master' SL file and set the links up.  You might ask Bruce Graham or one of the other Hero's directly on this one.  They may have a better solution.

Sean Donovan
almost 11 years ago06/25/13 at 8:20 am (UTC)

The The learners will not have access to a SCORM cloud and Internet access and bandwidth will be limited due to restrictions in certain locations. Since the published SL files are so large and there will be so many users accessing them at the same time it made more sense to have the files stored locally than on a cloud. This is also a reason these files needed to be split up into smaller portions and not all together in large/master files. This may be problematic but it is what we have to work with.

But before anything is decided in terms of publishing options (CDs are not feasible due to cost and logistics, BTW) I need help with the issue at hand, which is how to link these published SL files together using a button with the jump to URL/file function. Right now, there is no functionality when the button is linked to the 'story.html' file in the next published file. The button simply does nothing. So, before dissecting the way these files are broken up (there's really nothing that can be done about that) I'm looking for answers on how to get this function to work.

Pierre Jouan
over 9 years ago11/07/14 at 9:42 am (UTC)

Hello,

I have the exact same needs : a multipart project, working locally (so published as a CD executable).

Ideally, I would like to have a Menu that would link to chapters and chapters would link back to the menu.

We don't want to import chapters in a single SL file because we might need to alter chapters afterwards.

I made demos files where I published two Chapter files Ch01 and Ch02. I then made a Menu file with buttons that link to those chapters (copied in subfolders).

If I link to HTML files I get a blank page, if I link to SWFs, I get a "ERROR: Could not load the file 'story_content/data.swf'"

Any clue ?

Thanks !

 

shay zinger
almost 9 years ago06/09/15 at 6:45 am (UTC)

hey every1
found a solution!

i hope it is still relevant to somebody.....

i had to create just what you've described - a few demos with only part of the project.

i took the same steps and got an error saying the browser can't find the file.

so what i did is this:

created 3 different projects -  #1 will lead to #2 and #3

i've published 2# and 3# 

now, i've opened proj' #1 and inserted a hyperlink from #1 to #2 and to #3 

the address SL created was long and contained all the folders ,begining from my harddrive -"c:\\user\programs" and so on, at the end i found the name of my file - "project2.html"

i've changed the address of the link - saving only the end of it - the last folder's name and the filename.html

example - 

 if the full address was- " c:\\user\program\.........\project2 - Storyline output\project2.html

i left only  - \project2 - Storyline output\project2.html

and i added two dotts before the slash sign - ..\test2 - Storyline output\project2.html

after changing the adresses for the other two projects (i'm working on project #1) i've published

project #1

when i've changed the address i actually pointed it to a folder that is positioned inside project 1 - i.e - project #2 + #3 will be inside project #1 and so it will "go together".

but, in order for it to work you now need to copy the published projcts - #2 + #3 inside the published folder of project1

you can see in the image below the two folders i've manually copied - this id indide "\project1 - storyline output".

and that's it - now i ran project1.html file and it works !

again, i hope it will help some1

Manjunath eCoursys
8 years ago03/04/16 at 5:23 am (UTC)

Thank Shay for the detailed steps. We are in a similar situation wherein our course is over 1.2GB size with over 20 modules inside (60-70mb each).  We developed modules independently & tried to merge. With just 5 modules merged, it had already become nightmare in terms of edits, publishing & crashes.   We are working on a similar approach like yours. Just see that it worked for you give us some much confidence.   

Keeping them separate works multiple ways for us -

1. Easy maintenance of modules

2. Bundling into multiple flavors of course is easy (We are building master course which will be forked into 3-4 separate courses based on audience)

3. Easy to publish to multiple platforms (we are publishing as SCORMs, CD, Web, Digital Downloads). 

Based on how it work out for us (we will know 3-4 weeks),  I will share my experiences.

Roberta Di Muzio
8 years ago03/30/16 at 3:28 am (UTC)

Hi everyone,

I'm having the same problem as Sean (the discussion thread initiator) and while I've read through everyone's comments, including Shay's, I'm still none the wiser. I'm actually more confused after reading Shay's solution (no offence).

I'm hoping that someone knows of a simpler way I can link SL modules to each other given the amount of time lapsed since the original post.

Anyone????

Joanne Chen
8 years ago03/30/16 at 5:03 am (UTC)

Hi Roberta, I had a project with multiple modules, and I created a menu to open each module in new browsers. It is not like A→B→C，but it is actually a mechanism to link between different published files. Take a look to this link, see if this is what you are looking for.

This is how I did: created a slide with button to open a new layer and then insert a web object(a published module with index file in it) in that layer. Display the web object in a new browser (I prefer a new browser so that to keep the menu opened and could come back anytime). All of the linked files will be generated in one package when you publish the menu file.

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