Player links not working in published version
Nov 07, 2018
I've created a link in the Player Topbar (like the default Resources link) with a trigger to lightbox a slide in the project when clicked.
In Preview mode this works perfectly. However when clicked in the published version, nothing happens. It is detected as a link (the cursor icon changes to a hand on Hover) but when clicked the screen "flashes" but the slide doesn't open.
This feature is a lightboxed menu to navigate to certain parts of the course, and we have now incorporated it in 14 courses which are due to be published, so we need to solve this. We're using the latest update of AS2.
I'd be grateful for any suggestions as to why this is happening and how to fix it.
11 Replies
Are you viewing this from the web or LMS, or are you viewing it from your local computer? Is there anything that is immediately hiding the layer after it is shown?
"Are you viewing this from the web or LMS, or are you viewing it from your local computer?" We've tried viewing it from our local computer and from the web (uploaded to Articulate Tempshare). Neither responds as it does in the Preview.
"Is there anything that is immediately hiding the layer after it is shown?" No, and the behaviour in Preview mode is as expected: the slide appears in a lightbox when the Player link is clicked and stays on the screen until the learner clicks on a button on that slide. In the published version, the slide does not appear and the presentation continues.
I'm not sure if this is still the case, but I think preview mode used to use Flash, so I don't trust it and never use it. I always preview in the browser. Are you able to share just the portion of your project file that exhibits the problem?
Michael, first of all, many thanks for taking the time to look at this.
I've never shared a Storyline file (as opposed to published versions) but I imagine that it will contain the player as well as the slides.
As you'll see there are three scenes - two for contents and one for the lightboxed menu. THe link in the top right of the player has a trigger to lightbox this slide when clicked.
Any suggestions much appreciated
Richard, the link I see in the upper right corner looks like a link to pop open the built-in player menu. I don't see a trigger anywhere that would lightbox your scene 3 Menu slide, but I could have missed something. I sent you a message to contact me, might be easier to discuss over the phone.
Thank you for taking the trouble Michael. I'm in Spain so a phone call my be a bit trickier.
It's definitely a link with a trigger to lightbox a slide in the project, not the player menu (see attached screenshot) and anyway that's how it works in Preview mode. Not the first time we've run into published versions not working as programmed and as seen in Preview - we had a massive problem with a bug affecting the launch of video and audio which was eventually solved in an AS2 update.
Many thanks once again.
I see your trigger now, sorry about that. It seems I can lightbox other slides in your project but not that menu slide. When lightboxing other slides, there are no errors in the browser's web console but your menu slide is producing the attached error. You may have some file corruption. Either way I would open a support ticket and show support this error.
That's really helpful Michael. I didn't think of doing a "control" test with a different slide but now I have and it works fine. Doesn't immediately solve our problem but gives me something to work on because your test implies the problem is with the slide and not the link or trigger. I'll see if putting the menu on a different slide / scene makes any difference . I'll let you know if I have any luck.
Once again, many, many thanks
Hey Richard,
Just refreshed this conversation to see you reply.
I'm seeing the behavior you are reporting as well once I published the course.
Let me know if you continue to have difficulty in your testing as well and I'll get that filed for you if needed.
Thanks Leslie. I've tried "Jump to" instead of "Lightbox slide" as a trigger and that seems to work fine when publishing. For some reason in the published version (and not the preview) the trigger was executing the close layer command that was supposed to be executed only when the learner clicked on a button on the lightboxed menu.
The advantage of the lightbox was that the learner could close the menu and be back at the point in the course where they were when they clicked. With "jump to" they have to go to the start of another section. (We're trying this method in order to save screen "real estate" by not using the menu sidebar; and rather than putting a link on every single slide and layer the option of a link on the player was attractive).
The "jump to" option is less elegant for what we had in mind, but changing the trigger in the player is much less time-consuming than reworking the whole idea, so that seems the way to go.
As you'll have seen , Michael Anderson kindly pointed me towards where the problem was occurring, which helped enormously.
I'm guessing I'm not the first person to observe that a slide-in or drop-down Storyline player menu (as opposed to the fixed sidebar) would be fantastic.
Thank you to you and Michael for helping.
Yes, I tried duplicating the slide but the new slide created the same error in the web browser, so it might be corrupted. You could try deleting the menu slide and recreating it from scratch.
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.