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619 Views 19 Replies Latest reply: Mar 4, 2010 7:37 AM by Kristi Mc RSS
Kristi Mc User 41 posts since
Feb 3, 2009
Currently Being Moderated

Jul 29, 2009 7:31 AM

Button Open URL Problems...Need Help FAST!

I am in a panic and could use some immediate help if possible. I think the problem is probably a simple one, but I'm pulling my hair out.  I have published my files to a directory on my hard drive called "CDMTS Training Beta". The main welcome screen (CDMTS_Welcome.htm and swf) reside in this main directory. See attached screen cap for directory structure.

I have a button on the welcome screen that is supposed to open a subfolder (Modules) which contains the main menu (Module_Menu.htm) and individual module files. This button seems to work and launch the specified Open URL link when I run the course from my hard drive, but any time I move it to a different location or a CD, the Proceed button will not open the url. I am not sure if I have the relative path correct...could someone please help me...I have to get some CDs out to our customer today or tomorrow. THanks!

Kristi

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  • Captiv8r Community Professional 18,197 posts since
    Mar 13, 2005
  • Captiv8r Community Professional 18,197 posts since
    Mar 13, 2005
    Currently Being Moderated
    3. Jul 31, 2009 9:43 AM (in response to Kristi Mc)
    Re: Button Open URL Problems...Need Help FAST!

    Hi Kristi

     

    I forget, are you using Captivate 3 or 4? If it's 4, Adobe issued a

    patch that corrects a nasty little issue where only absolute links are

    created if you use Open Other Project. So it's advisable to install the

    update.

     

    Indeed if you create relative links, things should work regardless of

    where they are, as long as you don't change the relative position.

     

    Cheers... Rick

  • Captiv8r Community Professional 18,197 posts since
    Mar 13, 2005
    Currently Being Moderated
    5. Jul 31, 2009 2:00 PM (in response to Kristi Mc)
    Re: Button Open URL Problems...Need Help FAST!

    Hi again

     

    If the patch is advising it has already been installed, there is likely no need to install it.

     

    You seem to be having issues with simple linking. I do note that in your first post you tried to attach some images. Unfortunately, those are still in a queued state so we cannot see them. If you would like to try again, you might use the camera icon above where you post (using the web form) instead of attaching. Attachments must be approved by forum folks before anyone can see them.

     

    Normally all you do is to just type the path as in SubFolderName/FileName.HTM and that is sufficient to create a relative path.

     

    How did you create the links?

     

    Cheers... Rick

     

     

    Helpful and Handy Links

    Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

    Adobe Certified Captivate Training

    SorcerStone Blog

    Captivate eBooks

  • RoboWizard Community Professional 2,868 posts since
    Jan 30, 2004
    Currently Being Moderated
    7. Jul 31, 2009 3:05 PM (in response to Kristi Mc)
    Re: Button Open URL Problems...Need Help FAST!

    Hi again

     

    I believe the issue you are facing is this. You are running SWF/HTML from your local hard drive or CD-ROM. From the Flash Player perspective, you have to adhere to stricter security settings because you are on the local file system. Your content would likely hum right along if you published it to a web server and play with no issue.

     

    So you follow one of the original links I supplied and configure the Flash Security to acknowledge the folder as safe. But if you move things to a different folder, suddenly you are back in unsafe territory.

     

    If you are burning to a CD-ROM, you need a way to trick the Flash Player into believing the files are on a Web Server. Fortunately it's not all that difficult to do. I'll outline the steps below:

     

    The process below should work to install Server2Go on CD-ROM

     

    Download the Server2Go software from http://www.server2go-web.de/download/download.html
    Choose the Micro package
    This should result in receiving a zip file named distribute_apache1.3_micro.zip
    Unzip the contents of the zip file to the root of your hard drive ( C:\ )
    This should create a folder named distribute_apache1.3_micro
    Open this folder and delete the following files and folders inside:

     

    Files:

    • splash.bmp
    • logo.ico
    • readme.txt

     

    Folders:

    • dlls
    • dbdir
    • cgi-bin

     

    Open the htdocs folder and delete all files and folders inside.
    Copy all of your Captivate output files to the htdocs folder
    Rename the HTML page Captivate created to index.htm
    Copy the contents of the distribute_apache1.3_micro folder to the CD-ROM and test!

     

    Give that a try and you should be set. Although, if you are insistent on maintaining the folder strucure as you have it, you will need to massage these instructions slightly.

