Forum Discussion
Links to external files break when the author is not the publisher
Before I start, check out this link to a Storyline project I created that illustrates the problem:
https://360.articulate.com/review/content/92a6cce9-5da1-46e6-80c5-b6a346be23b4/review
Password: PROBLEMS
The Situation
An author (call them Author1) creates a Storyline file. This file has some slides with triggers that open an external file stored on their local computer. Then, this author gets a new job and leaves the company.
Another person is hired to take over Author1's duties. We will call this person Publisher1 They open the file, finish working on it, and publish. They upload as normal to their LMS.
The Problem
Now, when the users access the published content, none of the triggers to those external files work. Why? Because they were local file paths on Author1's computer. Those file paths don't point to the file from Publisher1's computer.
The Current Workaround
The solution that is currently provided by Storyline is to add those files to the resources tab first, so they get copied into the Storyline file itself. Then, when you create a link on the slide trigger, you need to remember to type in story_content/external_files/MyFile.pdf. Worse, if you need to replace the file with another file that has a different filename, you need to remember to change it in TWO places (Resources and the triggers on the slides).
We Need a Better Solution
This is not an elegant or easy solution for many people. It is prone to typos and it is hard to remember the exact text you must type in each time. I'd expect it to work properly without having to remember this "one weird trick".
Has anyone found a better solution? There are discussions going back 9 years on this forum asking for a fix and as far as I can tell, it's still an issue. Here are some of them:
Relative File/URL Links | Articulate - Community
Broken links /path to external pdf-files | Articulate - Community
Resources and URLs | Articulate - Community
I work for a company with over 70,000 employees. We create hundreds of trainings each year. Some of them have over 100 slides. Doing this manually is not an option.
I wish the Media Library allowed us to add external files with the same method we use for audio and video files. Those files would be imported directly into the Storyline file and everything would be embedded/linked during publishing using relative file directory paths instead of fully resolved paths on the local computer doing the publishing. The Resources tab does this today, we just need to be able to do this without the "one weird trick" method. It should just work.
5 Replies
I would raise a support case, this same issue existed in resources and was fixed a while back, would be good if this issue had the same fix that files are stored in the storyline file.
I agree with Elizabeth. I also worked for a large corporation with many resources linked in training. Our best practices were to not use local files but shared drives. Some challenges we faced and how we overcame them was:
- Link Broken: Usually due to someone updating the document/file and not "replacing" it--rather they would upload a new version of the file and delete the old one which would break the link. Then we would need to update the module to create a new link to the document. So we made sure any new team members understood the impact revisions of documents had on those assets.
- Access Issue: Usually when someone's role/title in the company did not grant them access to the shared folder the file was stored on. Then we would need to involve our IT department to get involved and grant permissions of that user to the shared folders. Not really something in the L&D team's control and more so of a trial and error thing.
I can also share that many of our documents were policies and procedures and would be constantly updated, and so there was a benefit to using shared drives for file storage from the perspective of easier module maintenance. If files were properly replaced and the links remained working, there was no need to republish the module and update it in the LMS.
I don't think this immediately resolves the issue of the existing development efforts by a former employee, but maybe this is something to consider with future development.
Hope this helps!
I wish we could use a shared drive solution. Unfortunately, the need to maintain the correct access permissions to those files would be an impossible task because these modules are used by thousands of employees, globally.
That list of people is constantly changing as people come and go or change positions within the company. The embedded files are technical documents, so they are confidential and cannot be shared with a general link that anyone in the world can access.
What I'm trying to say here is that I wish Articulate would make the change to embed the file instead of linking to it. That would solve all of these problems and would ensure that the link always works.
I'm not sure that adding the actual files to the Resources is what I would call a "workaround" in this situation. You either upload the files into your course, or you don't. The best approach would be to actually host these files on a server, and either embed them into the course or provide the URLs to your learners. Trying to link to a local file within an elearning course would be like sending an email to someone with a link to that local file. Yes the file has a path, but no it's not one that anyone other than the owner of the computer can access.
I do understand your point of view. However, the workaround I'm referring to is the need to type in story_content/external_files/MyFile.pdf. I have thought about hosting on a server and linking to it, but our only options for that is SharePoint because we need to limit access. Maintaining that access list for thousands of people across the globe is not practical.
What I'm trying to say is that this feature should really work more like an embed and less like a link.
