SWF in Storyline - Video Control with Seekbar

Hi Christine,

Thanks for the welcome

I don't think I gave enough information with my post, let me make it a bit more clear.

I want to import a screen capture from Captivate 6 which is a swf output, this will then be used in a slide along with multiple audio files which are imported using Storyline.

The audio files are to be played in sequence, 1 -> 8 each starting after the previous one has finished.

To address your comments, I have disabled the video controls from within Captivate before I generated the swf file.

However, when I import this into Storyline and add the audio files to the slide and then preview, I can't control the video with the Storyline seekbar. The audio is fine, it plays/pauses as expected, but the swf just wont obey meaning that when the play/pause button is used then the video is X amount of seconds ahead of the audio.

The files are quite big, about 200MB, is this too big to upload?

Thanks,

Niall.

Good morning Niall,

I apologize, I may have left out a few details in my response, as well. I should've asked this to begin with - are you inserting the SWF as a video, or a Flash object? If you insert the SWF as a video, there will be an option to enable player controls through Storyline under the "Options" tab. If this is enabled in Storyline, not the SWF itself, the seekbar won't have control over the video. However, if you disable this, the seekbar should have more control over it.

In regards to the file size, I believe that may be too large to post here. However, if you'd like, you can try to place the video in a single slide, in a new project and try uploading it. If that's not too large by itself, I'd be happy to take a look at it. If it's still too large, you're welcome to submit it to us in a support case. Our case database is set up to handle larger files than the forums. Also, if you do submit the files in a support case, please share the case number with me.

Thanks again Niall!

Christine

Just a note that simply clicking on a video in Storyline toggles the play/pause function

Hi there,
I was wondering the the above post was resolved? I also have the same issue. Adding as a video doesn't solve it for me.

Many thanks,

Kerry

Hi Kerry and welcome to Heroes! 

I don't see where Niall ever submitted a Support case, but in reviewing the tutorial on inserting Flash files, the SWF file will be independent of the timeline and therefore not controlled by the player pause/play button. 

You may also want to review this tutorial on what properties you can change within the individual video. 

Hi Ashley,

Thank you so much for your response and thank you for the welcome! It's great to have somewhere to come for support :o)

Just like Niall, I am also using converted captivate SWF simulations and I would like the learners to be able to toggle between pause/play. So just to clarify - there is no way to control SWF files? Not even with custom play/pause buttons? I've tried to do it this way but I am having no success. I am still a newbie with storyline though

If there's no way to do it then my learners can just repeat the simulations should they need to.

Thanks again!

Kerry

Hi Kerry, 

Yes, when you insert it as Flash it plays your SWF file independently of the slide's timeline, so learners can proceed at their own pace. You won't be able to control it through the use of the built in seekbar, or edit the video using the Storyline video editing controls. I haven't tested custom buttons, but if they're not working for you - I suspect the pause/play functionality doesn't transfer to the swf file. 

I'm not sure if Christine's suggestion in this thread would work for you, but I thought it'd be worth pointing out. 

I just had this same issue, and I found that if I inserted the video as FLASH instead of 'from file', the controls from the captivate video were able to be used.

Still doesn't look like anyone has an answer for this.

I have Captivate Simulations from the client that I want to insert into SL.  It imports fine and the seek bar plays along with the inserted file (Note, I have tried inserting it as both a swf and a video, no difference)  in either case, play/pause from the player have no effect and volume has no effect.

Any ideas?  We are on the cusp of deciding whether to upgrade to  SL2 .  I wonder if this has been fixed in SL2?

there is no mention of it in the release notes.

Hi Rob,

I haven't seen a users file to test this in terms of inserting a Flash file as a video and then no longer being able to use the player seekbar or pause/play buttons. You'll want to ensure you're following the directions here on how to insert the file. 

Thanks Ashley,

tried inserting as directed both as flash and as a video.

as a video doesn't allow interactivity with the Captivate SWF

and neither interact with the Storyline player.

the workaround is to create a captivate player with seekbar and play/pause but this looks ugly and throws people off when they expect to use the storyline player controls.

I know this used to work in Presenter but there were also options on how the SWF interacts with the player which I don't see anywhere in Storyline.

I have attached a sample to show.  the Captivate controller works fine but the Storyline player ignores it. (Same for volume)

Appreciate any help.

We have to do a bunch of these for 7 modules.

Hi Rob,

Thanks for sharing that here and I saw the behavior you're referring to - which is not how it's documented or described. Could you tell me more about which type of action script is being used for this swf? Do you have any others that are working as expected? I'm trying to track down another one to see if I can recreate the behavior. 

Ahh,  I think you have discovered the issue!  Captivate 7 Only publishes AS3

does storyline support AS3?

I'm trying to see if the Captivate SWFs can be downgraded to AS2.

Thanks Ashley!

Rob

Unfortunately, Captivate only publishes to AS3 since version 5

We are testing SL2 to see if it works any better.

Sadly, just tested it in SL2 and it behaves the same way.

We tried inserting as both a Flash File and a Video File.

 Which is not, as you say, how it's documented or described.

Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks Rob - AS3 is supported in Storyline, as detailed here.  So I've gone ahead and shared this with our QA team to take a look as I didn't have another SWF file to test with and hopefully they'll be able to confirm if it's a bug or something with that actual file.

I'll post any updates here, so please ensure you're subscribed to the thread. 

Thanks Ashley,

I have Captivate 7. the client has given me the Captivate files and I am publishing them for SL.

if there's something I'm missing in Captivate, let me know.  there aren't a lot of options but every SWF I publish has the same effect.

Thanks again

Rob

Hi Rob,

Unfortunately I don't know much, if anything about Captivate so I don't have any suggestions for what to do within your Captivate files. Even though our documentation does say use AS3, are you able to try with an AS2? The Flash best practices are here - so you may want to check into how that behaves. 

Hi folks.

I still have not made any progress on this.

Anyone else have a solution?

anyone have success inserting Captivate SWFs into SL2 and have them sync to the Seekbar and Player Play/Pause?

Also have the same issue with Vimeo Videos as well.

Really had hope SL2 would have addressed this issue.

Any help, would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Rob,

I haven't heard any updates from our QA team, but I have linked it to this thread so once I have information to share I'll be able to post it here. 

I'll add a "Me too". And just to be clear on what I want to do, here's a picture. So far, no luck.

Storyline 1, Captivate 7. Inserted as a video. Tried it WITH the Storyline video controller and WITHOUT the Storyline video controller; same behavior.

.

Hi Bob,

I don't yet have any updates to share, but this thread is linked with the QA report so that they'll be aware of how many users are being impacted.

I had a similar issue recently, and found using Actionscript 2.0 fixed my issue. Best.

Thanks Stephen for sharing your thoughts here, even though this thread is older I'm sure it'll help someone else who runs across it!