I recently upgraded my system from Storyline 2 to 360.
Just finishing a course, looking to publish and... all types of output open to nothing but the spinning wheel. CD, SCORM, Web (latter two posted on a review site), just spinning away.
Did you resolve this? I have upgraded many SL2 files to SL3, but am doing one right now and no matter what I publish to, it opens and just shows the spinning icon forever. I can preview it just fine in SL3. It is not asking for anything fancy - is basically just a power point with VO. Would love any tips you can forward!
Yes, we found it was an invalid character that resulted in the course not properly previewing/publishing!
I'm happy to take a look at your file and see what's causing the snag! You can do so by using the "add attachment" button in this discussion. Or you can share the file privately with our Support Engineers by using this link.
Can you elaborate on the invalid character? Will the in-software port from SL2 to SL3 been fixed to no longer add these invalid characters as it upgrades? That would be ideal...
The file opens and runs fine in SCORMCloud, so I am just hoping that when it gets on our Cornerstone LMS it will also be fine, but it would be great if we could see it just running in the browser...
Absolutely! The term "invalid character" could include anything from a corrupted image to a text box. This usually occurs when a file is not saved locally or there are elements in the project that are not saved locally.
When upgrading the project, an inconsistency like this is usually due to the issue I've mentioned; a simple save issue. If you want me to take a look, I'm happy to see what's causing the error.
Thanks for this info! Could you let me know what you would do to look for such an element? It is possible I would need to do this again, so it would be great if I could learn how and be able to do it in future... Thanks so mucH!
When you view a Storyline 3 course on your local hard drive, you'll encounter security restrictions from the computer, web browser, Flash Player, and network that can cause various features of the course to fail. To test your published content and share it with others, it's best to upload it to a web server or LMS. See this article for details.
For future reference, if there was something wrong within the course, you would typically not be able to preview either. So, my steps are to preview the entire project, if it fails, preview slides to identify the problematic slide, then hide items on the slide once the slide is identified to find the item causing the issue.
Sure - thanks for this! However, as noted in my initial request, previewing it in Storyline 3 works fine, no errors. Trying to run it locally within a browser just spins forever. It runs fine on SCORMCloud, and it runs fine on Cornerstone... my concern is, someday soon, when it suddenly, inexplicably DOESN'T.
Lauren Connelly mentions, above, that "invalid characters" can be added in the port from SL2 to SL3 should you happen to open that SL2 file from a server. So I am asking what Lauren was going to do to FIND that corrupt image or text box. Nothing in the file throws issues. It just won't run in a browser from the published file on my local drive, like all other SL3 files do - this makes me nervous to make it live, even though it works fine in the LMSs.
As Leslie noted, there could be a few reasons why the course isn't playing back locally. When reviewing your course, it is best to test the published output on a web server or LMS. Since the course is playing without issues on SCORM cloud and Cornerstone, that is a good indication that the course is working as intended. If the course wasn't working in any published output, that could mean that there is an issue with the source file.
If there were an issue with an invalid character, you would want to preview the entire project to see where it fails. Previewing each slide to identify the problematic slide, then hiding the items on that slide would identify the object causing the issue.
Again. No slide is problematic. They all look fine. The only thing that isn't working is the playback in a browser, locally. That tells me that SOMETHING is not behaving as it should in there, but I have no way to see what that is, because everywhere else, the file works just fine.
It sounds like maybe there is no way to reveal what mystery is stopping the file from playing back locally for simple testing. It's odd, because I have never had this be an issue with other SL2 or SL3 files, or other SL2-ported-to-SL3 files.
We've listed a good bit of troubleshooting steps that have worked in similar cases, but this one seems quite specific.
It would be best to bring in the help of our Support Engineers to provide more tailored assistance to understand the inconsistency of the file. To allow our Support Engineers to investigate further, please use this link to submit a case.
11 Replies
Hi Curtis
try uploading the SCORM package to SCORMcloud and the Web package to Articulate tempshare and see if the same issue occurs.
