Storyline 2 and 3 issues with HTML5 fallback in Internet Explorer 11
Nov 21, 2019
We are currently testing courses to see which ones will work and which will not. We have been publishing in Storyline 3 with the option of Flash with fallback to HTML5. That will be changing. What I am seeing on our LMS (Success Factors and iContent) and our own servers is that IE 11 is not falling back to HTML5. It goes to Flash and I have a blank window. I've tested a course using HTML5 and fallback to Flash and that works. I do have Flash disabled on my testing environment. Chrome does work fine, but a majority of the folks use IE 11. I see the same problem with Storyline 2. It doesn't work in IE, but does in Chrome. According to our IT department, compatibility mode is turned off. We have close to 1000 online courses, so this would be a big undertaking just to convert the courses. Any ideas why this might be happening?
18 Replies
I just now found this - https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/publishing-training-in-storyline-2-for-flash-update
I am looking through it now. That is why Storyline 2 isn't working in IE 11.
Hi Scott,
Thanks for reaching out and sharing what you are running into with your courses.
I'm glad that you were able to find a similar conversation to help you and I appreciate you sharing that here.
Your title indicates you may have been running into an issue with Storyline 3 in IE11 as well and if you need me to take a look, please let me know.
The Storyline 2 issue is answered in that post, but I still have the issue with Storyline 3.
Got it, Scott.
Thanks for clarifying what you're running into.
With your permission, I'd like to take a look at your Storyline 3 project file to do some testing as well. You can share it publicly here, or send it to me privately by uploading it here. I'll delete it when I'm done troubleshooting.
I'll have to get approval for that.
Sorry for the delay and I have yet to get approval. This might help some or raise more questions.
The majority of the courses are published with the format of Flash with HTML fallback.
When the course is loaded into the LMS, the end resultant URL is index_lms.html. When I run the course on one of our local servers, I receive this similar URL - http://servername/coursefolder/index_lms_flash.html For whatever reason, it does not fall back to HTML5 when running the course from the server or LMS. I can manually type in the HTML5 url and it works both on our server and the LMS. The only difference is that on the on the LMS the html file is story_flash.html. In Chrome which works, its index_lms_html5.html.
Hi Scott,
Thanks for the additional information.
What happens in your environment if you use the index_lms.html link instead of specifying the flash or html5 version?
Are you testing this content locally or once uploaded onto a web server?
That is the link that the LMS uses and what I use when testing on our web server.
In IE, the final url ends with index_lms_flash.html. Its not even recognizing that HTML5 is present.
OK I just tried the same course on SCORM Cloud and it works, so I don't know if there is an issue with our LMS or something else going on. I don't know about our web server. I do know we have Enterprise Mode setup on the Production Web server which I'm not using for testing. It's not setup on the Development web server which I am testing on and its definitely not setup on our LMS. It was when we were testing, but it cause problems with it.
If you are not familiar with Enterprise mode, here is an article that explains it. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/ie11-deploy-guide/what-is-enterprise-mode
Enterprise Mode, a compatibility mode that runs on Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 devices, lets websites render using a modified browser configuration that’s designed to emulate either Windows Internet Explorer 7 or Windows Internet Explorer 8. Running in this mode helps to avoid many of the common compatibility problems associated with web apps written and tested on older versions of Internet Explorer.
I also use Flash with HTML5 fallback, because Flash works better for our IE clients than HTML5. We have no issues with IE users or Chrome users when using these settings. We are using Totara LMS.
It works for us as well when Flash is enabled. The purpose of my testing is to see how our courses respond when Flash goes away. I would prefer not to touch the courses that should work.
Hi there, did you ever find a resolution to this? I am having the same issue with courses run under IE 11 with Flash disabled not falling back to HTML5, also using Successfactors, also getting blank window. Strange thing is other users at my company are able to get the courses to run even with Flash disabled...
Hi Jim,
Thank you for reaching out. Although I don't have experience with SuccessFactors, I'll do my best to help!
The best way to identify the cause of the blank window is to upload the published output in another LMS environment. SCORM Cloud is a good option since it's industry-standard:
If you need a hand with testing, share the LMS output file with us through this private link and we'll take care of the rest!
Hi Katie, actually the problem I am having is not the course won’t work at all….it does run fine in IE 11 with Flash enabled, and so I assume it would work in SCORMCloud as well.
The issue I am having, which is the exact same as in the original question on this thread, is that we are having inconsistent results in our SuccessFactors LMS with modules published as Flash with HTML backup. We are trying to test these to make sure they will work after Flash deprecates in December.
Our testing process has been to disable Flash in IE11 by using Manage Add Ons and disabling the Shockwave Flash Object add-on. Then we attempt to launch the object.
The issue is that for some people, the HTML5 backup kicks in, and the module displays correctly. For other people, the module either hangs or we get the red X indicating the Flash object is still being called and the module is not falling back to HTML5.
Have you seen this before? Are there any additional settings in IE11 that some users might have but others might not that could be causing the inconsistent behavior?
Finally, I do have some questions about the Articulate SCORM packages themselves.
If in the SCORM I see LMS and Mobile folders that include .JS files, and there is a presentation
Hi Jim!
Which version of Storyline did you use to create the course? Storyline 2 is Flash-dependant so you might run into a few snags when viewing the course in HTML browsers.
It would be helpful to take a look at the actual .story file to determine what might be causing this snag! Would you mind uploading the file to us by using this secure upload link? We'll take a look at the file and continue troubleshooting in a support case.
Not really. What we ended up doing is taking Flash out of the equation and just use HTML5 with no fallback. That has worked so far for us.
Hi,
I am having the same issues a Scott, I have courses that were published using Articulate 360 Flash with HTML5 fallback. I am currently testing them in ComplianceWire LMS and I have Flash disabled in Internet Explorer, The courses just wont fallback to HTML5. No issues in Chrome so it cannot be the the LMS. But just like Scott the issue only occurs in IE.
Has anyone been able to find a fix for this?
Hi Terry and welcome to E-Learning Heroes 😊
Thanks for contacting us and sharing that you're running into a similar issue.
I'm curious if Internet Explorer is using Compatibility View. If so, please turn off Compatibility View for sites where your courses are hosted.
Required Browser Settings for Viewing Published Courses
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