I'm testing my courses on an iPad now that my team thinks we have a greater percentage of users preferring iPads over PCs. I'm using an iPad with iOS 9.35 and Storyline version 2, most current release. I ran the update yesterday and I updated one file, but none of these six were tagged.
In three out of six courses so far I'm running into issues. One of them is with graphics changes. I've attached screenshots of the graphics here.
Has anyone run across these sorts of things before? Is this my iPad? LMS? Storyline?
Thanks for sharing the screenshots here - it's hard to tell from you iPad image, but I assume you took a picture of it with your phone vs. a screenshot? You mentioned you only updated one file, is that the file you shared an image of here? We'd want to take a look at one of the problematic .story files and if you can share a link to the course we'd view that too - but one quick test you could also do is test the content at SCORM Cloud to help rule out/in the LMS, as it's an industry standard for testing LMS content. This article will walk you through some testing steps.
Thank you for the reply, Ashley. This was not the file identified by the Updater. This course was run through SCORM Cloud from my PC and has no problems, but I never tested it through SCORM Cloud from an iPad.
I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but if it clears through SCORM Cloud when on a PC, then the only reason to do it from an iPad is to get an idea of what it's going to look like; is that correct?
You can also check the SCORM Cloud output from your iPad too, and that'd be the way to see the difference from Flash and HTML5. You could also look at how it behaves in HTML5 on a desktop Chrome browser with Flash disabled.
Thank you for your suggestions, Ashley. Maybe this is a step that everyone is used to doing and I never thought about it. Even spending a few days building out a scene or two would be frustrating to publish, test, and see that it doesn't play well on an iPad. Then what? How do people know what to change to make it run well in both environments? I've worked hard to take advantage of all that Storyline offers, but it feels like I have to really dumb it down to make it work on an iPad.
Ashley, please know that your customer support engineers have been awesome in helping replicate some of the issues I'm seeing on iPads. On this one issue, for example, Eloisa suggested I go into the slide master and save the shapes as pictures and then reinsert into the project. That won't be a hard fix. Robert has reworked another file, changing states to variables to trigger a Next button, and I assume he tested it on an iPad. That will be a more cumbersome fix as I have the same setup in several courses.
I'm extremely frustrated right now. I don't have depth of experience in graphics, html, etc. My bosses have only recently suggested we need to consider having our courses mobile. More than half of my courses don't play well on mobile devices but were fine on a PC. The idea that I have to go into that many courses and revise them is really daunting. I feel like I missed a "basics" course or something and like I should somehow know all of this.
I can certainly understand your frustration, and as with anything similar where folks may be accessing it on multiple devices there are a lot of factors to consider, so let's start with the basics.
Next, know where you're going to host your course (web or LMS) and ensure that you're publishing using that method, and if you're uploading to an LMS ensure that the tracking method will match with your deployment set up (for example, if you want to use the Articulate Mobile player, you likely need to have an LMS that supports Tin Can API). You can read more about that here.
As for variations in how they'll display, you'll want to take a look at this comparison chart. Everything should be fairly standard across a PC, iPad, etc. but there are some differences based on devices thatyou may want to take into account, and then there are some really specific items that will be different based on how the device acts, like iPhones always going full screen for videos. All of the articles linked above are accessible from our Support Knowledge base here, and I've linked right to the HTML5 section.
That's a good primer for HTML5/iPad publishing and access. And I'm glad to hear that Robert and Eloisa were helpful as well. Just let us know if you have other questions, concerns or specifics you need help with.
I have done everything you've mentioned and read all of these articles over and over. I purposefully stayed with iOS 9.3.5, though, so I could have a benchmark. There are no suggestions that graphics with gradients are too complicated or that using states to trigger a Next button isn't a good idea for mobile devices. I'm very glad your staff offered some fixes. That's great. But I'm confused that mine tested fine in SCORM Cloud and are playing fine on a PC with the way they were built.
I saw a post earlier that Scott posted and was told there was no underlying issue with the way his course was configured. I used standard Storyline features, and there's no underlying "issue" with the way mine were built, either. But at least there's a workaround I suppose. Taking the time to rebuild a course is very time consuming. And that may have to be done with each new iOS version? How could anyone keep up?
Just out of curiosity, if my LMS supported Tin Can API and we published with the Articulate Mobile Player, would my issues be nonexistent, or would these same issues occur?
The version you tested on your PC was likely the Flash output, and an iPad is going to only play the HTML5 output or within the Mobile player (depending on what is included as a part of the output). You can try testing the HTML5 output directly on your PC by following the directions here, although you'd likely have to do that from the Web publish as SCORM Cloud (or other LMSs) likely don't use the same URL structure. So depending on what's included in a course, things may display a bit differently based on the output type. I looked back again at your case and I see that the one you worked on with Victor in regards to the states was reported to our QA team as an issue/bug - so that's one you couldn't have known about without asking. I also see that you're still working with Eloisa, and
Scott's issue seemed to be with how audio behaves when having more than one audio file and some of the ways that Mobile safari deals with that (or doesn't deal with it in this case).
I don't know that this particular issues mentioned would behave differently in the mobile player, but I'll make a note on your existing case with Eloisa to see if she's also verified it there.
Again, thank you for your patience, Ashley, and for taking the time to explain. That's so interesting. I would have thought the Flash output and html5 output were the same. Good to know. I'll get smart someday! Thanks again.
Aw, give yourself some credit Cheryl! This is a lot to learn and not always an easy or fast journey for any of us. So one thing at a time and with Storyline, I find that there is always more to learn!