If you want to share the .story file - happy to take a look for you.
Did you resolve this? I have upgraded many SL2 files to SL3, but am doing one right now and no matter what I publish to, it opens and just shows the spinning icon forever. I can preview it just fine in SL3. It is not asking for anything fancy - is basically just a power point with VO. Would love any tips you can forward!
Hi Katherine!
Yes, we found it was an invalid character that resulted in the course not properly previewing/publishing!
I'm happy to take a look at your file and see what's causing the snag! You can do so by using the "add attachment" button in this discussion. Or you can share the file privately with our Support Engineers by using this link.
Can you elaborate on the invalid character? Will the in-software port from SL2 to SL3 been fixed to no longer add these invalid characters as it upgrades? That would be ideal...
The file opens and runs fine in SCORMCloud, so I am just hoping that when it gets on our Cornerstone LMS it will also be fine, but it would be great if we could see it just running in the browser...
Hi Katherine!
Absolutely! The term "invalid character" could include anything from a corrupted image to a text box. This usually occurs when a file is not saved locally or there are elements in the project that are not saved locally.
When upgrading the project, an inconsistency like this is usually due to the issue I've mentioned; a simple save issue. If you want me to take a look, I'm happy to see what's causing the error.
Thanks for this info! Could you let me know what you would do to look for such an element? It is possible I would need to do this again, so it would be great if I could learn how and be able to do it in future... Thanks so mucH!
K.C.
Hi Katherine,
When you view a Storyline 3 course on your local hard drive, you'll encounter security restrictions from the computer, web browser, Flash Player, and network that can cause various features of the course to fail. To test your published content and share it with others, it's best to upload it to a web server or LMS. See this article for details.
For future reference, if there was something wrong within the course, you would typically not be able to preview either. So, my steps are to preview the entire project, if it fails, preview slides to identify the problematic slide, then hide items on the slide once the slide is identified to find the item causing the issue.
Sure - thanks for this! However, as noted in my initial request, previewing it in Storyline 3 works fine, no errors. Trying to run it locally within a browser just spins forever. It runs fine on SCORMCloud, and it runs fine on Cornerstone... my concern is, someday soon, when it suddenly, inexplicably DOESN'T.
Lauren Connelly mentions, above, that "invalid characters" can be added in the port from SL2 to SL3 should you happen to open that SL2 file from a server. So I am asking what Lauren was going to do to FIND that corrupt image or text box. Nothing in the file throws issues. It just won't run in a browser from the published file on my local drive, like all other SL3 files do - this makes me nervous to make it live, even though it works fine in the LMSs.
Hi Katherine,
As Leslie noted, there could be a few reasons why the course isn't playing back locally. When reviewing your course, it is best to test the published output on a web server or LMS. Since the course is playing without issues on SCORM cloud and Cornerstone, that is a good indication that the course is working as intended. If the course wasn't working in any published output, that could mean that there is an issue with the source file.
If there were an issue with an invalid character, you would want to preview the entire project to see where it fails. Previewing each slide to identify the problematic slide, then hiding the items on that slide would identify the object causing the issue.
Again. No slide is problematic. They all look fine. The only thing that isn't working is the playback in a browser, locally. That tells me that SOMETHING is not behaving as it should in there, but I have no way to see what that is, because everywhere else, the file works just fine.
It sounds like maybe there is no way to reveal what mystery is stopping the file from playing back locally for simple testing. It's odd, because I have never had this be an issue with other SL2 or SL3 files, or other SL2-ported-to-SL3 files.
Hi Katherine!
We've listed a good bit of troubleshooting steps that have worked in similar cases, but this one seems quite specific.
It would be best to bring in the help of our Support Engineers to provide more tailored assistance to understand the inconsistency of the file. To allow our Support Engineers to investigate further, please use this link to submit a case.
Thanks for all the information you've provided!
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.