Dual Flash/HTML5 Publishing

[mkamen]

I'm new to Captivate 7 and see the checkboxes to publish to Flash and HTML5 (with SCORM 1.2), but it seems to just create two completely separate launch pages, one each for flash and HTML5.  Is there a way to generate a combined launch page that will interpret the browser and direct the user to either the flash or HTML5 assets as appropriate?  We would prefer to use HTML5 as the default, with flash as the fallback option for older browsers (e.g., IE8) that do not support HTML5.

Thanks!

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

I believe that's exactly how things work. Note that when you produce both SWF and HTML 5 outputs, you get several files. Among them is a file named Index.html

I believe that file is the "combined launch page" that you are seeking. I believe that file "sniffs" the browser and redirects accordingly to the appropriate output.

Cheers... Rick

[mkamen]

Thanks, Rick.  The index_SCORM.html (it's just index.html if there's no SCORM included in the output) plays in HTML5 by default, and if the browser isn't compatible (e.g., IE8) it displays an error message that the browser is not supported, please use IE9+, Safari 5.1+, or Chrome 17+, etc.  However, there's no redirect to the flash version.  It's just a static message.

There's another launch page (presentation_name.htm) that will launch the flash version by default, but redirects to Adobe's website to install flash if it's not available/turned off in Chrome.  Again, no redirect to the HTML5 version.

[Varun Kalra]

Hi there,

Whenever we publish a Captivate project with .swf and HTML 5 both checked, it creates 3 files that can be used to access the project:

index.html --> to launch the HTML 5 version of the project.

projectname.htm --> to open the .swf version of the project. (flash player plug in is required to play this)

multiscreen.html --> this file checks whether the browser has flash player plug in or not, if not then it brings up HTML 5 if the browser supports HTML 5, else preferece is given to .swf version.

So, if you give path to access multiscreen.html, then it will launch either .swf or HTML 5, depending upon whether flash player is installed or not.

But, most of the Scorm Complaint LMSs accept the zipped output generated from Captivate (like Scorm Cloud), and they by default should launch multiscreen.html

Thanks.

[Captiv8r]

Thanks for the clarification, Varun

This is a bit backwards from the way I thought it would work. I'm curious why the Index.html doesn't handle the sniffing? One would think that all you should do is publish and point to Index.html.

Can you please clarify the logic behind why the file naming was set to be this way?

Cheers... Rick

[RodWard]

I'm with Rick on this one, but I don't share his hope for logic.

In web development, it's usually a standard thing that the file which should be launched by default when entering a website folder is the index.htm or index.html file.  If neither of these are present then a default.htm or default.html file will be looked for.  If none of these four files are present then it might look for filenames with index or default at the front and some other web programming language file ending behind it (e.g. index.php or default.jsp, etc).

A web server would not normally be expecting something called multiscreen.html to be THE file it should launch by default.

I realise that Captivate is programmed so that the multiscreen.html file is the one that the imsmanifest,xml will point to if an LMS package contains both SWF and HTML5 output.  But I can see people's argument for thinking that this makes less sense than pointing to an index.html file.

So it WOULD  be great to know why it was decided to go this somewhat non-standard route.

[mkamen]

Thanks, everyone.  Very helpful and I share the surprise with the logic for the multiscreen.html file.  Also surprised that the logic is set by device, not by flash being enabled.  So if I disable flash in Chrome on my PC, it still sends me to the flash installation page instead of just loading the HTML5 version.

All that said, our business owners are trying to follow a mobile-first methodology and would prefer the default to be HTML5 rather than flash based on the slight variances in Captivate and maintaining consistency for the bulk of users.  The assumption is that in our audience there are more mobile users that need HTML5 than users with olders browsers that don't support HTML5 and need flash.  Any idea if that's possible?

[jjfothjr]

Do you know if anyone has been able to rewrite the templates so index.html can be used to access the code to deliver HTML5 or swf based on hardware and browser detected? This was certainly a horrible plan on Adobe's part. It make no sense to have to share 2; file specific, destinations to the same course.