Hi there. As the title says, I was wondering if there was any way to set an expiry date for published content, which would basically stop users from being able to view the content after a specific date? I've used this feature in KnowledgePresenter before but can't find such a thing anywhere in Storyline. It would be very handy, as we are basically looking to put our course on disc to send out to people to trial them, but we don't want them having access to our courses beyond the trial period. Thanks again for any support on this.

I think I found somethint that might work using Java Script Create a trigger that runs this script when the first page timeline starts: var currentDate = new Date() var day = currentDate.getDate() var month = currentDate.getMonth() + 1 var year = currentDate.getFullYear()player.SetVar("day1", day);player.SetVar("month1", month);player.SetVar("year1", year); This sets numeric variables in Storyline for day, month and year from your computer. I created numeric varaibles, day1, month1, and year1 initially set to zero Then I created a trigger that would show a layer when the timeline starts if: day1 is greater than a specific number, in my example, 7 and month1 is greater than or equal to a specific number, in my example, 2 and year1 is greater than or equal to a specific number, in my example, 2013 That layer displays text that the content expired and has a close course button. I disabled the next button and added a continue button on the first page. If the Expired layer is visible, I prevented users from clicking items on the base layer. I included the variables on the first page for testing, but they need not display. Here is the file, you must publish to test. To test the expiration, set your computer for a date in the future beyond your expiration date.

Now that I think about the logic of the trigger, you may need to create 3 separate triggers to launch the expired layer. The first trigger is if year1 is greater than or equal to a specific year show the expired layer. So if the course expires in 2014, that would be the year. The next trigger shows the expired layer if the month1 and year1 has been passed. This covers a scenario of a course expiring within a calendar year, for example, June 2013. The final variable is as in my previous post. This covers a course expiring mid month within a calendar year. This is a 3 point date validation: The year is less than the expiration date, The month and year are less than the expiration date, and The day, month, and year are less than the expiration date. Any expiration will show the expired layer.

Jim, SCORM Cloud has a rather unique pricing strategy that I think you might have misunderstood. Check out: http://scorm.com/scorm-solved/scorm-cloud-pricing/scorm-cloud-pricing-all-of-the-details/ "Do I have to keep paying for registrations each month once I have created them? Great news! We want to be awesome to you, so you only pay for the registration when it was created. After that, learners can access the course as often and as long as they like (or you want them to) without any additional registration fees." This means that you pay only for the registrations "purchased" that month. They even send you an email right before you are billed, I believe so that you can go into your account and change your plan accordingly if you have had a lot of registrations that month. This easily gets the cost per registration down to $0.10 each for large numbers. You should at least set up a trial account to check out their functionality, We've worked with Geoff at Rustici (SCORM Cloud) quite a bit and their guys are amazingly helpful. Oddly, they don't really seem to be in it to make money, just to be SCORM evangelists. They do sell an Enterprise product though, if you would like your own SCORM Cloud. Thanks, Mike

Hi Alyssa, We deliver content to clients to host on their LMS, so this feature would be extremely useful. Thanks for your reply.

I am happy to see that so many people are requesting this functionality to be in the software, but a little shocked that we are in the same place as the first request 6 years ago. We also sell SCORM packages in 1 and 3-year contracts and need a better way to ensure the files are disabled or expire so we aren't losing money.

Setting an expiry date for published content

JohnPieterse2
Community Member
11 years ago

Hi Ashley,

Ref to earlier request of Martin H. I wonder if somebody has found a way to work around setting an expiry date on a course after being downloaded on an iPad for offline viewing. It would be ever so helpful delivering content to clients in remote areas. The trick of Garth works fine but as it is in Java it won't work on the iPad. Any brilliant mind doing this in html5

Regards,

John
SteveWooten
Community Member
11 years ago

We just talked about needing this feature for materials that will be downloaded. I honestly assumed that this feature existed, so I'm scratching my head on how to create a work around that will allow me to do this. We would like to set expiration dates so that if someone needs to download the materials, then the materials will only work until the next revision date. Otherwise, we run the risk of having old versions of files circulating for years and years and years.

Any guidance on solving this would be greatly appreciated.
ZioFonta
Community Member
11 years ago

there are some errors in the story provided by Garth on date validation, when validating date you cannot simply compare each expire value (year, month and day) to actual one, while you must proceed first comparing year, then month, and finally day.

here is a story file that should work well.

