Publishing a Storyline 2 presentation

Apr 29, 2016

I am able to publish my presentation as a Web page and view it from the published zip file. For some reason, when I publish it and select the the EMAIL option on the Publish Successful window, the published file does not open up from the email. I tested it by emailing the zip file to myself, saving the zipped file to my laptop, extracting the zipped file,  and then double-clicking the story.html file. Instead of the presentation playing, the following appears in an otherwise blank window:

NEXT
PREV

 

15 Replies
Rocco Sciulli

Hi Ashley,

I am able to publish the file to the web. And I can open it locally, from a folder on my PC. I have used Launch_Story.exe when published for a CD. My real concern is that when I publish and then select EMAIL. The file won't launch. I tested it by emailing the zipped to myself, copying the file to my PC, extracting the zipped file content and then double-clicked the html file. The presentation does not open. It appears that compressing the file (zip) causes the failure. I need to email the published file to my SMEs.

 

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Rocco!

If you are publishing the course to the web, you will need to upload the content to the web prior to sharing a link. The content needs to be viewed in its intended environment. You can then share a URL via e-mail with your SME's. You can even utilize Tempshare if you just with to have them review prior to your official upload.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Rocco,

Testing the web published content locally, even if you are sending the entire folder to folks could cause them to encounter the security issues mentioned. 

If you're looking to email the publish to CD content, you could instruct them to download the file locally, and then extract all the zipped contents to run the Launch_story.exe file. 

Rocco Sciulli

I read all the comments. I am still missing something. I can publish the file using the Web Publish option. After the file publishes, Storyline presents a window: Publish Successful. In that window there is an EMAIL option. When I select that option, my file is converted to a zip folder and my email opens with the zip file attached.. There are instructions to the recipient:

To view this content:

1. Save the attached zip file to your computer

2. Extract (unzip) the file.

3. Double-click the story.html file.

When these steps are completed,  the file does not open. All I need to do is email it to someone. It seems that there are no other steps that Storyline requires. If there are additional steps, they are not on the Publish window. There is no mention od a URL. What an I missing?

 

Thanks,

Christie Pollick

Hi, Rocco -- Sorry to hear that you are still having difficulties! I thought I would stop in to share a few general resources on working with SMEs for good measure:

And I wanted to note, if you continue to experience difficulties, you may want to use this form to reach out to our Support Engineers in case something more is going on behind the scenes. 

Rocco Sciulli

I read the potential solutions in "How SMEs Review Storyline Projects" and in How to Send Storyline Projects for Review". My only question at this point is, When publishing a Storyline project, what is the EMAIL option for?  No one seems to be mentioning it in their blogs. I don't necessarily want to use a dropbox or "Review my Project", or a Word Document, or a spreadsheet. I just need to email the published story. Any hints?? Has anyone EVER used the EMAIL option?

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Rocco,

It would allow you to email the contents of the  entire published output folder to another individual(s). It would likely be used to transfer the files to the person who will ultimately upload to your site or LMS - but it'll be quite a larger email depending on the size of your course, so that may be why you hear less about people using it just based on it not being an incredibly efficient set up for most.

Rocco Sciulli

Hi Ashley

I understand why many would be reluctant to use the EMAIl option. When I select it, the Storyline 2 project is automatically compressed (zipped) and attached to my PC's default email sever (Outlook). Compressing it reduces the size so that it is able to be sent. As a test, I emailed the zipped folder to myself. When I extract the files from the zipped folder and double-click the story_html file, the story will not play. Is this because the original project folder was compressed?

Thanks for your quick reply.

Rocco

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Rocco,

Do you extract them to your local drive and try to play? Playing published content locally is known to cause issues - and although you can often play the content on the system in which it was published, sending or sharing it may cause it to not play as expected. I'd suggest uploading it to the intended environment and if you need to share it via email and have the reviewers view it locally you could look at using the publish to CD option. 

Rocco Sciulli

Hi Ashley,

Yes, I extract the compressed files to my local drive and try to play them. If I am reading this correctly, the EMAIL option is only useful if the project is published using the CD option, not the Web option. Is that correct? I have tested the CD option with EMAIL and it has a few steps, but it does work. I was just looking for a simpler solution.

Thanks again.

 

 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Rocco, 

I would think that the majority of people use the EMAIL option from the publish to Web or LMS set up to send the files to an IT person or someone who would ultimately be loading it up to the server or LMS. So I wouldn't say it's "only useful if published to CD" - just that it's usefulness depends on what you'd like the other person to accomplish when they receive the emailed contents. 

If you need to send to another individual for them to view locally, the CD output would be what I would use as a publish method and send along either via email, burned to a CD/flash drive, or placing the entire contents of the published output folder on a shared drive. For the individual who is receiving it, they'll need to download to their local drive and extract the contents to allow things to run properly.

If you need to allow your reviewers to see the content as it's expected to be shown in the web or LMS, you may want to look at using one of the options mentioned in this article or SCORM Cloud which is an industry standard for LMS content. 

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