Forum Discussion
Linking or Embedding to a Spreadsheet
We are trying to link or embed a spreadsheet and started testing with an excel file through Office 365. Sometimes embedded file will open within Storyline and sometimes it requires the player to login with their 365 id. And it varies between browsers apps and computer (Mac or PC). We feel we there are no solutions for the embed issue so we are turning to using a link.
We can link to the Excel within Storyline but, like Google sheets, the file will be updated as the player uses it, which we don't want. Is there a parameter you can add to either spreadsheet type that tells SharePoint or Google Drive to make a copy and open the copy?
Thank you for your time and any helpful information you have.
Hi Andy
Not tested it but in SharePoint you could try getting the shareable link for the Excel file and changing the end of the link to '?download=1'.
e.g.
https://yourcompany.sharepoint.com/:x:/r/sites/your_site/Shared%20Documents/your_file.xlsx?download=1
This should allow the user to open and save their own copy of the spreadsheet?
I should add that server-side applications (like your Storyline course) can generate and serve files to be downloaded by the user, but the process of saving or editing files on the client device always requires user interaction.
Browsers run web pages in a sandboxed environment, meaning that web pages cannot directly access the client’s file system. This is a fundamental security feature to prevent malicious websites from modifying or accessing files on a user’s device without permission.
Any file creation or modification on the client side requires explicit user consent. For instance, if a web app wants to save a file to the user’s device, the user must actively click a download link or use a save dialog.
Another option is getting the data from Excel of Google sheets, and then parsing it in Storyline in your own table or sheet.
Using eg. https://cluelabs.com/elearning-widgets widget it is quite easy to get the data wanted. And using https://tabulator.info/ it then is easy to create your custom sheet in Storyline.
As Tabulator has an editable component, you could build it so its editable in your published Storyline...and updates the Google or Excel sheet when editing it inline. If interested i can make a tutorial on this.Thanks everyone for your recommendations. All solutions have provided inconsistent interaction so we are going to go with building a spreadsheet like simulation in Storyline.
