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Exit
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Exit button issue in Captivate 5

Guest
Jul 08, 2011 Jul 08, 2011

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Hi,

This is regarding the exit button on the playback controls. I have been using Captivate from version 2. Recently, started using version 5. When I published my simulation, the exit button is not working as earlier. It is also not working from- web server(IIS, Apache), when opened as pop-up as well. In local too however not working. I tried in both IE 7 and Firefox latest version.

I have seen the response from Adobe on this issue on this forum. It was quite surprising; it did not talk about the solution at all;

What I am not sure about is -

1. Why the exit button was working earlier versions.. why is it not working in latest?

2. Why should when simple code like top.close(); works fine (when coded inside the Captivate)?

3. Why is Adobe not acknowledging the issue?

4. Why there is no working around provided in the forums for this issue?

Could anybody please help me understanding this problem? I am really frustrated.

Thanks.

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LEGEND ,
Jul 08, 2011 Jul 08, 2011

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Welcome to our community

First, I suggest reading the link below.

Click here to read

And after you read the link, stop and ponder what may be different between what you are doing now as opposed to what you were doing earlier. My own guess is that you are opening and presenting the Captivate in a different manner than you were before.

Cheers... Rick

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Guest
Jul 08, 2011 Jul 08, 2011

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Hi Rick,

Thanks for the response.

Yes, I did visit the link you provided before I raised my questions.:-) However, that was not so helpful.

After investigating into the issue for a complete day, this is what I found.. I hope Adobe will address this issue in future releases. For everybody's benefit, I am providing the details here.

When a simulation published for no tracking (SCORM 1.2, 2004 and AICC), the exit button works fine, even when running in local. However, it does not work when you published the simulation for either SCORM 1.2/2004/AICC in all environments - Local, webserver, even when opened in a different window (as a popup). Definitely this was not the case with Captivate 2 or 3 (which I used extensively in the past)

The only place the simulation works when published for SCORM is - in LMS, that too not when imported SCORM zip file"as is" ( published by Captivate). Either you use LMS' default feature to open the simulation in a different window or use your own custom window opener file which opens the simulation in a different window. Another point to note is - response time for closing the simulation is little too much after clicking the exit button (when running in LMS, as mentioned earlier exit button does not work outside LMS).

As a industry standard practice, it is not desirable to restrict the functionality of exit button only to LMS environment. Of course, the SCORM content is finally destined to be hosted on LMS, but that doesn't mean when simulation is viewed from local/web server it should not function.

Hope this will help the people who will face the similar issue in future.

Thank you.

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LEGEND ,
Jul 08, 2011 Jul 08, 2011

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Hello again

There was another recent thread on this issue that you might find interesting.

Click here to view

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links

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New Here ,
Jul 21, 2011 Jul 21, 2011

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I tried to use the EXIT button provided in Captivate 5's Skin Editor, and it will not work in Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer, and I am not using an LMS.

Your "Frequesntly Asked Questions" post says it only works in some browsers. Can you suggest what browser it might work in? Is there something i have to do to "turn it on"?

This is exceedingly frustrating.

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LEGEND ,
Jul 21, 2011 Jul 21, 2011

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Hi there

Indeed it is frustrating. It's not so much the browser as it is the manner in which the page you are trying to close has been opened. For things to work properly, the page needs to be a child page. That's described on other pages if you google it.

Sorry, but the bottom line is that there simply is no 100%, works every time, guaranteed way to close the window unless you take measures to ensure it opens in a manner that makes it a child window.

Cheers... Rick

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Guest
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Not only frustrating but embarrassing to have invested in Adobe eLearning Suite, training for Captivate,  and Skillport LMS only to find several suggested workrounds that I am able to try with my limited abilities do not actually work for me!

The only workround I have is to copy a few lines of html into the foot of the course .htm instructing the user to close the browser tab to end the course - but not the browser as a whole or the progress in the LMS will be lost. If companies like Adobe and Skillsoft want companies like ours to continue adopting e-learning it has to be made easier for people without programming or development expertise to use without extensive troubleshooting/trial & error.

