Storyline Course not loading in IE11

Oct 19, 2016

Rebecca Killmeyer
By Rebecca Killmeyer

The error console in IE (most versions, not just IE11) is problematic. Other browsers (Safari, FF, Chrome) understand that if you're referencing console and its parent object isn't created, the browser will silently do the right thing. In IE, the reference fails, generally creating an error cascade and much hilarity along the way.

However, on line 103 of index_lms_html5.html, we see this:

             console.suppress = true;

 This is Articulate generated code, and that's what's throwing the error. To confirm this, I commented out the line and to see if things start working. The course now launches in Google Chrome but hangs in IE 11. Any other ideas? 

 

 

7 Replies
Crystal Horn
over 7 years ago10/19/16 at 6:24 pm (UTC)

Hey there, Rebecca.  Just to clarify a couple of things... are you loading that course directly from the published output folder, or have you uploaded it to an LMS and are trying to access it there?  Viewing the published output locally can be problematic, and we recommend testing in its intended environment.

Also, that file path is for the HTML5 output of your course which would not be supported in Internet Explorer.  The system requirements for viewing the HTML5 content include these browsers:

  • Windows: Google Chrome (latest version)
  • Mac: Safari 7 and later, Google Chrome (latest version)
  • Mobile: Safari in Apple iOS 7 and later, Google Chrome (latest version) in Android OS 4.1 and later

Let us know if any of that makes a difference for you!

Tom McCrystal
over 7 years ago11/03/16 at 4:57 pm (UTC)

Hi, Crystal,

I've been doing some investigating into this very issue, and your answer of "viewing HTML5 in IE is not supported; here is a list of supported browsers" is not particularly helpful. 

Referencing the console object in Javascript will, in many circumstances, break IE. (Most developers have been bitten by this at least once; I certainly have...) I don't know if this is the only issue precluding Storyline from supporting IE, but even if it isn't, Articulate will never get there until this is fixed.

Given that the Javascript console is a debugging tool that shouldn't be used in production code, I'd appreciate it if you would escalate this issue to your development team, along with the following information.

I did take the opportunity to grep the output of a Storyline package published for LMS. In addition to the console object reference in index_lms_html5.html, the following files also reference the console:
     /lms/API.js   (8 references)
     /mobile/player_compiled.js     (~ 52 references)

Short of cleaning up the offending code entirely, two quick and dirty fixes might be:

o Wrapping all of the references to console in a try/catch structure or
o Sniffing for IE at startup time, and creating a "dummy" console object to catch the calls to console at runtime.

If your dev team has any questions, they should feel free to contact me directly.

IE support is critical to our customers. I hope this helps to solve a vexing problem for everyone.

Best,

Tom McCrystal
Chief Technology Officer
Creative Perspectives, inc.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 7 years ago11/03/16 at 7:19 pm (UTC)

Hi Tom,

Thanks for sharing that additional information about the Storyline code and how it's working in IE for you, I can pass that along to the team. I know the issue with HTML5 and supported browsers has been a hot topic for some time in the E-Learning Heroes forums and that our team has been focused on based on that customer feedback. Currently Storyline 2 and Studio '13 are supported in the limited browsers detailed in the links Crystal shared. As the various browsers have continued to evolve they've added more functionality that allows for HTML5 support, but some of them are still behind the leaders such as Chrome or Safari. I like to reference a site such as HTML5test.com to see how they all stack up against one another. 

With that in mind, our team is intimately aware of the needs for customers to support the changing standards for Flash security issues and HTML5 output across a variety of browsers and devices so our Product and Development team have been focusing on further HTML5 support as the go forward. I can't offer a specific timeframe or share what that'll look like, but I hope that when we are able to share you'll be happy with what we've come up with. 

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