     

    Cheers... Rick

     

     

    Helpful and Handy Links

    Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

    Adobe Certified Captivate Training

    SorcerStone Blog

    Captivate eBooks

  • JoHickey Calculating status... 7 posts since
    May 5, 2009
    Currently Being Moderated
    10. Mar 4, 2010 6:11 AM (in response to Kristi Mc)
    Re: Button Open URL Problems...Need Help FAST!

    Kristi:

     

    Did you actually ask your viewers to change the security settings?  I am having the same problem, and I can't believe there is no other solution.  The last thing I want to do is ask all the users to change security settings before they begin.

     

    Please let me know.

     

    Thanks

     

    Jo

  • Captiv8r Community Professional 18,197 posts since
    Mar 13, 2005
    Currently Being Moderated
    11. Mar 4, 2010 6:22 AM (in response to JoHickey)
    Re: Button Open URL Problems...Need Help FAST!

    Hi Jo

     

    Where are you planning to have your users access the Captivate output from? I ask because if you say something like: from our web server you son of a silly person! Your fears are unfounded.

     

    The only time Flash Player security causes problems is if the end user copies the Captivate output to their local hard drive and runs it. Or if they run it from media such as a CD-ROM or DVD.

     

    Cheers... Rick

     

     

    Helpful and Handy Links

    Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

    Adobe Certified Captivate Training

    SorcerStone Blog

    Captivate eBooks

  • JoHickey User 7 posts since
    May 5, 2009
    Currently Being Moderated
    12. Mar 4, 2010 6:26 AM (in response to Captiv8r)
    Re: Button Open URL Problems...Need Help FAST!

    It will be on a web server.  Are you saying that the links are not working right now, but when they are uploaded to the server they will work?  I am starting to get a happy feeling if that is so.

     

    Jo

  • Captiv8r Community Professional 18,197 posts since
    Mar 13, 2005
    Currently Being Moderated
    14. Mar 4, 2010 6:29 AM (in response to JoHickey)
    Re: Button Open URL Problems...Need Help FAST!

    Hi Jo

     

    Indeed, once the Captivate is accessed from a Web server it is automagickally placed in a different security zone. And really, that's the gist of it in a nutshell.

     

    So the bottom line is that the links should work beautifully once the project is accessed from a web server.

     

    So take a deep breath and exhale... Feel better? Ahhhhhhh

     

    Cheers... Rick

     

     

    Helpful and Handy Links

    Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

    Adobe Certified Captivate Training

    SorcerStone Blog

    Captivate eBooks

  • Captiv8r Community Professional 18,197 posts since
    Mar 13, 2005
    Currently Being Moderated
    15. Mar 4, 2010 6:31 AM (in response to Kristi Mc)
    Re: Button Open URL Problems...Need Help FAST!

    Hi again Kristi

     

    How exactly are you providing your content to the user? There are ways to set something up so they don't have to deal with the Flash Security.

     

    Cheers.. Rick

     

     

    Helpful and Handy Links

    Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

    Adobe Certified Captivate Training

    SorcerStone Blog

    Captivate eBooks

  • Captiv8r Community Professional 18,197 posts since
    Mar 13, 2005
    Currently Being Moderated
    17. Mar 4, 2010 6:47 AM (in response to Kristi Mc)
    Re: Button Open URL Problems...Need Help FAST!

    Hi again

     

    Unfortunately, if they copy to their own hard drives there is little you can do other than to advise that things won't work until Flash Player security has been massaged. I think there is actually a way to supply some form of an XML file that configures the player to allow a specific location to behave, but you would have to know the location beforehand. And short of simply advising that they place content in a specifically named folder, that doesn't seem feasable. If you are supplying via CD-ROM, you may also install a small "Web Sever" that runs on the CD. This tricks the Flash Player into believing the content is in that safe zone and the security restrictions aren't enforced.

     

    In the event you want to try that route, below is an article I constructed that lists the steps you need to take:


    Placing Captivate content on CD/DVD media

     

    So here you are. You have your Captivate movie(s) finalized and ready to go. Your goal at this point is to copy the content to CD-ROM or DVD for distribution.

     

    What next? Are there special considerations I need to think about? Anything in particular I can do to make things easier?

     

    First we will examine a bit about the media.

     

    If you intend to use CD-ROM, you have roughly 650 to 700 megs of space available to store your content. Is that enough? If your Captivate content is larger than this, you will have to either consider ways of paring it down so it fits within that size restriction or you will need to consider using DVD. DVD has a much larger storage capacity.

