Creating downloadable pdf files in Storyline - an update on earlier methods

Hi Virineia

Sorry I misunderstood your question I thought you were asking if you were breaching any rules on usage by using the libraries rather than was there a risk to your own data. Again a very good question...

Obvioulsy, there is always a risk if you introduce third-party code into your application that it might open up some security vulnerabilities. As with all software, it is best to keep it up to date and to check regulary if any vulnerabilities have been reported. Plus the usual advice on anti-virus software and regular backups also apply.

That said, JavaScript is a pretty safe language to use when running under a browser. The browser will not allow it to perform tasks like accessing the local file system (CORS standards) or perform system tasks.

As to the pdf file that you create if you use a JavasCript library - like pdf-lib -  it will be under the users control where they save it and it will then be protected by the local system file protection rules. So it may be necessary to think about the use of shared libraries if the file contains sensitive date. Also, with pdf-lib, the pdf file starts life as a pdf 'form' template. Make sure, once the learner has completed the form that you use a 'Flatten' Javascript command to turn the pdf form into a standard pdf.

It is also possible to create the pdf file as read-only and also to password protect it using pdf-lib. You should also be able to encrypt it - but I would need to check that.

If you are really worried about the data then you might want to consider creating the pdf file on a server, rather than the users local system. This would give you more options to protect it.

Hope that helps.

Hi Virinela

Downloadable JavaScript Libraries can be either open source or closed source (proprietary). You are right to ask the question and I should have made it clear when I suggested this method of creating downloadbale pdf files. Rest assured that pdf-lib is made available under one of the most common open source licences - MIT. Under this licence for pdf-lib the following conditions apply:

Copyright (c) 2019 Andrew Dillon

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

Since I was not distributing the code - simply including a call to download it from a common library it is not strictly necessary for me to include the copyright notice - but I feel better now I have drawn attention to the notice and I will add the appropriate copyright notice to the comments in my code in future when I use such libraries.

But it is a good question - and thanks for asking it. :)

Thanks for the code. I used it to create 10 downloadable PDFs within a single Storyline each with 2 to 5 prompt responses. This worked flawlessly with multiple pages too. Much appreciated.

The specifics: I'm working on a tool that allows learners to create a job plan based on the specifics of an installation/jobsite. They answer questions and the course/tool builds out a plan using variables.

I've gotten the full plan to populate on a single slide, and I can print that slide. My preference, though, is to send the plan to a PDF using JavaScript. I publish for Review locally and add the PDF form to the zip file. When I upload it and check the JavaScript by clicking the button it's attached to, I get this error:

AccessDeniedAccess Denied0250CKGY273YHNBTyseYqDxfnAUPrgDNqmEbuhDBQbOcME2zQKaxYYocD9/yxbtXXw0tQWwvUaf27zQymsPEFvA9wYiyRPyf5fikeQ==

Any thoughts about why this might be happening? I'm attaching the file in case you are able to look at it. Help would be much appreciated! I'll keep messing with a test file and see if I can figure it out in the meantime. :) 

Just a quick thought. The NotesTemplate.pdf file must be a pdf form file as the JavaScript reads the field information from the file. You could just check the file opens OK as a form... I doubt that is the problem - but worth checking...

Hi Sarah

Sorry you are having difficulties with the demo. I must admit I hadn't tried it in Articulate Review, as I load demos on my own cloud server - but I just tested it and it seemed to work fine. As Phil says, the 403 error indicates there's some problem opening the file rather than the file being missing.

My zip file content looks like this:

with the "Notes Template.pdf" in the root folder with the story,html file.

I'm not sure what else I can suggest.

If the problem persists I can maybe record a short video of my screen as I load the demo to Review. If that would help?

403 the resource is missing did it upload?

I found the console and looked at the Storyline file in Review. I see an error saying that it failed to load the PDF "Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 403 ()" and there's a web address. I clicked it, which led to this message: 

I recommend doing the following:

1. Open console (on your browser (e.g. Chrome)).
2. Check the error message (you'll likely receive).
3. Copy your Java Script code into Chat GPT and ask Chat GPT to debug it.

I've had some pretty cool experiences with Chat GPT this way. I'd say it's quite likely it'll be able to help you, too.

Still working here, but I'm using a different PDF library.