Seekbar issues when publishing to HTML5

Hi Kuriko,

The replay button and it's behavior is driven by your slide properties settings and as you'll see described here - it sounds like the first two items you mentioned may be working as designed. 

In regards to the Pause and replay button not working all together - what types of video have you inserted? Did you enable the video controls in addition to the seekbar? If so - then the video is no longer linked with the slide's timeline and therefore the pause/replay button will have no impact on the video. Additionally, have you tried clicking on the video itself to see if that would allow you to use the play/pause functionality? 

Hi Ashley,

Thanks for your reply, and thanks for reminding me that the Replay/Rewind button still doesn't work properly when the slide is set to 'Resume Saved State'. Whilst this may be expected behaviour from the perspective of the Storyline Development Team, many users agree with me that this appears to learners as a 'bug' and not as 'expected behaviour'. Users have been requesting that this bug be fixed since 2012 and there are several other posts on the issue, such as here, here and here. Hopefully this can be addressed in the next release. 

Anyway, the issues included in my post are not just related to this bug. As I mentioned, the course works as expected in the Flash output. It is only the HTML5 output that has issues. It might help if I explain the issues in a bit more detail, so I've documented my testing below highlighting the 5 main issues.  

Slides with 'Resume saved state' property: 

In Flash:

-Pause button pauses both the timeline animations and the seekbar (as expected)

-Play button resumes playback of both the timeline animations and the seekbar (as expected)

-Replay button does not return timeline and seekbar to initial point to replay the video (this is currently to be expected due to the above-mentioned bug). 

In HTML5 (Google Chrome and Mobile Safari):

-Pause button pauses both the video and the seekbar (as expected)

- Play button resumes the seekbar (i.e. it starts moving again)but does not resume playback of the timeline animations (i.e. it is frozen) ** ISSUE 1 **

-Replay button does not return video and seekbar to initial point to replay the timeline animations (this is currently to be expected due to the above-mentioned bug). 

Slides with 'Reset to initial state' property: 

In Flash:

-Pause button pauses both the timeline animations and the seekbar (as expected)

-Play button resumes playback of both the timeline animations and the seekbar (as expected)

-Replay button returns the seekbar and timeline animations to initial point and replays the slide (as expected)

In HTML5 (in Google Chrome): 

-Pause button pauses both the timeline animations and the seekbar (as expected)

- Play button resumes the seekbar (i.e. it starts moving again)and the timeline animations (i.e. objects are appearing in synch with the seekbar), but the slide is now muted and no audio will play ** ISSUE 2 **

- When you click the Replay button on the seekbar - either during playback or at the end of the timeline - the seekbar restarts (i.e.it starts moving again) and the timeline animations restart (i.e.objects are appearing in synch with the seekbar), but the slide is now muted and no audio will play ** ISSUE 3 **

In HTML 5 (in Mobile Safari): 

-Pause button pauses both the timeline animations and the seekbar (as expected)

- Play button resumes the seekbar (i.e. it starts moving again)and the timeline animations (i.e. objects are appearing in synch with the seekbar), but the slide is now muted and no audio will play  

-When you click the Replay button on the seekbar during playback,it returns the seekbar and timeline animations to initial point and replays the slide (as expected).

- When you click the Replay button at the end of the timeline,or while the timeline is paused, the seekbar restarts (i.e. it starts moving again) and the timeline animations restart (i.e. objects are appearing in synch with the seekbar), but the slide is now muted and no audio will play. 

All slides with video:  

In Flash:

-Pause button pauses both the video and the seekbar (as expected)

-Play button resumes playback of both the video and the seekbar (as expected)

-Replay button returns video and seekbar to initial point and replays the video (as expected)

In HTML5 (in Google Chrome and Mobile Safari):

-Pause button pauses both the video and the seekbar (as expected)

- Play button resumes the seekbar resumes (i.e. it starts moving again) but does not resume playback of the video (it is frozen) ** ISSUE 4 **

- Replay button returns the seekbar to initial point and starts progressing again, but does not affect the video at all - i.e. if video was playing, it continues to play from its current point rather than replaying from the beginning, so it is out of synch with the seekbar, and if the video was paused, it continues to be frozen and does not replay ** ISSUE 5 **

Now, to answer your questions about the video slides: 

1. What types of video have you inserted? WMV video

2. Did you enable the video controls in addition to the seekbar?  No

3. Have you tried clicking on the video itself to see if that would allow you to use the play/pause functionality? We have intentionally placed a hotspot over the video to prevent this, as clicking on the video is not a logical way to pause a video from a learner's perspective (unless of course we add in some on-screen text to ask learners to pause the video by clicking on it, as opposed to clicking the pause button in the seekbar which they use for every other slide in the course - this idea seems a bit ridiculous). 