     

    You may elect to exploit the autorun feature available. It's worth noting that autorun is far from foolproof. For example, in some organizations, the IT staff will routinely disable autorun. You may wonder why. They often view autorun as a security vulnerability they would rather avoid. If autorun is left enabled, and someone has constructed a CD with a virus or other malware that automatically runs and installs or otherwise damages the computer, the IT staff would like to prevent this. Hence the reason for routinely disabling the feature.

     

    Assuming autorun has not been disabled, there are other reasons it could fail. For example, the autorun.inf file needs to reference the file to run. If this file name is very long and contains spaces, autorun will often fail. One way around that is to surround the file name with quotes inside the autorun.inf. Unfortunately Captivate doesn't do this for you, so if you wish to use a long file name, you will need to amend the autorun.inf yourself after Captivate creates it. Another approach is to simply change the name of the Captivate file you are autorunning so it conforms to the older DOS 8.3 naming convention. For example, instead of using a file name of My Most Wonderful Captivate Movie in the whole wide word, the name would perhaps be MyMovie.

     

    Adobe Captivate does offer a feature that will create the autorun.inf for you. Even though the cons have been issued above, it's still a good idea to configure an autorun.inf in case it will be used.

     

    Media File Structure

     

    If the amount of information on the CD/DVD is substantial (meaning you have a potentially confusing array of files) it is often useful to create a folder and place all the content inside the folder. You would then keep only the file(s) pertinent to starting your application in the root folder of the media. This simplifies things dramatically for your end user.

     

    Web Based Content

    Captivate is capable of outputting a few different formats. The main two formats are known as Standalone and Flash SWF.

     

    If your output is Flash SWF (Captivate SWF with HTML page) you have special considerations. Later versions of the Flash Player have security built into them. This means that when you try to run content on your local drives (CD or DVD would be considered local drives in this case) the Flash Security model will often block certain operations. Things such as JavaScript calls and links to web sites fall into this category of blocked items.

     

    What is at issue is the fact that you are operating on the local file system. That's dangerous territory to allow anything to happen. After all, if an application that normally runs on the web has access to the local file system, some nasty things could result. Hence the security restrictions imposed. For testing purposes, you may wish to configure the Flash Player to acknowledge the folder where you are running the location as being safe. The problem here is that with CD or DVD distribution, the CD or DVD is considered as being part of the local file system. This means that unless the location has been marked as safe, some of the content will refuse to work.

     

    You might wonder why this doesn't happen with content that comes from a Web Server. The reason is simple. Content that has been served by a Web Server is automatically in a restricted zone from the security perspective. Because it is already within a security zone, the Flash Player has no need to restrict or inhibit any actions.

     

    Fooling the Flash Player

     

    Fortunately there is a way to work past this. What you can do is to trick the Flash Player into believing the content it is playing is actually coming from a web server. The manner in which this is done is by installing a very lightweight web server that starts and runs before your content runs.

     

    Fortunately one is available in the open source arena. (Read free to use at no additional expense to you)

     

    The name of the software is Server2Go.

     

    You will need to follow the steps below to install Server2Go.

     

    Download the Server2Go software from http://www.server2go-web.de/download/download.html
    Choose the Micro package
    This should result in receiving a zip file named distribute_apache1.3_micro.zip
    Unzip the contents of the zip file to the root of your hard drive ( C:\ )
    This should create a folder named distribute_apache1.3_micro
    Open this folder and delete the following files and folders inside:

     

    Files:
    splash.bmp
    logo.ico
    readme.txt

     

    Folders:
    dlls
    dbdir
    cgi-bin

     

    Open the htdocs folder and delete all files and folders inside.
    Copy all of your Captivate output files to the htdocs folder
    Rename the HTML page Captivate created to index.htm
    Copy the contents of the distribute_apache1.3_micro folder to the CD-ROM and test!

     

    Hopefully this helps... Rick

     

    Helpful and Handy Links

    Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

    Adobe Certified Captivate Training

    SorcerStone Blog

    Captivate eBooks

  • JoHickey User 7 posts since
    May 5, 2009
    Currently Being Moderated
    18. Mar 4, 2010 6:57 AM (in response to Captiv8r)
    Re: Button Open URL Problems...Need Help FAST!

    Well Rick, I must say...YOU ARE MY HERO!

     

     

     

    Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

     

     

     

    Joanne P. Hickey

     

    Divisional Project Officer

     

    Ministry of the Environment SWR

     

    733 Exeter Road

     

    London, ON N6E 1L3

     

    Phone:  519-873-4763

     

    Fax:  519-873-5020

     

    Email:  Joanne.Hickey@Ontario.ca

     

     

     

    P     Please consider the environment prior to printing this email.

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