Forum Discussion
.ASPX Files Now Download Instead of Launching from SharePoint
Hello all,
My organization has recently discovered an issue with .aspx files hosted on SharePoint. We've been using them to launch Storyline and Rise files so they act like web pages (like this). However, we just recently found that after reuploading the file or folder to SharePoint, SharePoint no longer opens the page. If you navigate to the .aspx file, it force-downloads the file. If you use the direct URL, you get a File Not Found error.
We suspect this is a SharePoint issue that has to do with the upload process. My IT department has asked me to check here to see if anyone else has experienced this problem, and if so, what the root cause was (e.g., Microsoft update, policy change, etc.)?
We're looking at SharePoint because:
- It happens to multiple people in multiple offices (not a computer issue).
- It happens with Chrome and Edge. Modifying the URL to add ?web=1 has no effect. Clearing cache and cookies has no effect (not a browser issue).
- I tested the "old" file to confirm it worked, then downloaded the .zip package from SP. When I reuploaded the exact same package back to SP, the file now force-downloads/is not found (so it's not the files or the Storyline version).
- I copied a file that's still working and uploaded the copy. The original opens as a web page, the copy doesn't (again, not the files).
Thanks in advance for your feedback!
Hi @Dorje McKinnon, thanks very much for sharing your hard work! We're continuing to partner with our IT team and are looking for an alternate hosting solution. The redirect will definitely help make the transition easier.
All, if we come to a conclusion that will be helpful to you, I'll come back and let you know where we landed. In the meantime, I can't reiterate strongly enough that the deadline for .aspx files to stop working completely is currently November 2024, so engage with your SharePoint support/IT team as soon as you can.
If anyone decides to move away from SharePoint, please share what platform you land on.
I'm curious if anyone has had the opportunity to set up SharePoint Framework (SPFx) and do testing to see if eLearning content runs correctly with it? I've looked at some of the "how to" content out there for SPFx, and to be honest, I'm not sure that's a great solution for us. Our trainers are not developers, and there's a lot of geeky steps that seem to have to happen to execute our content on SharePoint Online using SPFx.
I'm also exploring housing our content on a web server and just use SharePoint Online for the user interface with buttons to everything. That's what we do with SharePoint Online right now, except, of course, in the moment, all of our HTML5 files are in document libraries on SharePoint. We would just have to update all the links on our buttons, and transitioning to a web server would be seamless for our end users.
To be fair to Microsoft, I suspect this change is to do with tightening up security. I'm a HUGE SharePoint fan and have been from the start BUT, if you think about it... allowing custom scripts to run outside the SharePoint framework is an incredibly dangerous thing to do! It can introduce significant security vulnerabilities that could be exploited to gain unauthorized access to data or execute malicious code.
SharePoint was never designed as an LMS and it really isn't its purpose. We initially flirted with LMS365 in order to provide an LMS that could use the same user database as SharePoint. Which, after all, is a major reason for wanting to include learning and development material on SharePoint - but it was expensive. I don't know if anyone else is using LMS365 now (I think it may have been re-titled)???
Absolutely, John, Microsoft's change is to tighten up security. I, too, love SharePoint, and have for years, and I'm always a fan of tighter security.
We have no need for an LMS for most of our content. We use our organization's LMS for compliance-related training that requires tracking. But the bulk of our training is more just-in-time support for staff, and it's intended to be accessed quickly. It's a support resource, and we know that if staff have to log on to an LMS to access support content, they won't do it. Hence the SharePoint :)
One thing we discovered during our search for a fix is that the coding in the Articulate web files is massively out of date according to one of our Dev folks that have helped us thus far. The coding references SWF code which he found odd.
Has anyone been able to speak with anyone with Articulate to get any assistance? I'm surprised a staff member hasn't seen this thread yet.I would expect the SWF code if you're using an older template that still uses the HTML5/Flash hybrid of publishing. I've tried to catch all of those that my team was using and rebuild or retire those projects. But if it's a newer project, that would be disappointing...
Has anyone noticed an issue with your embedded video files now being downloaded as an .html file instead of showing up properly within a slide?
FancyHippothat hasn't happened for me yet. I just republished one and did a test upload to SharePoint Online and it had no problem playing the videos correctly. It did not download the video files.
Quick update - we are looking at Microsoft Azure as a possible storage solution but haven't completed testing yet.
One solution that works for us is to use a web server to store the published files. No need to rename .html to .aspx.
Because we've used SharePoint for so many years to provide access to our courses, we still use SharePoint, and just updated all of the links from the old SharePoint location to the new web server URL.
This is seamless to the end user, and it's actually a very quick process to move files and update the links.
This works for us with for all of our eLearning content, regardless of the vendor (Articulate, Adobe, iSpring, etc.).
So if you're still struggling with your content on SharePoint, see if your organization can provide you space on a web server for your content. It's easy, and there's no shenanigans.
I'll just toss this out there, too. SharePoint and Captivate have not been friends for a long time, and Adobe doesn't try to fix SharePoint issues, and I wouldn't expect Articulate to fix SharePoint issues, either. The truth is, the content we publish, whether it's from Storyline or Captivate, is meant to run on a web server, and SharePoint is no longer a web server.
Cross-linking for reference purposes. My organization did decide to use an Azure solution to host the Storyline/Rise output. No need at that point to modify the files to .aspx.
It also works in our LMS, but we didn't want people to have to enroll for "off-label" uses like interactive job aids.
Best of luck!
Viewing Articulate 360 Content in SharePoint OnlineThanks so much for sharing this. Could you let me know how you are using the Azure solution? My IT team have asked if maybe you could share a screen print. We have Azure too but we are not sure which part you are using for this.
Hi Lena,
I don't have direct access so I can't get you a screen shot, sorry. But we're essentially using it as a web server to store the files and generate a URL that we can share with employees.
One of my clients is facing this same issue. Any updates?
Hi JanKouwenhoven, I started seeing the SharePoint issue again a little over a week ago, so we suspect that Microsoft pushed out the change to prevent custom scripts on SharePoint. To my knowledge, this isn't a defect. It's a permanent change that doesn't have a simple workaround. Options include:
- Seeing if the SharePoint admin can permanently disable the block on custom scripts without any unacceptable security implications. That would make the site work as normal, but it's a big IF.
- Seeing if the SharePoint admin can temporarily disable the block so you can make updates within a given window. Less of a risk, more to coordinate and you'd have to do it every time you want to make an update.
- Putting the content somewhere else: an LMS, a web server, etc. More of a hassle to set up, but probably the best option for operating without IT intervention once you get set up.
The best next step is to engage the technology/IT team and work with them to come up with the solution that fits within the organization's security policies and infrastructure.
