iPad HTML5/SCORM Launch Window

Oct 31, 2012

When taking an HTML5/SCORM course on the iPad Safari, most (all?) LMS will provide a launch button to kick off the course. The student clicks this button to open a new window.

Modern LMS detect that iPad Safari blocks popups and will present a secondary message informing the student that popups are blocked and the new window could not be opened. The LMS will present the student with a second "launch" button that the student must click to get iPad/Safari to open a new window to launch the course.

Storyline has a default launch page for HTML5 which then presents the student with a THIRD launch button. I imagine this third launch page was designed into Storyline/HTML5 because testing was done stand-alone without a SCORM LMS and a user-click was required to get iPad/Safari to play the audio/video.

Unlike developers and testers, customers generally track employee course status and will run Storyline/HTML5 from an LMS. Requiring three launch buttons be considered bad UI and confusing to most people taking the course.

SCORM is 100% of all my course deployments. How about a compile-time checkbox to enable/disable the Storyline HTML5 launch window? This would improve the student experience and satisfy those that use HTML5 without a SCORM LMS (does anyone out there use HTML5 without an LMS?)

9 Replies

Peter Anderson
Staff

over 11 years ago10/31/12 at 10:29 am (UTC)

Hi Sam,

Currently HTML5 on Safari for iOS requires user interaction for media on the first slide to play, which is why the launch page is included as part of HTML5 Storyline courses. This older thread has more relevant discussion on that.

Sam Carter
Author

over 11 years ago12/22/12 at 7:08 am (UTC)

Peter,

I purchased a new iPad 4 to test Storyline in SCORM. I noticed that in IOS 6, media does play automatically. I can set slides in the course to advance automatically, and audio plays just fine on all slides.

Nothing from Apple about this, and only a one similar observation in the apple community.

Peter Anderson
Staff

over 11 years ago12/31/12 at 8:29 am (UTC)

Hi Sam,

Thanks for letting us know. I'll relay this on so we can do some further testing with the new iPad. Can you confirm the configurations you tested with?

Which browser was tested - Mobile Safari?
Did you test in SCORM Cloud or another LMS?
Did you test both audio and video, or just audio?
Would you be willing to share a sample file demonstrating the media playing automatically?

Thanks again for your help!

Sam Carter
Author

over 11 years ago12/31/12 at 8:58 am (UTC)

Peter Anderson said:

Hi Sam,

Thanks for letting us know. I'll relay this on so we can do some further testing with the new iPad. Can you confirm the configurations you tested with?

Which browser was tested - Mobile Safari?

Did you test in SCORM Cloud or another LMS?

Did you test both audio and video, or just audio?

Would you be willing to share a sample file demonstrating the media playing automatically?

Thanks again for your help!

Prior to finding this, I had JavaScript to detect and reject iPad 1 users. Since discovering IOS 6 doesn't require an interaction, I've modified my scripts to detect and require IOS 6, supported on iPad 2 and above. In this configuration, no interaction is necessary and the course plays through just fine.

Answers:

- Tested in IOS6 Safari

- Tested in cloud.scorm.com.

- My testing was audio only.

- I have uploaded the .story source to Articulate for case 00310992 which documents another problem running Storyline on the cloud.scorm.com LMS. When launching a course of any size, (e.g., more than a light demo) Storyline will crash immediately after launch unless the preloader is given time (90+ seconds in this case) to finish loading all content. After that, it plays just fine.

Sam

Peter Anderson
Staff

over 11 years ago12/31/12 at 9:31 am (UTC)

Thanks, Sam. I'll let you know what I hear back.

Peter Anderson
Staff

over 11 years ago12/31/12 at 11:57 am (UTC)

Hi Sam,

So I've confirmed that the audio does indeed play as expected (automatically) when the slides are set to advance automatically in HTML5 on Mobile Safari in iOS 6. Seems the limitation, as documented here, is only limited to iOS 5. Thanks for helping to confirm.

Sam Carter
Author

over 11 years ago12/31/12 at 12:37 pm (UTC)

Since

Peter Anderson said:

So I've confirmed that the audio does indeed play as expected (automatically) when the slides are set to advance automatically in HTML5 on Mobile Safari in iOS 6. Seems the limitation, as documented here, is only limited to iOS 5. Thanks for helping to confirm.

I don't see the documentation mentioning the student interaction requirement to play media being limited to IOS 5 on the link you provided. What am I missing?

If the point of the Storyline Launch (PLAY?) page was to get the required student interaction to play audio, then it stands to reason that this page is no longer needed on IOS 6.

Peter Anderson
Staff

over 11 years ago12/31/12 at 1:03 pm (UTC)

Hey Sam,

Below is a screenshot of the limitation mentioned in the KB I linked to when the yellowed portion is hovered over. Originally, I was reading it as "we've only tested it in iOS 5", rather than "it works fine in iOS 6, but iOS 5 has this limitation".

Sam Carter
Author

over 11 years ago12/31/12 at 1:06 pm (UTC)

Peter Anderson said:

Below is a screenshot of the limitation mentioned in the KB I linked to when the yellowed portion is hovered over. Originally, I was reading it as "we've only tested it in iOS 5", rather than "it works fine in iOS 6, but iOS 5 has this limitation".

I've missed the hover attributes on that page before. You're right. It doesn't say IOS 6 is not a problem yet.

I hope further testing supports the finding that IOS 6 doesn't require a student interaction. It will make the HTML5 playback more like desktop viewing.

Sam

iPad HTML5/SCORM Launch Window

9 Replies

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