9 Replies
Hi Cheryl,
Thanks for sharing the screenshots here - it's hard to tell from you iPad image, but I assume you took a picture of it with your phone vs. a screenshot? You mentioned you only updated one file, is that the file you shared an image of here? We'd want to take a look at one of the problematic .story files and if you can share a link to the course we'd view that too - but one quick test you could also do is test the content at SCORM Cloud to help rule out/in the LMS, as it's an industry standard for testing LMS content. This article will walk you through some testing steps.
If you're ready to share your .story file you can also upload here.
Thank you for the reply, Ashley. This was not the file identified by the Updater. This course was run through SCORM Cloud from my PC and has no problems, but I never tested it through SCORM Cloud from an iPad.
I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but if it clears through SCORM Cloud when on a PC, then the only reason to do it from an iPad is to get an idea of what it's going to look like; is that correct?
Thanks again. I will submit a copy.
Hi Cheryl,
You can also check the SCORM Cloud output from your iPad too, and that'd be the way to see the difference from Flash and HTML5. You could also look at how it behaves in HTML5 on a desktop Chrome browser with Flash disabled.
Thank you for your suggestions, Ashley. Maybe this is a step that everyone is used to doing and I never thought about it. Even spending a few days building out a scene or two would be frustrating to publish, test, and see that it doesn't play well on an iPad. Then what? How do people know what to change to make it run well in both environments? I've worked hard to take advantage of all that Storyline offers, but it feels like I have to really dumb it down to make it work on an iPad.
Ashley, please know that your customer support engineers have been awesome in helping replicate some of the issues I'm seeing on iPads. On this one issue, for example, Eloisa suggested I go into the slide master and save the shapes as pictures and then reinsert into the project. That won't be a hard fix. Robert has reworked another file, changing states to variables to trigger a Next button, and I assume he tested it on an iPad. That will be a more cumbersome fix as I have the same setup in several courses.
I'm extremely frustrated right now. I don't have depth of experience in graphics, html, etc. My bosses have only recently suggested we need to consider having our courses mobile. More than half of my courses don't play well on mobile devices but were fine on a PC. The idea that I have to go into that many courses and revise them is really daunting. I feel like I missed a "basics" course or something and like I should somehow know all of this.
Hi Cheryl,
I can certainly understand your frustration, and as with anything similar where folks may be accessing it on multiple devices there are a lot of factors to consider, so let's start with the basics.
First, you'll want to ensure that you're using the latest update of Storyline 2 and the most up to data browsers and iOSs detailed here in our viewing requirements.
Next, know where you're going to host your course (web or LMS) and ensure that you're publishing using that method, and if you're uploading to an LMS ensure that the tracking method will match with your deployment set up (for example, if you want to use the Articulate Mobile player, you likely need to have an LMS that supports Tin Can API). You can read more about that here.
As for variations in how they'll display, you'll want to take a look at this comparison chart. Everything should be fairly standard across a PC, iPad, etc. but there are some differences based on devices thatyou may want to take into account, and then there are some really specific items that will be different based on how the device acts, like iPhones always going full screen for videos. All of the articles linked above are accessible from our Support Knowledge base here, and I've linked right to the HTML5 section.
That's a good primer for HTML5/iPad publishing and access. And I'm glad to hear that Robert and Eloisa were helpful as well. Just let us know if you have other questions, concerns or specifics you need help with.
I have done everything you've mentioned and read all of these articles over and over. I purposefully stayed with iOS 9.3.5, though, so I could have a benchmark. There are no suggestions that graphics with gradients are too complicated or that using states to trigger a Next button isn't a good idea for mobile devices. I'm very glad your staff offered some fixes. That's great. But I'm confused that mine tested fine in SCORM Cloud and are playing fine on a PC with the way they were built.
I saw a post earlier that Scott posted and was told there was no underlying issue with the way his course was configured. I used standard Storyline features, and there's no underlying "issue" with the way mine were built, either. But at least there's a workaround I suppose. Taking the time to rebuild a course is very time consuming. And that may have to be done with each new iOS version? How could anyone keep up?
Just out of curiosity, if my LMS supported Tin Can API and we published with the Articulate Mobile Player, would my issues be nonexistent, or would these same issues occur?
Thanks for your patience, Ashley.
Hi Cheryl,
The version you tested on your PC was likely the Flash output, and an iPad is going to only play the HTML5 output or within the Mobile player (depending on what is included as a part of the output). You can try testing the HTML5 output directly on your PC by following the directions here, although you'd likely have to do that from the Web publish as SCORM Cloud (or other LMSs) likely don't use the same URL structure. So depending on what's included in a course, things may display a bit differently based on the output type. I looked back again at your case and I see that the one you worked on with Victor in regards to the states was reported to our QA team as an issue/bug - so that's one you couldn't have known about without asking. I also see that you're still working with Eloisa, and
Scott's issue seemed to be with how audio behaves when having more than one audio file and some of the ways that Mobile safari deals with that (or doesn't deal with it in this case).
I don't know that this particular issues mentioned would behave differently in the mobile player, but I'll make a note on your existing case with Eloisa to see if she's also verified it there.
Again, thank you for your patience, Ashley, and for taking the time to explain. That's so interesting. I would have thought the Flash output and html5 output were the same. Good to know. I'll get smart someday! Thanks again.
Aw, give yourself some credit Cheryl! This is a lot to learn and not always an easy or fast journey for any of us. So one thing at a time and with Storyline, I find that there is always more to learn!
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