Refresh Web Object

Yes, I had read that. The web objects insert and display fine.

When I select edit, and choose the same folder, Storyline doesn't update the web object. I change the content of the index.html file in the folder and want storyline to pick up the new content, but edit doesn't do that. The only way is to delete the web object and reinsert it.

It's sort of like a web browser where it keeps loading the cached version of a page and you have to do a hard refresh to get it to actually load the page properly.

Hi Vicki,

Is your web object local on your computer or on your web server?

Adrian

They're local. I have 12 of them in this project and was tweaking the css code of the files, so needed to keep updating them, which became a real pain.

Hi Vicki,

What about uploading all of them to your web server and then trying it that way to see if you have the same problems.

Adrian

I'm still waiting for a reply on this one too (Now December 11, 2012).

Hey Robert, 

Are you having a specific issue with web objects or local files? After publishing, clearing your browser's cache is the best way to ensure you're seeing the most recent iteration of your project. 

Any more details you can give us..? 

Thanks!

It's exactly as stated by Vicki above the first post. Storyline doesn't update the files of the web object folder if changes are made to them.

example: if I have an index.htm in a folder called MYSTUFF

1. I insert web object pointing to the folder called MYSTUFF.

2. I publish the storyline to a Folder called MYSTORY

3. Everything works OK

4. I change something in the index file (Example CSS styles using Notepad++ or resize an image using Corel Paint).

5. I publishing the projet again.

6. The index.htm remains the same (old version) as do the images.

I cleared all cache, so I think storyline embeds the files or uses an temp folder somewhere ?

see my original post:

http://community.articulate.com/forums/t/22724.aspx

If storyline has its own temp folder, let me know where it's located so I can delete old files.

Have no idea how it picks up the old files unless there embedd in the story file.

Thanks

Hello,

Same problem here, 

Even with clearing cache, the changes are not picked up. (my html original file is on my computer)

Thanks, 

Chris

Hi Chris,

Are you able to send us your file so we can take a closer look at what's going on? Thanks!

Peter,

I'd like to add that Storyline and Articulate Studio have the same functionality in terms of updating of local WebObjects or Flash Based content.  From my experience it seems that instead of creating a relative or absolute link to the local file, Storyline/Studio actually "copies" the asset into its internal structure.

Where I would expect to see an update/change that is made to the external file reflected in the Storyline/Studio project, I often have to re-create the WebObject or Flash asset in StorylineStudio to update the "copied" internal file, as there seems to be no simple mechanism in place to allow us to quickly swap out assets as we can with images.

Thank you,

Stephen

Yes, I was hoping that with the update I downloaded to Storyline recently that this would have been addressed, but apparently not.

Just to clarify, local web objects are added to the .STORY file. If you wanted to be able to change your web object outside of Storyline without having to reinsert the web object, you would probably want to host the web object on a web server since Storyline would simply be pulling the web object from an HTTP address. This is by design. Storyline does not pull the web object from the same folder each time you publish. If this is something you would like to see, feel free to submit a feature request.

Even if I create a new web object and link it to the same folder it will use the folder's old content.

Hi Justin,

If you are hosting your web object on a web server, and your Storyline project is pointed to it, if you wanted to change the web object, you would just need to make sure that it had the same name and file path and the old one. Everything should still work as before.

Hope that makes sense.

Adrian

I think the general consensus is that there should be a "Refresh WebObject" button, so when a local html source is updated, it can be implemented in the project. This would make it so the user doesn't have to go in and replace each and every instance of the WebObject.

This is necessary because there are times when one wants said WebObject to be embedded in the output file.

Hi Brian! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and you are always welcome to share them with our development team here as well.

Hello All,

Does anyone know of a way to refresh the content inside the web object from the main module? 

I have a module pulling in another module as a web object in a layer so that I can have a main menu/controller.  When I pull up the other module in the web object and try to hide it, it does not reset the layer or the web object.  If I set the web object up in another slide, it will reset it but it runs slower.

Is there anything that I could do or add that would reset that web object in the layer or am I just stuck with using a new slide to reset it?

HI Jacob,

There isn't an option to reset a web object, as it's external content - so you'd want to place it on a new slide to include it as a fresh start. 

Does this issue carry over to the users who view the content? In other words, if there are two courses, each of which contains a Web Object pointing to "index.html" that 'houses' a PDF, for example, will the USER see THE FIRST .PDF they loaded, rather than the second course's PDF? Will the user's cache load PDF 1 only from WebObject 1 from Course 1, rather than loading PDF 2 from WebObject 2 from Course 2?

Hi Yvette,

If the PDFs are hosted in separate courses, they'll be pointing to different links - even if they end with the same portion of the link. If I'm misunderstanding what your set up is, could you share a bit more information. 

I see. I had created 3 courses, each with 1 Web Object (referencing a .PDF). I uploaded al 3 courses with the three different embedded PDFs as Web Objects, but when I took each course, only the FIRST PDF I had viewed loaded, regardless of which of the 3 courses I launched from the LMS. If it's a local issue for me, the content creator only, I see the solution above. But if users view multiple courses that have embedded Web Objects referencing different PDFs, but they continue to only see the FIRST PDF they load, then that's obviously a very different issue.

Hi Yvette,

I think we'd need to see the files and what links are included and being referenced. Are you able to share some of the courses here with us - or a stripped down version of the course? You could also send them along here. 

There isn't no option to refresh, but there is a way to refesh, not delete Web Object.

On the Web Object, Click right Mouse button, and selete "Web Object" - "Edit" and select folder Icon,  In the window, Copy the old folder as new Name, and Select the new folder.
(and delete the older folder, later)

Then you will see the change in the publish files.

Thanks Eunjong for sharing some additional ideas here, as along this thread is older it may still assist other users who come across it.