Problems with Storyline 360, HTML5 and IE11

Apr 26, 2018

Ian Wallbridge
By Ian Wallbridge

Hi all,

We've just been made aware of a problem with a Storyline 360 course when it is viewed on a Surface Pro using IE11. The picture breaks up really badly, although those words don't really do justice to what we see on screen.

We published the course in HTML5 over Flash (given that this is the way Articulate and browsers are moving) but this is clearly the source of the problem - reverse the priority and it plays perfectly. Other courses we've published the same way play cleanly on the same device in the same browser, although potentially don't have quite the same level of complexity.  The problem course plays on other devices and other browsers without any issue.

Testing was carried out by publishing to Articulate 360 to ensure that our LMS wasn't at fault.

The questions that spring to mind are:
1. Could there be a device issue here?

2. If not, do different versions of IE11 cope with HTML5 in different ways? The 'problem' build is 11.15.16299.0 (other devices use 11.916.10586.0)

3. Could the complexity of the course be pushing the limits of the browser in HTML5 in this particular case?

4. Do both Articulate and MS work to exact HTML5 standards, or is this a case of trying to keep up with whatever updates are applied to browsers?

4. What would be the recommendation going forward, considering the move away from Flash?

I've attached an error log file in the hope that this may help shed some light on the issue.

All comments (and hopefully a solution!) appreciated,

Thanks,

Ian

5 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
almost 6 years ago04/27/18 at 2:04 pm (UTC)

Hi Ian, 

I'm sorry to hear about the issues you've run into with Storyline's display on the Surface pro. Are you able to share a screenshot of what it does look like, as that may give more clues as to what you're experiencing?

As for your questions, I'll take them one by one:

  1. The Surface is supported for viewing and I haven't heard of any other issues specific to this device
  2. Yes, each update of IE11 could be handling the HTML5 content (or any other features, security, etc.) differently than another. I'm not familiar enough with the Surface Pro to know what may be the latest IE11 update for that device, but for comparison, my Windows 10 machine is running Internet Explorer 11.371.16229.0 and there is an update pending for 11.0.60 but I'm always hesitant to run IE updates. 🙃
  3. It's hard to say without knowing more about what is "complex" in this course. 
  4. I can't speak to Microsoft, but we're always working to improve our HTML5 output and keep up with the standards and any updates/changes to the latest version of each browser. For example, we just released support for the latest Chrome 66 browser update. 
  5. Since it sounds like this is specific to HTML5 +IE11 + Surface Pro tablet, my initial recommendation is to see what updates are available for the browser and make sure you're publishing with the latest updates of Storyline 360. If you want to share a link to the course, I can also have a few colleagues who use the Surface test it too. 

One other note, I like to use this site: HTML5test.com to compare how different browsers (on different devices) even compare to one another. When checking my version of IE against Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge, the IE results look pretty sad. 

Let me know if you need anything else, and we're happy to take a look at that course too! You can share the .story file and we'll publish and host internally or share the URL to your course and we can test on a few devices. If you'd prefer to share out of the public eye, no worries! You can always connect with our Support Engineers and share content there.

Ian Wallbridge
almost 6 years ago04/27/18 at 3:57 pm (UTC)

Hi Ashley,

Thank you for providing such a comprehensive reply. I'll look at available browser updates next week, but I'll also take you up on the suggestion of contacting support engineers - I can share the story file with them, and also (given a suitable email address for support) I can share via 360 so that they can test directly on a Surface Pro.

Many thanks,

Ian

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