Links do not work from share drive

Aug 13, 2012

I published my project locally on my desktop and everything worked. I copied the files to a share drive and now the links to an intranet site do not work. When I click the link, nothing happens at all. When I test the link from the same share drive location, only not from the published Storyline file, it works fine so this does not appear to be a firewall or other security issue. As I said, Storyline does not do anything, not even open a window, when I click the link. Why would this happen?

13 Replies
Jamie Morgan

It is likely caused by an Adobe Player setting. When you launch the course from the shared network location, you likely get an initial window saying something about an unsafe operation being blocked - this is an Adobe Player setting that you can adjust inside of your browser. Simply add your network folder to the "trusted locations" and relaunch the course. The links should now work.

Katrina Rochetto

I'm still having this issue.  Due to our company's privacy guidelines, we are not able to publish to a web server.  I also tried using story.html

I have had quite a few people test the link through the course, and only 1 out of 10 can access the link.

For the adobe settings, the course will be released to approximately 400 people, so changing the settings is not a viable option.  Any other suggestions?  I'm still somewhat new to Storyline, and never had this issue using Articulate Presenter so I'm not sure of what else to do.  Thanks!

Justin Wilcox

Hi Katrina.

Does your company have an intranet you can use or a private way of sharing web content? Storyline and Presenter content were not designed to work on a network or shared drive. Flash player does not allow you to access active content like hyperlinks from a shared drive without modifying your Flash Player security settings which is not something I would recommend doing particularly when you would have to ask 400 people to do this. Your best bet would be to ask someone in your company how you can host the content privately online or via your company's intranet. You could also publish for CD and ask people to launch the presentation via the EXE file but this would only work on Windows machines, not macs.

To securely host content I would recommend using Articulate Online or a SCORM or AICC compliant Learning Management System.

Matthew Graham

I seem to be having a similar problem.  I have "jump to's" in my presentation that link to embedded pdfs.  It seems like sometimes the randomly work, and most times they don't .  They never work when I put them on a flash drive or on the network drive.

However, it does work on the network or flash drive if I make exe files using the CD publishing option.

So, if we publish these to the net, will our links work correctly with the adobe player settings?  Will it be consistent with everyone that accesses the website?  It's useless if it doesn't work with everyone as it makes us look bad to put out workshops with faulty hyperlinks.

Jamie Morgan

Matthew - if you publish the courses to the web and they are hosted on a web server, all the links will work. The issue with the links working on a network drive has to do with Adobe security settings. This is only an issue if you are launching the course from a network drive - not if they are hosted on a web server.

I have published multiple courses to our web server and every link works, so I can assure you they are stable assuming they are on a web server.

Christine Hendrickson

Hi Leslie,

What happens when you try to use the button with the link to the survey? Do you see any pop-up blocker notifications? 

Also, have you tried viewing the course from another host? If not, I'd be happy to take a look at it and see if I experience the same thing. Are you able to share your .STORY file here? Keep in mind, however, that if the course is fairly large it may not upload to the forums. If this is the case, you can try inserting this specific slide into a new Storyline project and share that with us.

Thanks! 

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