Hopefully this helps, and I look forward to hearing if anyone else has experienced these issues. 

Hi Kuriko,

Thanks for providing that detailed information and testing info here. I did a bit more digging in our bug base, and I see an issue where the seekbar and play/pause button are not working as expected when viewing the HTML5 content in Update 6 of Storyline - but to confirm that you're experiencing the same issue we'd want to test your .story file as it sounds like there are a few differences in terms of the issues you've experienced and what I've seen in that report filed with our QA team.  Are you able to share an example .story file here with us - or connect directly with our Support engineers? 

Kuriko or Ashley,

Was the issues #2 &#3 resolved?  I have a class that has layers and when I try to go back to the base layer using build in buttons the slide bar moves but audio never plays?  the slide is check to reset to initial state, as is each layer.

Copied from above:- Play button resumes the seekbar (i.e. it starts moving again)and the timeline animations (i.e. objects are appearing in synch with the seekbar), but the slide is now muted and no audio will play ** ISSUE 2 **

- When you click the Replay button on the seekbar - either during playback or at the end of the timeline - the seekbar restarts (i.e.it starts moving again) and the timeline animations restart (i.e.objects are appearing in synch with the seekbar), but the slide is now muted and no audio will play ** ISSUE 3 **

Hi, Kristy -- thanks for reaching out with your question! If you would like to reach Kuriko directly, you are welcome to use the 'Contact Me' link visible on an individual's profile page. 

Otherwise, I will see what additional information I am able to gather and will share my findings as soon as possible. :)

thanks Christie- it is driving me bananas!  the slide layer all replay just fine when I revisit it is just the main level that won't restart audio.

Hi, Kristy -- Thanks for your response, and would it be possible for you to share your file? I'd like to take a look so that I am better able to determine if the issue you are reporting may have already been submitted to our QA team for additional investigation. :)

Sure can- I have to scrub it down to get rid of the information (propriety) and will post tomorrow.  Thanks!

Christie, attached my file.  The only two slides left are control and drum.  I also took the audio down in length.  I had tried doing an audio trigger on the base slide but then the seekbar didn't match up and they couldn't seek.

Excellent, Kristy -- Just wanted to confirm that I have received your file and I will take a look at it as soon as possible! I'll reply here with my findings shortly. :)

Hi, Kristy -- Many thanks again for your patience while I did some testing on your file. Please click on this link to confirm that this is the behavior you are seeing as well when you test your course. 

Yes- it is the same.  The audio will play if I press pause and then play again (which is what it was doing before as well) but I don't think I can assume a learner will do that :)

Great, Kristy -- I appreciate your reply and confirmation that we are experiencing the same behavior! I will review the ticket in with our QA staff to verify that this issue has already been submitted, and I'll let you know more as soon as I can!

Hi, Kristy -- From what I am able to determine, your issue would fall under the ticket that is currently in with our QA team for review. I will go ahead and add this thread to the ticket to ensure that any updates received would be shared here. And while I am not able to provide a timeframe in which this issue may be resolved, I wanted to share the following workarounds noted in the ticket in case you may find them to be of use:

Option 1. Disable "Pause timeline of Base layer" on Slide layer properties.

Option 2. Delay the inserted Audio/Video by adjusting it for .2 seconds (or more) in the Base layer's Timeline.

Thank you Christie- appreciate the help.  Look forward to seeing some resolution but I'll figure out a work around in the immediate.  Thanks again

Christie wanted to report back and let you know the delay audio trick works on the base layers! :)

Hello,

I’m having similar issues with my seekbar when publishing for web. When I preview my content on the software it works fine. I.e the user can drag the seek bar backwards and forwards and everything remains in sync, layers audio etc.

When published for web if I drag or click back on the seek bar it goes straight back to the start of the slide? How is this fixed?

Thanks

Mike

Mike, we have since upgraded to 360 and haven't noticed this to be an issue- but as a best practice we rarely have an audio file start right at the beginning of slide, there is at least a .25 before the clip.  Good luck

Hi Michael,

What version of Storyline are you using? Also when you're testing out the web output have you uploaded to your web site/server? Testing it locally could cause you to encounter browser or local security restrictions as detailed here.