I put 2 layers to display the result of validation on each one.

expire date is set in JS but you could also set it by system variable and retrieve those variable when executing the JS.
Date_2bRestricted.story244 KB
- BjWilson
  Community Member
  9 years ago
  
  Zio Fonta
  
  there are some errors in the story provided by Garth on date validation, when validating date you cannot simply compare each expire value (year, month and day) to actual one, while you must proceed first comparing year, then month, and finally day.
  
  here is a story file that should work well.
  
  I put 2 layers to display the result of validation on each one.
  
  expire date is set in JS but you could also set it by system variable and retrieve those variable when executing the JS.
  
  Thank you for this it works great for CD and web and upgrades to version 2 well
- RachelHorton-8b
  Community Member
  6 years ago
  Hi Zio,
  
  Thank you for sharing your solution. I had it working in past versions of SL. It stopped working. Any ideas as to why?
  
  When the "yearexpire" is set in the future I receive the Valid Layer as designed.
  
  When the "yearexpire" is set in the past, I do not receive the Expired Layer.
  
  Are you still using Storyline? Which version? I am using Storyline 360 v3.34.20804.0.
  
  Any help would be much appreciated.
  
  Thank you.
  Rachel
  Date_2bRestricted-RH.story113 KB
  - OwenHolt
    Super Hero
    5 years ago
    Let me simplify the process and code for you.
    
    You need 3 variables:
    
    1 text for a "published" or "created" date in the format of mm/dd/yyyy
    
    1 number variable for the number (in days) that the course is valid for, like 60 or 365
    
    and one numeric variable (let's call it "Days") that will receive a value from the JavaScript below showing how much time has passed sine the course was published/updated
    
    You need to execute the following JavaScript at TimeLine start on your first slide.
    
    let player = GetPlayer();
    
    var date1 = new Date(player.GetVar("CreationDate"));
    var date2 = new Date();
    var elapsedTime = date2.getTime() - date1.getTime();
    var elapsedDays = elapsedTime/(1000 * 3600 * 24);
    
    player.SetVar("Days", elapsedDays);
    
    Lastly, you need a trigger to run AFTER the Javascript to show your "Course Expired" layer. It should be something like Show layer Expired when timeline starts if Days > Valid_Days
    
    You can see it in action here: Link to Demo
    
    If that is what you you are looking for, there is a Template file in the resources of the published course that you can download.
MartinHernqvist
Community Member
11 years ago
Hi everyone,

Are there any news on this? I submitted a feature request 10 months ago but have not received a response. Is an "expiry date" function available in Storyline 2 perhaps?
- AlanSharkey
  Community Member
  11 years ago
  Thank you very much for you email. I am presently away from the office and I will have limited access to my emails.
  
  If you need to contact me please leave a message on my mobile for assistance.
AshleyT-Pollard
Staff
11 years ago
Hi Martin,

There is not an expiration feature within Storyline, as it's often controlled by the LMS or the hosting platform you use. As to whether it will be a feature in a future version, I don't have any information to share in that regards, but the more feature requests the better. :-)
SagarShinde
Community Member
10 years ago
Hi everyone

Thank you so much for this. I will try it and it is actually working but I want to ask one question that can we check date with server date.Right know we just compare it with system date so please tell me is it possible to check with live date
- AlanSharkey
  Community Member
  10 years ago
  Thank you very much for you email. I am presently away from the office and I will have limited access to my emails.
  
  If you need to contact me please leave a message on my mobile for assistance.
LeslieMcKerchie
Staff
10 years ago
Hi Sagar!

There would not be a built in feature within Storyline to set an expiration date although there is some discussion in this thread regarding custom ways to set it up using Javascript.

Hope that helps get you started!
JimMcKay
Community Member
10 years ago
We sell e-learning content to organizations all over the world on a yearly license basis. We need a way to set an expiration date on the content so that when their year runs out the content stops working and they need to purchase a new license. I'm actually surprised that this feature isn't in the program or in development. Most organizations want the content on their own LMS and once they have it there we have no control over it.
MikeTobias
Community Member
10 years ago
Jim, check out SCORM Cloud. You can do this very easily with their "dispatch" feature. It's not free, but very reasonable.
MartinHernqvist
Community Member
10 years ago
Thanks for your post Jim McKay! Same problem as we have. I posted about it long time ago. Thanks also Mike B. for your response regarding SCORM Cloud. What do Articulate Staff say about that? Is that something that you may recommend or have you come closer to a built-in solution in Storyline? Pleased to hear.