There are several references to :

#10. The Exit button on the Playback Control doesn't close the Browser.. .

but this is really far from helpful.

This is not the only issue I have had in getting my simple Security Awareness Course to work just as I had it working on our Intranet.

It is finally published to the Skillport LMS but only at the expense of changing content as well as the Captivate project, and a very unsatisfactory and untidy ending of the course.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Hi there

Indeed it is frustrating. Since the issue is with the browsers and not Captivate, how can you expect Adobe (or any other company for that matter) to change the behavior of all the browsers known to man?

Cheers... Rick

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Guest
Mar 09, 2012 Mar 09, 2012

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Rick - with the level of your experience I am a little taken aback by your reply. Yes I would expect any company providing a "feature" to get it working within a standard browser - or recommend changes to settings to try and get it to work. I know this is a forum and my issue is with Adobe and Microsoft IE not yourself. I am a big fan of Captivate and indeed use elearning suite 2.5 and will continue to use and recommend this and other Adobe products - although this is a small part of my job.

I believe we are in agreement that rather than wasting time getting this button to work that anyone struggling with this issue accepts it may not work and moves on!  As I have. I did not want 6000 + employees globally, complaining that something we had published to the LMS did not work as expected - this would only distract from the content.  As previously posted I have removed the button from the skin, included a final slide instructing the employee to close the tab but not the browser, and put a couple of lines within the html.

Incidentally what I have discovered from another post is that the "Hint" labels on the skin buttons can be modified to different languages. Great! Really useful for my course which is in several different languages.

Just to emphasise that the good stuff outweights the occasional negative.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 09, 2012 Mar 09, 2012

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Hello again, Michael

Apologies if my reply wasn't what you wanted to hear. All I can do is call them as I see them. Have you performed any research about closing browsers? If not, I would strongly encourage you to, as our friend Google will show you that the problem is rampant across the internet. (just search for JavaScript Close Window).

Indeed we do seem to be in agreement that one is better off simply acknowledging that a particular feature has issues and moving on. After all, why dwell on something that has a nil chance of changing?

If I were in your shoes and noticed that the exit button wasn't working for the manner in which I was deploying the content, I'd simply remove the button from the skin and have a caption that instructed the user to manually close the tab or whatever to exit the course.

Cheers... Rick

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New Here ,
Jul 16, 2012 Jul 16, 2012

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I don't know if this is still an issue for peopel.  But I have tested a javascript code snippet that I am currently using on a custom Exit/Close Image Button in a SCORM 1.2 Captivate 5.0 project.  The course is being deployed in the (Oracle) Taleo LearnCenter, and closes the independent course window using javascript.  The settings within Captivate 5, on the custom button, are:

On success > Execute JavaScript

I pasted the following code into the Script_Window:

javascript:window.open('javascript:top.close();','_self','');

I hope that can be helpful to soneone, as I had researched the issue for quite some time which eventually lead me to this post.

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LEGEND ,
Jul 16, 2012 Jul 16, 2012

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Hi Kevin

Welcome to our community. Nice of you to share and I'm happy this code works for you. But I do have a question. If you just left the regular exit button on the playback controls, does that work for you as well? I'll be very surprised if you don't come back and say by golly it does!

Unless browsers have changed since I last looked (and I really don't think they have) The issue with Exit button failure is totally dependent on the way that the window you are trying to close was opened to begin with.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links

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Adobe Certified Captivate Training

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New Here ,
Jul 16, 2012 Jul 16, 2012

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Hello Rick,

Yes, the standard exit button absolutely dies work. However, there were other issues with the standard playbar, as well as styling preferences that prompted the use of a custom exit button. So it was in that context that I posted the code.

Best Regards,

Kevin Williams

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New Here ,
Dec 05, 2012 Dec 05, 2012

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I have been trying everything to make this work, and came across your instructions.  Thanks for providing that to the community.  This works for me!

Cheers

Danielle

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New Here ,
Dec 15, 2012 Dec 15, 2012

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Will this also bookmark where the learner exited the course? If so, will it start where they left off?

