Revisiting Animated PNGs as a GIF Alternative
I've been experimenting with some local generative AI resources and was impressed how easy it was to create high quality animated transparent PNGs. I know many people rely on GIFs to do quick animations in Storyline, but they have so many issues and limitations that I've never rely pursued them. Animated PNGs however show much more promise. They've been around for quite a while and there have been several posts over many years on ELH about their use in Storyline. Like GIFs, animated PNGs are generally supported in the current version of Storyline. A very recent update actually just fixed a playback issue that was blocking their animation. Animated PNGs have better resolution and color, and look better all-around while still maintaining transparency if desired. A major shortcoming however, much like GIFs, is that there is no built-in way to control the playback. Since good quality animated PNGs are becoming so easy to produce, I assembled some resources to better control their playback in Storyline, which I thought I would share. It has limits, but should serve as a good starting point if anyone wants to apply this approach to their own slides. Demo: https://360.articulate.com/review/content/5b8efd30-a3aa-4c56-88d1-f84e7bbf7c43/review I’m using a slightly modified version of the apng-js JavaScript library to control the PNG animations. You can download the file from https://paedagogus.org/CDN/apngJs.min.js. It just changes the name of the library reference in the browser's window object. See https://www.npmjs.com/package/apng-js for usage details. (Note: You will need to move the apng-js library file to your own server, or load it locally since this is currently on my server and it may not be available forever.) The general idea is that: A small script runs either once at the start of a slide, or once on the master (however you want to set it up). This script loads the library and creates a PNG swapping function. You then insert and position your animated PNG(s) file into your Storyline slides as usual. For any PNG you want to control, you then run a small script that contains the Object ID for the PNG and a name for the player object. You will need a matching Storyline variable for this named player object. It then calls the saved swapping function and will swap your animated PNG image element for a canvas element that contains the same PNG data. The apng-js library then allows you to play, pause, reset, and adjust the speed of your PNG clip at will using the variable reference to the player object. The scale, proportion, rotation, border and background of the PNG slide object will be largely maintained after the conversion. However, you cannot apply cropping or any visual filters (e.g., color/contrast/brightness changes) to the PNG. These seem to result in Storyline generating a new PNG file, which loses the animation data. You may need to experiment, as I only addressed and tested the basic functionality. There is a slight delay as the PNG is processed and moved to the canvas. The larger the file, the longer the delay. The demo file is 50MB, so it is noticeable. Just plan accordingly. You need these Storyline variables: runOnce, which flags if the setup script has already been run (i.e., run once) replaceImageWithCanvas, which holds the swapping function reference individual variables for each unique player you create, which holds the player reference If successful, you can use GetPlayer().getVar("{your player’s name}") followed by .play(), .pause(), or .stop() to control the clip. There are other possible settings detailed on the website mentioned above. Look at the script on the slide to see how things are accessed. You should be able to apply this to multiple animated PNGs across different slides, or on a single slide. You will just need to update the object IDs and player names for each script you use to swap the PNG data.AI voice is not working
Hi Everyone, I am working on a new module and wanted to use the AI Voice feature, however when I click on it, nothing happens, I have tried restarting the app and also ensuring it's on the latest version. Another user is also not able to use it. Any help is greatly appreciated.Any plans to add adaptive bitrate streaming for videos in Rise 360
Hi everyone, Does anyone know if there are any plans for Articulate Rise to support adaptive bitrate streaming for uploaded videos? Currently, videos seem to play at a fixed resolution, which can be an issue for learners with slower connections. Adaptive bitrate (ABR) would greatly improve the user experience by automatically adjusting video quality based on network conditions. Is this feature on the roadmap or being considered by the Articulate team? Thanks in advance!"Save as PDF" HTML not working in Rise360 and Chrome
I am using Rise360 Beta HTML feature and I am trying to add a Download as a PDF button. The issue I am running into is that Chrome and Edge are blocking the download. I even tried the option to open in a new browser so the user can manually download instead and it is still blocked. When I test the code in W3 it works perfectly. Any solutions or workarounds? The original code is attached. I am new to HTML so I recognize those limitations. I have been asking ChatGPT to help out and none of the solutions are working.Exporting content from Rise into a printer-friendly word document
