SL2 & SL360 "Restricted" Menu Navigation and Next Button - Solution / Workaround

Nov 13, 2014

Bobbi Bailey
By Bobbi Bailey

Many developers are having an issue with the new "restricted" menu navigation logic in SL2.  I have come up with, what I think is a very quick, simple and viable solution.  To re-cap the issue:

  •  In SL1 the Menu Navigation options include “restricted” which allows learners to view the current slide and any slide they've previously viewed, but not use the menu to jump ahead or skip over slides.  This only restricts the learners' ability to click on menu items to navigate. If the slides included a Previous or Next button, users can still be click those to freely move forward and backward in the course at will.  Content developers could add triggers/variables to control the previous/next buttons, as they saw fit.
  • In SL2 the Menu Navigation “Restricted” logic was changed.  The restricted option still allows learners to view the current slide and any slide they've previously viewed, but not use the menu to jump ahead or skip over slides.  However, this now also disables the Next button and does not allow users to advance forward until the timeline ends.  Triggers/variables do not work to over-ride this logic change.

Here’s what I have come up with:

  1. Create your .story project and set the navigation menu options to “Free”.  This will ensure that the next and previous buttons are not restricted.  (Don't worry, we will adjust the menu navigation itself in a bit).  If needed, go ahead and create triggers/variables to control the previous/next button navigation as desired.
  2. Publish your .story project.  Go ahead and “zip” if the course will be uploaded to an LMS.
  3. In the “publish successful” pop-up window, click “OPEN” to open the Storyline output directory.
  4. Double-click and open the story_content folder.
  5. Open the frame.xml file (this can be opened with Notepad)
  6. Find and replace the following:
    <option name="flow" value="free" />
    with
    <option name="flow" value="restricted" />
  7. Save and close the frame.xml file.
  8. Launch and play your course.  The navigation menu is now restricted, but the previous/next buttons can be used at will.  (Any triggers/variables that were added to control the previous/next button navigation should work as developed.)

If uploading to an LMS, you have a couple more steps.

  1. In the file directory, right-click and "copy" the modified frame.xml file.
  2. Navigate to the story_content folder in the ZIPPED file.
  3. Right-click and "paste" (replace) the modified file here.  You can now upload to your LMS.


This seems kind of tricky, but it is actually very easy!  And once you’ve done it a couple of times, you will see that it literally only takes a few seconds to do!

Hope this helps,

Bobbi

Addendum for HTML 5 (added 10/11/2016)

If publishing to HTML 5, the frame.js file must also be changed.  This can be done by following the below steps.  (NOTE: These steps must be done prior to uploading to LMS, if launching through an LMS.)

  1. Open the frame.js file (recommend opening with Notepad)
  2. Find and replace the following:
    |free|
    with
    |restricted|
  3. Save and close the frame.js file.
192 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 7 years ago12/06/16 at 12:52 pm (UTC)

Hi Keerti,

You may want to look at posting your file and/or code changes here so that others in the community could take a look as it's not something that we can offer support for as it's a workaround within the published output files when editing the frame.xml file.

You'll also want to confirm that once you've published the course you upload it to the intended environment vs. testing it locally which could cause you to encounter security restrictions. 

Leyton Miller
over 7 years ago01/06/17 at 4:36 am (UTC)

So I take it by the title which includes "& SL360", that despite this issue being raised more than 2 years ago and in multiple threads that this has not been offered as an option in SL360?   In other words, in the last 2 years the developers could not achieve what this helpful user has demonstrated as a workaround? 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 7 years ago01/18/17 at 4:04 pm (UTC)

You read my mind Will - that's exactly what I shared with our team in connection to this feature request recently, is an option to enable it for the menu and player buttons. We've got a bit of a new method internally for our feature request process, which allows for a bit more advocacy on our part vs. just tracking individual requests so we'll keep you and others posted! 

Will Findlay
over 7 years ago01/18/17 at 10:37 pm (UTC)

Coincedentally I just got this course comment today from a user: 

"... Don't make me wait to go to the next slide until the person is done talking when everything she is saying is on the screen. I can read faster than that and if I need to listen I will."

Navigation was restricted so that people didn't skip slides, but I hadn't applied the workaround in this thread to make the next button work before the audio was done.

Users surprisingly (at least to me) don't pick up on the fact they can scrub the audio.

Dave Cox
over 7 years ago01/19/17 at 12:12 pm (UTC)

Some users will and some won't. About the time you think you can predict what users will do, someone will surprise you and do the opposite. We restrict navigation, and disable the ability to scrub ahead because a lot of our courses are required compliance training. We have a requirement to show that our participants viewed the entire contents. So whether you allow participants the ability to scrub, of jump ahead of the audio just depends on your audience,  your objectives and your requirements. 

But I agree, the development environment should allow both options mentioned above. But, since it doesn't at least we have a work around that works.

marketing dev
7 years ago02/10/17 at 6:28 am (UTC)

Thanks Bobbi et al
I couldnt get any fix to work unfortunately. When trying to re zip it, the moodle system we use doesnt accept the zip file - various msgs were shown and obviously the zip packaging changes the dir's.

I hope the developers fix this. For now we have no choice but to remove the side menu entirely which is a such a disappointment :(

 

Michael Hardin
7 years ago02/10/17 at 12:26 pm (UTC)

Hi Marketing Dev,

Have you tried first using the "Open" button in the "Publish Successful" pop-up window (don't close the pop-up window) and editing the frame.xml and frame.js files and then using the "Zip" button on the "Publish Successful" window to zip it?  

In other words, don't use the zip option until after you edit the files.  This works for me. 

Lindsey Hillman
7 years ago02/22/17 at 4:40 pm (UTC)

Regarding your update:

***

Addendum for HTML 5 (added 10/11/2016)

If publishing to HTML 5, the frame.js file must also be changed.  This can be done by following the below steps.  (NOTE: These steps must be done prior to uploading to LMS, if launching through an LMS.)

Open the frame.js file (recommend opening with Notepad)
Find and replace the following:
|free|
with
|restricted|
Save and close the frame.js file.

***

I can't find a frame.js file in the published file - only a notepad.exe, Flash movie and the XML doc? I'm using SL2

Michael Hardin
7 years ago02/22/17 at 5:17 pm (UTC)

It's odd to find the notepad.exe file there, that's a windows program and isn't generated when publishing.  You said "in the published file", do you mean the published folder?  You should find these files in the published folder structure (after it completes publishing).  

Before publishing, make sure you have selected the "LMS" tab and check the  "Include HTML5 output", then Publish.  In the "Publish Successful" window, click the "Open" icon and once the folder opens, go into the "story_content" folder and there you should find both the "frame.xml" and the "frame.js" files. 

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