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Community Expert ,
Dec 15, 2012 Dec 15, 2012

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That depends on several factors.

If you are NOT using an LMS, you can turn on Self-paced Learning in the TOC settings, and that may bookmark the slide location.  If using an LMS, Self-paced Learning is disabled, but your LMS may support Resume Data Bookmarking via SCORM.  You need to test whether either of these bookmarking options works for you or is really what you want.

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New Here ,
Dec 16, 2012 Dec 16, 2012

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Hi RodWard and thanks for your reply.

I ask this question because the LMS we use is AICC compliant and it is hard to find any information on how to configure Captivate specific to this LMS type. I've been testing a course I created in Captivate 6 and it will not bookmark the slide location after using the Exit button to close the course. I've spent hours researching for a fix and can't find anything. I'm getting frustrated to say the least.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 17, 2012 Dec 17, 2012

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You can use AICC as a reporting output option, but I assume you were already doing that.

All of the LMSs I've ever worked with we used SCORM rather than AICC, so I can't really be a lot of help on this one.  I have seen a number of reports on the web of AICC bookmarking for courses created in other authoring tools requiring some extra coding of templates and even bugfixes to get working on certain LMSs.  So you may also find that the default output from Captivate is not certain to work. 

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New Here ,
Dec 18, 2012 Dec 18, 2012

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Hi Guys

The exit button stops working when I click the "enable reporting for this project" check box.

It works fine in any browser I've tested it on and in the preview window, but as soon as I turn on reporting the exit button stops working and the project doesn't report to moodle.

I thought the problem was related to recently going to moodle 2 as it used to work.

But I think it's related to a patch update.

But it has stopped working in preview mode and when publishing to my desktop, which eliminates moodle and browser fault.

We are looking to upgrade to version 6 but if it won't close and report in moodle 2 whats the point.

We will be trialing Articulate Storyline in the new year to see if it reports any better.

That will be 6 licenses going to your rival as none of the fixes seem to work for me and adobe blame everything but themselves.

Thanks Jimi

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Engaged ,
Dec 26, 2012 Dec 26, 2012

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Agreed, this is an exceedingly frustrating issue.

With SUPER all due respect to Rick (aka Captiv8r), I cannot accept that this is not a Captivate (6 or earlier) problem. Rick, I love you! You saved me so many times in the past! But this time, I am on a mission to make you reconsider that FAQ. The reason is quite simple, I have never experienced a problem with having a simple exit button that elegantly closes a lesson for the learner with any other rapid eLearning tool in the past.

Yes, Rick... you are correct that there are differences in how browsers behave but they are do behave in a predictable fashion (there are no mysteries) and proper coding (of an exit button) should account for the four major browser types. Yes, you are also correct in how the Captivate lesson opens its session but again, the browsers all work in very predictable ways. The problem is really Captivate and like many others, I need a solution.

Anyhow, rather than sleeping, I am hard at work to find a solution. I will find a solution, no matter how long it takes! Grrr....

I will post my findings in a day or two.

Seasons greetings, all!

Shawn

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Guest
Dec 27, 2012 Dec 27, 2012

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I must agree with some of you. There is something wrong if Captivate is the only authoring tool that does not offer a clean way of exiting a lesson.

Just as important to me is why isn't there a way of opening a lesson in a child browser window? On my LMS, the launch button page contains various details about the lesson. When the lesson is launched, it opens in the same window. When the lesson closes (which it does using similar code suggested by kwilli77 Thank BTW), the important launch information page is also lost. My manager finds this unacceptable and I too am looking for a way to launch a lesson in a child window.

shawninvancouver, the html code you published last week works nicely in forcing a lesson to launch in a child window. RE: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1120709?tstart=0


**but** I can can confirm that I am experiencing the same problem. The consequence to using that redirector means that the LMS will not retain session information.

Anyone know why?

