Storyline file size

Hi, similar problem though happening from a different angle, I guess.

I've been focused on minimising the size of a specific output file when you publish for HTML5 (paths.js) as in testing the size of this file (and hence the unexpectedly long download time) was causing the course launch to time out within strictly managed networks.

So after publishing I habitually check the paths.js file. What I noticed was that when I imported all the slides into a new empty course (to shake off some file corruption that seemed to be creeping in - "this project is locked by another process") that paths.js file had dramatically increased in size from 3.2MB to 5.6MB even though nothing content- or navigation-wise had changed.

It's almost as if the import brought some large component of the existing information with it then "forgot" it had it and re-created it again. Digging a bit deeper I found some sub-files within the .story container itself that definitely contained "historical" content that was no longer in the course - specifically summary.xml within docProps. Further, that historical content was more than a few save, close and restarts ago, in fact it predated the import, so should presumably have been purged a while back?

Another interesting wrinkle is that the summary.xml file showed my slide and navigation count as 440 - exactly double the number of slides I thought I had!

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Matt

Hi Matt, 

That's quite the investigative work you've done! I appreciate you sharing here. I'll be sure to add it to the existing bug report that was filed in connection with your Support case.

Thanks, and we'll keep you posted with any developments on this! 

A pleasure Ashley - I have my courses pared down to a functional size now but if your team can figure this out and issue a fix I'm sure the courses could be even more responsive. Happy clients are the goal!

Matt

Just a thought in case it helps: a large chunk of the course I'm currently working on was originally part of another course created in Storyline 2, upgraded to Storyline 3, then imported into this new project so I didn't have to rebuild it. So it's a mixture of old, upgraded, SL2 slides and brand new ones.

Is it possible that there are enough differences in how SL2 handled publishing content for HTML5 (particularly text as that seems to be the root of my own situation) and SL3's upgraded handling that SL3 doesn't "know" what to do with the legacy SL2 information, so just leaves it as junk code in these files?

For a small course I can see that having a bit of unused code floating around that doesn't interact with anything wouldn't have any impact, but for very large, text heavy courses like mine it might start to manifest as a problem.

Matt

Hi Matt,

That's another good thought - and the HTML5 publishing methods from SL2 to SL3 (or SL360) were a total rewrite to support a broader HTML5 output. I wouldn't have thought that it'd carry over that old code too - but I'm far from a programmer or coder! I did share the update here with my team, so they'll use that info as they continue to investigate. 

Let us know if you stumble on any other tidbits! 

Hi Ashley,

A further tidbit as requested!

It's been happening for a while, but I hadn't made the (possible) connection to the current issue, where every time I open one of my courses for editing I get a warning about a missing font. Fair enough except the font it's warning me about is not used at all in these current courses! It was however used in some slides I imported from another project many moons ago before I changed the fonts to match the rest of the content.

It's got me thinking of two things:

1. This would seem to support my guess that SL3, at least in my case, is dealing with some historic data somewhere that isn't clearing properly. Unless there's another reason the programme might pop up that warning?
2. Is there anything SL3 does when it thinks there are uninstalled fonts that might be contributing? Perhaps it collects/generates more information in the paths.js file about the attributes of the text objects as a precaution - given the amount of text I have across the course even a small amount of additional code per line of text would multiply up rapidly.

Regards,

Matt

Hi Matt, 

There was an earlier issue where that messaging would appear in error, such as when the fonts weren't used, but that has been fixed in an earlier update of Storyline 3 and Storyline 360. 

I can't remember if we've checked that already, that you're on the latest update of Storyline 3? It would be update 4. 

I can definitely share the other tidbits with the team, and we'll keep you posted here. 

Hi Ashley, before embarking on the latest round of testing I uninstalled and reinstalled with the May 8th SL3 update so I'm on update 4: 3.4.15731.0

Matt

Thanks for the additional information Matt.

Hey Ashley, sorry my notifications for this thread were somehow turned off. Yes I can share a file, but I have tried ALL of the suggestions above and still no reduction.

Regards,

Justin