I'm looking for a way to easily export all content, including the content of Storyline interactions and uploaded documents (e.g. video transcripts) into an accessible printer-friendly word document. I find the PDF exports are quite limiting and for some reason, a single banner image or matching activity takes up an entire A4 sheet.Viewing Articulate 360 Content in SharePoint Online
Enabling Custom Scripts in SharePoint Online Custom scripts are now disabled in SharePoint Online for security reasons by default. As a result, Articulate content with the story.html file renamed to story.aspx in the published output that previously worked with SharePoint Online might not work anymore. If you don't need to track learners' progress or results, check out these free or low-cost options for web hosting. If you need to use SharePoint Online, your SharePoint admin may be able to resolve this issue by following the steps below. (Note that we don't provide support for either workaround.) As of July 10, 2024, SharePoint users will find that they are required to reenable the Custom Scripts feature every 24 hours, reverting the Custom Scripts setting to its default and disabled state. Please see Microsoft’s article on Custom Script settings for more information. Enabling Custom Script via the SharePoint Admin Center If you don't need instant access, follow these steps. Go to the SharePoint admin center and sign in with your credentials. In the sidebar to the left of the page, click Settings. (If you're using the Modern admin center, click the classic settings page hyperlink at the bottom of the Settings page.) Scroll to the Custom Script section, then select the options to Allow users to run custom script on personal sites and Allow users to run custom script on self-service created sites. Click OK to save your changes. Note that this change may take up to 24 hours to appear. Enabling Custom Script in SharePoint Online via PowerShell For instant access, follow these steps. Open Windows PowerShell with admin privileges, then run Install-Module -Name PnP.PowerShell Connect-PnPOnline -Url <url> -PnPManagementShell (replace <url> with your SharePoint URL, which will then generate a code for you to insert in your SharePoint admin center.) Run these commands in PowerShell: (replace the URL after -Url in the first command with the link to your static site collection, such as https://companyabc.sharepoint.com/sites/StaticSite). (If you need help creating a SharePoint site, refer to this article from Microsoft.) Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://yourorg.sharepoint.com/sites/StaticSite $site = Get-PnPSite Set-PnPSite -Identity $site.URL -NoScriptSite $false Your SharePoint site is almost ready to host HTML files! We just need to prepare the Articulate published output for upload. Here's how. In SharePoint, choose where you will locate this project. You can create a new folder or use the Documents location created by default with all SharePoint sites. Rename all the files with a .html extension in your unzipped published output folder to .aspx (keep the same file name). To do this, right-click the file, choose Rename, and then replace .html with .aspx. (Most projects only need to rename the analytics-frame.html and story.html files. Finally, upload the published output to your SharePoint site, then click story.aspx to launch your Articulate course. This change should take effect immediately.Import Web Object Problem
I have a web object that loads a custom html page I created. I've published with it a dozen times, no issue. I updated yesterday and published again. Now, instead of loading a copy with the project, upon publishing it attempts to still pull the file from my local machine. Doesn't matter how I publish, web, lms, or review 360. I reverted to the previous version of storyline but the issue remains. I cannot get my webobject to work now. Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere?Storyline competency matrix
Hi everyone, I've been tasked with upskilling my team in Storyline. I'm starting by putting together a tech competency matrix and wanted to know if anyone had any examples they've used (or if Articulate has one -- I couldn't find anything by searching). The matrix will have X number of core skills and 5 levels of expertise in each skill. I then need to specify which tasks fall into each core skill. For example, maybe one core skill is triggers and states. What specific tasks would go in that category in each expertise level? What core skills have other people used, and what tasks have you put in those skills? Thanks in advance!Rise exceptionally slow - attempting to connect to https://browser-intake-datadoghq.com/
Rise has been exceptionally slow to the point of crashing Chrome out. I'm getting hundreds of connection attempts to https://browser-intake-datadoghq.com/ which is blocked in DNS upstream of my control, outside of my organisation. Rise clearly has no concept that its requests are failing, and is doubling down on retries, up until the browser tab stops responding. What's going on? What is this?
