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OMER.SIM
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Ideas about manage content from single source database

Jun 17, 2012 1:46 PM

Hello all,

I would like to some advice about how can I manage my content from one single database and i'm facing a dilemma.

 

I'm using to deliver my content in 2 methods:

 

1. Adobe captivate for e-learning courses

2. Adobe indesign for books

 

Those 2 methods share great part of the content.

 

Indesign well supported to work with database content, which mean i can change my content from database and the data spread out to any book this piece of content deliver to.

 

With adobe captivate it impossible, the only way is maybe via XML, but the xml is not order by slides and I can't see logical order there.

 

after i read pipwerks.com article about add scorn to swf/html,http://pipwerks.com/2008/05/08/adding-scorm-code-to-an-html-file/ I thought about using indesign for courses as well, and maybe use some solution to add scorn capabilities to indesign.

 

I would appreciate every advice/tip you guys might give me regarding those 2 option (using or XML or adding Scorm to swf/html)

 

Thanks

Omer

 
Replies
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 17, 2012 2:00 PM   in reply to OMER.SIM

    Hi Omer and welcome to our community

     

    Unfortunately it seems you may be misunderstanding things a bit. Additionally, I fear you are facing a bit of an uphill battle.

     

    SCORM is simply a protocol used by Captivate to converse with a Learning Management System. (LMS) You are correct in that InDesign is totally different and has different capabilities than Captivate does. And as you are likely surmising, sharing data isn't really within the scope of Captivate's current programming.

     

    I may be mistaken, but I believe that the XML export and import with Captivate is really geared toward exporting out to a format known as XLIFF for translation purposes. Then the XML you spat out can be sucked back inside to translate the textual elements to a different language.

     

    About the best you can hope for at this point is to consider submitting a Wish Form to ask the dev team to consider a more robust process in the next version. One that allows mingling data between products like InDesign and Captivate more easily. (link to the Wish Form is in my sig)

     

    Cheers... Rick

     

    Helpful and Handy Links

    Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

    Adobe Certified Captivate Training

    SorcerStone Blog

    Captivate eBooks

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 17, 2012 5:56 PM   in reply to OMER.SIM

    @Omer. I'm afraid Rick is correct.  Captivate is set up to create e-learning content and configure it for SCORM output compatible with an LMS.  However, Captivate is NOT set up to easily allow you to integrate your content with another database of your own design.  The number of different ways this would need to work is just too great to anticipate.

     

    In recognition of the fact that many Captivate authors might not have access to an LMS, Adobe provided the option of Internal Server reporting. (Look for this option under Quiz > Reporting and in the Adobe Captivate Help Files).  This solution offers very limited functionality and requires you to copy some PHP files to your web server that will capture user quiz results in XML files on the server.  At this stage only PHP is supported but if you have access to web programmers they may be able to port the solution to a different web scripting language such as ASP or .NET.

     

    Bottom line is that what you want to do is not a simple thing and if it is VERY important to your project then you'll need to budget for the extra programming resources and expertise necessary to create it.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 17, 2012 6:01 PM   in reply to RodWard

    Hi Rod

     

    I interpreted that a totally different way. What I interpreted was that Omar wanted to somehow churn out assorted Captivate modules where the textual content was inserted from a data store of some sort. That way s/he should update once in the data store and create not only books using InDesign but Captivate content containing the same information that the books had by linking to the data store.

     

    Interesting... Rick

     

    Helpful and Handy Links

    Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

    Adobe Certified Captivate Training

    SorcerStone Blog

    Captivate eBooks

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 17, 2012 6:08 PM   in reply to Captiv8r

    Yeah I understood that too.  I was looking at it from the perspective that what he wants to do is basically have a database-driven Captivate course.  So I steered him in the direction of Captivate's current nearest solutionn for anyone looking to integrate XML or web-databases with Captivate output.  It's not likely to be what he wants, but it will hopefully show him that what he wants to do is technically feasible, but only achievable if he can gain access to people with the necessary web and database coding skills.  It sounded to me a little like he's had some experience with other Adobe products that have some built-in database integration tools and he was expecting Captivate to have the same functionality, which currently it doesn't.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 17, 2012 7:17 PM   in reply to RodWard

    It doesn't?

     

    Shocked! Shocked I am!

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 18, 2012 5:33 AM   in reply to OMER.SIM

    Hi All,

     

     

    I'm a colleague of Omer's, trying to figure out a solution to the same problem.

     

    This morning I had an idea: instead of using Captivate captions, we could use some sort of an iframe widget, that would display data coming from another source - in this case, the database, or actually some sort of database output that would go along with the course files. I was also thinking of using this or similar widget for images, videos etc. coming from the database.

     

    Is this kind of solution feasible? I know there's a web page widget for Captivate, but it might need some customizing to make it easier to integrate with database content.

     

    I'd love to hear your opinion on this.

     

     

    Thanks,

    Dvir Andre Tzanua

     
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