LMS Tin-Can and Articulate Mobile Player - Not happening....

Apr 08, 2013

Paul Trainer
By Paul Trainer

Hi Everybody,

We have been using Articulate for a long time and we love it. One issue that is still present is the inability to playback content on iOS devices that is in a password protected LMS environment as it still results in the "Cannot Access Content: - Articulate Mobile Player cannot access this content."

According to the help page:

"Currently, there isn't a way to pass security credentials from a web browser to a mobile application apart from Tin Can API."

We are currently using Blackboard 9 with the latest Service Pack 10 which supports the Tin Can API yet we are still getting the dreaded "Cannot Access Content:".

The current suggestion is to put the content in a non-secure environment (not an option) or to export HTML 5. We don't used any Flash components it is just images, text, scroll boxes... etc.. yet the Safari mobile browser feels a bit clunky in comparison to the Articulate Mobile Player. Also without the AMP there is no option to have the content downloaded for Offline use which is great for people that have a poor Internet connection.

I feel it is a big over-site not to have a username/password entry option within the Articulate Mobile Player (AMP) itself that would bypass a whole lot of issues on iOS and allow content to be accessed by the AMP directly. 

Has anybody managed to get Articulate Mobile Player to work with any password protected LMS that has Tin Can API support?

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Paul

2 Replies
Brian Batt
11 years ago04/09/13 at 1:45 pm (UTC)

Hi Paul,

Thanks for posting.  I touched base with a contact over at Rustici and here's what we came up with:

Although Blackboard supports the Tin Can API, they haven't implemented support for Tin Can API private content authorization in mobile apps. Our white paper on Tin Can API implementation provides helpful information on how it works.  Please feel free to contact Blackboard with this document:

https://docs.google.com/a/articulate.com/document/d/1F-9pm8_z5oMyCsfj0iEpjQAa1KaCFdqEqjWoDNRt5xg/

===============

Regarding passing browser credentials from a website to the Articulate Mobile Player, it would be very difficult to accomplish this from one LMS to another.  There would have to be changes not only in AMP, but also on the LMS side...and it's very likely that those implementations would be different from one LMS to another.

Fortunately, as the Tin Can API grows and is more fully implemented, we'll have one spec that simplifies the communication process between content and systems like Blackboard.

Paul Trainer
11 years ago04/10/13 at 7:58 pm (UTC)

Hi Brian,

Long time no see.... : )

Thank you for the information. I managed to find a work around which seems to solve the problem as long as the LMS supports the Tin Can API at least in its basic form.

Here is a quote from the webpage:

"Where should Tin Can API content be hosted, in the LMS or an external server?

If your LMS supports the Tin Can API but hasn't yet enabled private content authorization for mobile apps, you'll need to host your published content on a server that is separate from your LMS. And, if you're hosting content on a separate server, you'll need to modify the Launch URL when publishing. Here's how:

  1. In Storyline, go to the Home tab, and click Publish.
  2. Select the LMS option on the left edge of the publishing window.
  3. From the LMS drop-down list at the bottom of the window, select Tin Can API.
  4. Click the Reporting and Tracking button.
  5. In the Launch URL field, type the full URL to the story.html file where it'll be hosted on the external server. 
  6. Click OK, and complete the publishing process.
  7. Zip the published output.
  8. Upload the zipped version of the published content to your LMS.
  9. And upload the unzipped version to your external server.

If your LMS provider hasn't yet enabled private content authorization for mobile apps and you'd like to encourage them to do so, our white paper on Tin Can API implementation provides helpful information.

If, however, your LMS provider has already fully implemented the Tin Can API, including private content authorization for mobile apps, simply publish for LMS, zip the published output, and upload it directly to your LMS. "

Webpage Link>

One issue that did crop up is that while everything works now in the Articulate Mobile Player the the Available Offline ON/OFF option is not present for the Tin Can version of the course, while the SCORM  version of the same course has this option.

I did specify the Allow downloading for offline viewing when I exported the course from Storyline. Am I missing something?

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.