Rise creating long file names

Jul 12, 2022

Hello, 

When I export the rise file, rise 360 creates long names under the scormcontent > assets. Is there a way to control the number of characters? My LMS says there is an error in the filepath due to the number of characters. 

Thank you

22 Replies
Steve Warren

Yes, this is a real problem if the files are saved in nested folders.
So we're looking at the (descriptive) names of folders, sub folders, etc contributing to the 255-character limit.

Here's what I get for a video file.
My file name is:
     MMTLSG-M1-L4-RISE.mp4
Rise exports it as:
      W6irVzOxRsD2WB94_transcoded-_6qpIfsO-Pk4-0e3-MMTLSG-M1-L4-RISE.mp4

Surely all the extra isn't necessary???

Paul Schneider

Ah yes file name seems to indicate that the mP4 uploaded was processed (transcoded) and thus the GUID and extra file name is expected I would believe. I'm no Articulate expert, but I would suspect there isn't much you can do unless you can tell Rise to not transcode the video - otherwise probably need to get your LMS vendor to accept longer file names or use another tool to create courses (or don't use videos in your Rise courses). Hopefully someone else has another idea.

Steve Warren

Thanks - but I wonder just how I'd ever "tell Rise "to do anything.
I have a few ideas for making it a better product but judging from the response that people get, and that problems go unresolved for years ... why waste time suggesting them?
Others (more capable than me) have suggested the same.
And overall, it's a very good product :)

Transcoding is a process that compresses videos for streaming.
But Rise's transcoded files are literally twice the size of my own (I use Handbrake - hardly rocket science...)
So I replace the video files anyway after I've unzipped the download - but can't lose this pointess extension of the file name.
This creates problems on my own PC, so it's not just a matter for my LMS.

I know the reasons why Articulate are so paranoid about encrypting things (too many thieves out there...) but adding another character string as well as the word "transcoded" seems like complete overkill to me.

Hey ho, another annoying irritant with a basic product that is, as I said, very good.
I'm sure that assigning resources to fixing more of these shortcomings would pay off.
Less niggles = better repuatation.

I just wondered whether anyone has a workaround?

David Arndt

It is most definitely a bug, since it undermines Articulate's own ID/naming-system. Also it's not just an issue with file path length, but also spaces, special characters etc.

There is no workaround, since we can't search and replace in the source code of Rise as most contents have been obfuscated.

I've opened a support ticket regarding this issue,

I urge everyone who has the same problem to do the same, as this may push articulate towards fixing this bug.

Cheers,
David

Steve Warren

Very happy to add my voice but I think we're all shouting into a void.

I'll say it again - Rise is a great tool - but it has a large number of things that need fixing so that  problems like this don't create headaches.
I get the impression that the priority for Articulate is to work on upgrades and new features, rather than making the existing product work better.

Which makes development very interesting for the developers, but not so good for users.
And we just need to develop our own workarounds.
My own workaround for this is to make the names of folders and subfolders much shorter than I want; a pain in the backside, but that's how it is.

Good luck
Steve

David Arndt

The support's reply to my bugreport was that they'd take this "feature" back to the team. So no, they're probably not going to do anything about it anytime soon.
Feels like articulate is back in "we're market leaders, let's just do what we want"-mode until some competitor comes up with a better solution than Rise.

Steve Warren

Just FYI, my latest (and hopefully final) workaround is to host videos elsewhere and use Multimedia > Embed in Rise to embed them in the content.

It took some fiddling to initially get it working, but now I have better quality videos, no hosting /security issues, no more problems with filenames, and no need to substitute/rename my own videos so they do the job.

It's a shame that I had to go to a heck of a lot of trouble to get around it, but I now have a solution that's MUCH better and WAY easier than anything I could have done using Rise.

Hope this helps someone...

Steven Benassi

Hi Nick!

Thanks for checking in on this!

I noticed you've also opened a support case and connected with my colleague Mark. Smart move! I see that Mark has included you in the feature report we are currently tracking. We'll be sure to update this discussion as soon as we have news to share.

For your reference, here's a deeper look at how we manage feature requests.

Steven Croft

May I add my voice to the request not to make huge long filenames in the zip SCORM export. I have also had failed uploads today but looking at the error code and reading this helped solve the issue. Can I reinforce it mostly seems to be with uploaded videos rather than linking or using embed code. It now uploads BUT there are still rather long filenames - why!?

Steve Warren

Looking at Steven Benassi's last post, it's not even on the radar, so best to look for another solution - and Rise provides it!

Well, I think Rise is a brilliant product but there are always things you need to work around.
With long filenames, the only workaround that's both simple and consistent is, as in my last post, to embed a video hosted elsewhere.

FWIW, the people I use are Streaming Video Provider (SVP). I have absolutely no connection with them, no affiliate relationship, and no friends or relatives working there. Just quite a few years of using their services, with absolutely brilliant support from them (real people responding within an hour or two, and who actually look into problems).

So now, I create the video as I want, upload it to SVP, copy the "share" code, and paste it into a Rise Multimedia > Embed block, where it will stay, unaffected by (say) the Rise "compression" process.
You can even create your own thumbnail!
Job done.

Yes, it's a bit of work to set the process up to start with, but once you're under way, it's a breeze.
And the zipped up Rise export files, without the videos, are a whole lot smaller, too!

David Arndt

Hi Steve, you already posted that workaround above. I appreciate that this is a suitable solution for you. However, it is not a solution for many companies who need/want ownership of all their content in one place or simply can't use external video services for data protection reasons.
Dividing data locations for one product is also rarely a good idea in the long run in my experience. makes maintenance of the content more complex for one thing. 

It's great that Rise offers both solutions for video integration, but it's sad that one of them has a bug that Articulate fail to acknowledge as such.

Best Regards,

David

Steve Warren

Hi David

Yes, I already posted the workaround, but this time, after some experience of using it and transforming my experience with Rise, I thought I'd provide enough detail to point people in the right direction.
As I said, it also (unexpectedly) fixed another problem that's unresolved on this forum - that of providing your own thumbnail image.

And I fully agree that it won't suit everyone, but my only intention here is to help maybe a few people who would appreciate it.

As I've also said in my posts, Articulate have very good reasons to obfuscate, encrypt, etc - with legions of people who would reverse engineer their product and "steal" it - but I, like you, wish they'd spend a bit more time on fixing bugs and problems, some of which have been around for many years.
With this particular problem, what's wrong with creating a 32-character md5 string to replace much of the garbage in the file name?

Hey ho, crack on...