Storyline opens as "blank" in IE8...

Oct 16, 2013

We have a client who is having issues with launching one of the storyline modules in Internet Explorer 8. The other modules work fine, but  upon launching Final Exam module they get the ‘Done’ loading mark, but receive a blank screen without any content. Please find attached the screen shot for your reference.

I find it weird that the other modules worked fine but then this one refuses to open in IE8. They tried to open it in IE10, though, and it worked fine... 

Does this have something to do with Javascript, or ActionScript, or Flash, or a Setting in IE8? Or is this something in the Storyline File itself? I compared this module to the other modules, and the only difference in the publish settings is that this Module is Tracked Complete/Incomplete based on the test results, not number of slides viewed.

Has anyone encountered this before, and does anyone have any ideas what could be the issue? 

23 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Janine, 

I wanted to share some troubleshooting steps to start with, and if you're still having difficulty with this one Storyline course, we'd want to test the .story file. 

Please do the following to see if it resolves the issue Internet Explorer 8 users are experiencing: 
1) Upgrade Adobe Flash Player here: 
http://www.adobe.com/go/getflash 
2) If your LMS requires Java to be installed on the client computers, be sure the correct version of Java is installed and enabled for your browser. Java can be downloaded and installed here: 
http://java.com 
3) Clear your browser cache. You can do this in Internet Explorer by going to Tools > Internet Options > General > Temporary Internet Files. Select Delete Cookies and Delete Files. 
4) Also in Internet Options, on the Security, Privacy, and Advanced tabs, reset everything to its default settings. There is a button on each tab to reset defaults. 
5) In Windows Vista / 7, go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Run. In Windows XP, go to Start > Run. 
6) Copy / paste the following line of text (depending on your operating system) into the Run dialog box. Click OK, and delete the entire contents of the window (folder) that opens. 
Windows Vista / 7: 
"C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects" 

Windows XP: 
"C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects" 
7) Close all browser windows for the changes to take effect, and then test your content again. 

Janine Carbone

Thanks, Ashley.

I highly suspect it is something on their computer, as we tested the module on several of our own (with different specs), and it opened fine in IE8. I will relay this information to them and hopefully they can figure out if something is wrong with their software/hardware to be causing this. But we cannot reproduce their issue on our end, so maybe it's a simple fix in the settings or something on their end. *finger crossed*

Thanks again!

Phil Kalluri

Hi Ashley,

I have the same issue with our client machine. I couldn't test n my end as we dont have any machine with IE8.

I gave it a go with the above steps with no much luck.

I have other modules developed with Lectora and they are all working fine on client's desktop.

This is the first one we developed using Storyline and it is working ok on IE10, Chrome and Firefox but not on IE8 for some reason..

Can you please help?

Thanks

Phil Kalluri

Sure, Thank you Ashley!

Interesting thing is, We could see the first page fully and on 2nd page, only the custom menu and headers, on 3rd page all of them but menu states and custom previous and next buttons doesn't work.

Very puzzled to see such a behavior.

The same URL works ok on IE10, Chrome and Firefox with out any issue.

Phil Kalluri

Hi all,

We have compared with another machine at client's place where the html working on IE8. Only difference we found is with flash player.

We haven't updated the flash player on the computer with issue which their IT will be dealing with today.

I am just wondering what is the minimum flash player version required to run the storyline publication.

Also would be good to provide an option to choose the flash player plugin version during publication.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Phil,

I see that Miker also let you know that Storyline don't currently support the feature to select which Flash Player version will be used during publishing, but it was a good feature request to send. The minimum requirements are listed here, although I'm curious what version you had to update too as it may be something specific to IE8. 

Aneeta Menon

Hi,

We are experiencing the same issue. I don't have the admin rights to clear the cache, or run the above steps, but we are using IE8 and Flash v11. The same courses work fine in Chrome. Captivate published courses are working fine. This is in Moodle 2.5. It is our preference to use Articulate, but wondering what the issue is and why it's coming up blank.  

Dan Marsden

Hi Anneta - which exact version of Moodle are you using? - there was a weird issue we saw with IE and articulate that was related to the way Moodle loaded the SCORM in an "object" tag instead of using an "iframe" tag - we fixed it in 2.5.4 - more info here:

https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-43019

The other thing in Moodle that can cause a full white screen is a PHP error - if you temporarily increase the debugging level on your Moodle site it will sometimes show further information.

more info on debugging is here:

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Debugging

(although if the issue you are seeing is in fact MDL-43019) increasing the debugging level will probably not help.) - make sure you switch debugging off after you have retrieved any errors shown on the problematic page.

ganesh ubhare

Hello,

We are facing similar issues for storyline output with IE8. Course runs fine on all modern browsers and IE9+. 

Let me explain our scenario

We have developed a course for our client who are still on IE8. Most of the users are using IE8 using windows 7. Most of their browsers have Java6 /Flash12

When we run the course  the course loads and then freezes on the first pages. They are using Kallidus as their LMS.

Can someone please advise what may be causing the course to freeze on IE8 where as it runs fine when running in other browsers.

Please advise.

Regards

Ganesh

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Ganesh,

If it works as expected in other browsers, I'd also want to know if it would work outside your LMS in IE8 to help narrow down the issue. You could publish your course on SCORM Cloud, which is an industry standard testing method for SCORM content or you could use one of the web servers mentioned in this article. 

Also, as a reminder the viewing requirements for Storyline content are detailed here, and it sounds like your setup(s) match. 

Ganesh Ubhare

Hi Ashley,

Good morning and thanks for your reply.

I already did SCORMCLOUD testing but the results are bit different so I didn't want to create any confusion.

Here's what I did:

Since we don't have  IE8 installed I used Browserstack for my testing.  Since the client is using WIN7/IE8 I tested in the same environment and the course did work okish. Having said that I also did a test in WIN XP/IE8 environment and it would not work.

Following are the result of my experiments in Browserstack  ( I did use both version of SCORM i.e SCORM 1.2 and 2004 (3rd Edittion))

Win7 - Win vista    flash 13/java 7(u51) installed  - Course works ok

Win XP(64 bit) - flash 13/ No Java - course does not work

Client Environment

Win7/IE8 - Flash 12 and Java 6  - But course does not work

But the above environment meets the storyline requirements so why is the course not working properly.

Does Java/Flash version makes any difference to the way course works? specially when the min requirements are met.

Does browser setting play any role? If yes, which browser setting may affect the course behaviour

Please help..

Thanks

Ganesh

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Ganesh,

So the first set of testing was done in SCORM Cloud, and the second set within the clients LMS environment? And it worked in SCORM Cloud? I'm not familiar with Browserstack, is it a virtual environment to test different browsers?

It's possible that the browser may work better with some flash versions over others - but I'm not aware of a specific issue with IE8 and different Flash versions. If you're able to test the course at SCORM Cloud and everything works in each environment, you'll want to connect with your LMS team as they may have some other requirements. 

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