Forum Discussion
How can I link or dynamically update external image files in Storyline 360?
Hi everyone,
I’m exploring ways to automate how images are updated in an Articulate Storyline 360 project.
Here’s the scenario:
I have a folder containing screenshots or visual assets that are frequently updated (for example, new UI screenshots for software simulations). I’d like to find a way to link these images to Storyline so that when I replace an image file in the local folder (using the same filename), the corresponding image inside the Storyline project also updates automatically.
I understand that Storyline currently embeds all media files into the .story file, but I’m wondering if there’s any workflow, script, or workaround (like a web object, external reference, or API-based automation) that can help achieve something similar — basically, a dynamic or linked image repository.
Is there any way to display or link it directly in Storyline without manually downloading and inserting it each time?
I’m open to creative solutions — such as using the Media Library, relative file paths, or Web Objects — as long as it helps simplify recurring image updates.
Any insights, ideas, or recommended practices would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Shashi G
1 Reply
Take a look at my replies to the following post.
Use triggers and variables to cycle through multiple layers in sequence | Articulate - Community
While it does not directly address your issue, it does demonstrate an approach to dynamically reading in and swapping images from a folder that you specify (located in an included web object). The post is a bit older, so it does not take advantage of the newer methods of accessing slide elements with the JS API.
Nevertheless, you could adapt aspects of this approach to automatically read in and display updated images in your project.
You could also utilize dynamic webURLs as the swapped image sources instead of the static files, if you were so inclined and your hosting sites did not balk about CORS permissions.
You could even access a database to retrieve image data and dynamically swap out the slide image sources. I have another more complicate post related to that, if you are interested.