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Community Expert ,
Dec 27, 2012 Dec 27, 2012

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This is probably due to the way user session information is being transferred to the LMS.  SCORM uses a JavaScript API and JS calls to pass information back and forth.  This mechanism requires all content to be hosted at the same server location as the LMS.  AICC can also employ JavaScript but uses a slightly different communication mechanism, via HTML forms and GET data encoded in the URL link.

So if your sessions get broken when using an intermediate link that forces another window to open, my best guess would be that you are not passing the session info correctly from one window to the next so that it can then be passed onto the LMS. In short, you are trying to use SCORM or AICC in ways it was not originally designed to be used.  It wasn't expecting you to daisy-chain the content through other windows AFTER the one used to launch it.

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New Here ,
Jan 02, 2013 Jan 02, 2013

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Happy new year to everyone, good luck for 2013.

I've uploaded a vid to good old youtube.

Heres the steps.

I opened a new captivate project added a click box just to have something on the screen.

Previewed in the captivate build in browser.

Click exit after the slide ran, yipee it closed with noproblemo.

Checked the box to add reporting.

Again previewed in the captivate build browser.

Cick exit after the slide ran, boo hiss the exit button doesn't work.

As you can see from the video

I used no internet browser, didn't change the version of flash halfway through and didn't publish to any LMS.

Have a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVYDArEcLk

Jimi

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Guest
Jan 02, 2013 Jan 02, 2013

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Happy New to all as well!

You are absolutely correct! The moment reporting is activated, the EXIT no longer functions. Although in my case, we are not using the time/slider bar but custom navigation buttons with an exit button on the last slide (and at the top of each slide).

This whole EXIT button issue (not just Cp 5 but Cp 6 as well) is nearly bringing me to the point of tears! This is really ridiculous! I am in a tough position right now where my manager may be wondering if I am right person for this job because I cannot make a little EXIT button work in our lessons.

"Solutions" or excuses that I have received

- Just remove the EXIT button -- No, we use a standard corporate template which hundreds of employees are already familiar with. To remove the EXIT button and instruct the learner to just close the browser would be unacceptable and a rather inelegant way to exiting a lesson.

- It is a tough issue that isn't Captivate's fault

  With all due respect to the awesome person who keeps stating that, I have a feeling that you have not used other rapid elearning tools. Building an EXIT button in all the other major elearning tools is easy and works every time.

The source of my personal difficulty is that every other course that was built by previous developers (not using Captivate), all open in a child window and all have a working EXIT button.

I believe the PRIMARY reason for this problem might be in the fact that... inexplicably... Captivate does not offer an option to start a lesson in a CHILD window (i.e. separate browser window). This is why no javascript in the world will allow the tab to close (e.g. EXIT button). Closing a tab or browser window via javascript only works when the same instance was previously opened by a script using the window.open method. In other words, you can only use the javascript method to close an instance that was spawned via javascript.

This should explain why lessons published in Lectora (et al) always have working EXIT buttons every time and in every browser (minor exception is Opera for unrelated reasons).

Lectora Publishing.png

The second red box is just another one of my problems with Captivate 6 (not related to this topic).

Solution????

I've been racking my brain trying to modify Captivate's HTML/javascript in order to carry over the AICC (or SCORM - same process) variables into a child window.

Like another participant stated, you can't simply rename the original index.html to index2.html and create a redirection like this:

<script type="text/javascript">   

window.open("index2.html","lesson","location=0,toolbar=0,status=0,resizable=1,width=975,height=600");</script>

<body>

Yes, I tried this as well... but unfortunately, it breaks the AICC to LMS connection. *BUT* I can promise one thing... using the above redirection, does guarantee that your EXIT button works every time! Pity the LMS connection breaks!

QUESTION?


Does anyone have advanced knowledge of javascript in order to code the INDEX.HTML to open the lesson in a child windows AND maintain a connection to the LMS?

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LEGEND ,
Jan 02, 2013 Jan 02, 2013

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Hi there

Are you able to employ Captivate's "Full Screen" option? If so, that would cause a child window to open where the Exit button works. Not sure if the option also allows the resulting file to still chat with the LMS though.

Cheers... Rick

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