Hello, I'm looking into ways of protecting our courses from being illegally redistributed or accessed after a certain date. The two ways I have thought of so far are either to use the built-in JavaScript functionality to get a password from a server and having the user enter the same password to proceed beyond the first slide, or to disable any access beyond the first slide after a set date. Is something like this feasible either through current features, or JavaScript inside Storyline 2? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Any update on this topic?? any possible update on this in near future?? it's an important function that has been asked 8 years ago.

Hi John and welcome to E-Learning Heroes :) How are you publishing and sharing your file? I would utilize an LMS to provide an expiration to any course content. Hopefully others in the community will be able to chime in and share how they handle a need for this requirement.

Happy to pass along your insight to our team, John! In the meantime, it may be something that folks in the community could help you accomplish using Javascript or another custom method.

Hi Matthew I look at your ExpiryDate.story above. Neat.. but then how to incorporate this ? I suspect this is the first slide. You would add a trigger like Show layer "expired" when "courseExpired" changes, if "courseExpired" is equal to True and have a layer on that slide that says "Expired, please obtain a new version" and a a trigger on the layer that says: Exit course when the timeline reaches xx second and in case the "courseExpired" is false a trigger on the base layer that says: Jump to Next slide when "courseExpired" changes, if "courseExpired" is equal to False Is that about correct ?

Dear Articulate Storyline, Not everyone distributes e-learning on their own LMS. We provide off the shelf content that our customers want to host themselves. I don't imagine this is a terribly rare occurrence. Can you please look into adding the expiry date functionality so that our content is secure even when distributed as a zip file. Thanks.

Date limit or password protect course | Articulate

GregGarner
Community Member
7 years ago
Hi,

I am trying to publish to an LMS with a date expiry option. I have a client who would like to test one of my courses, but I don't want them to have more than a day or two to try it. I see the information above about JavaScript, but was wondering if there was an easier way to set up the expire date when publishing to LMS.

Thanks,

Greg
SBP_Inc
Community Member
6 years ago
Place Matthew's javascript code inside an Execute Javscript trigger on the very first slide of your project, as the topmost trigger that starts on timeline start. Once created, you should be fine to follow Matthew's directions regarding the project variable. A note to all - this technique relies on scripting support, which does not exist on all platforms and devices. See Articulate's official KnowledgeBase regarding the availability of javascript
- MichaelAnder569
  Community Member
  6 years ago
  I think an even bigger issue is that this relies on the date set on the local device, computer, etc. This can easily be bypassed is not a secure way to lock out a course after it expires. Unfortunately there is no alternative that's easy to implement.
jenneman
Community Member
6 years ago
Just tested Matthew Bibby's solution in 360. In order to make it work, I needed to delete the T/F variable and replace it with a Text variable of the same name. It's attached.
ExpiryDate_360.story85 KB
- AnjaliPanakkat-
  Community Member
  5 years ago
  Its perfect. Worked like a charm. Thanks.
MassimoScali-42
Community Member
6 years ago
I'm sorry to say that this is not a good solution if your goal is to provide the SCORM to the customer and make the course expire after a given time. The problem is that the JavaScript code you write in the Storyline project is perfectly readable and editable by the customers and thus they can change the expiration date whenever they want and extend the lifetime of the course. In other words, this solution is not reliable for you as a content provider.

The only reliable solution would be a core feature in Storyline but it seems they don't care about this because after 6 years (!) they haven't still provided it.
- AnjaliPanakkat-
  Community Member
  5 years ago
  
  Massimo Scali
  
  I'm sorry to say that this is not a good solution if your goal is to provide the SCORM to the customer and make the course expire after a given time. The problem is that the JavaScript code you write in the Storyline project is perfectly readable and editable by the customers and thus they can change the expiration date whenever they want and extend the lifetime of the course. In other words, this solution is not reliable for you as a content provider.
  
  The only reliable solution would be a core feature in Storyline but it seems they don't care about this because after 6 years (!) they haven't still provided it.
  
  Hi Massimo! Do you know where this code stays in the published folder? It will be good to know so we can protect that file too before sharing the SCORM.
  
  I agree that a core feature will be great. But until then.. Thanks.
ChrisLivermo433
Community Member
11 months ago
ditto
JoeFrancis
Community Member
11 months ago
The solution is to use a 3rd-party provider which specializes in managing the distribution of your published learning content.

SCORM Cloud Dispatch

SCORM Cloud is a SaaS application that lets you manage all of your eLearning in one hosted platform. If you want to deliver your courses to learners via third-party LMS' but still maintain ownership and control of those courses, then SCORM Cloud Dispatch can help.
DiettaThornton
Community Member
7 months ago
I'm very disappointed that this issue hasn't been resolved over such a long period. Hopefully someone sees this and is able to incorporate the necessary changes.