Adding swf (Captivate clips) into RoboHelp: flash controls don't work

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Report · Oct 28, 2009

Hi,

I am using Captivate CS4 and Robohelp 8.

I am adding a captivate swf fie by clicking the Robohelp button "Insert captivate". it generates an HTML code with <object> as

If I extract the while html page and render it in FF or IE, it works fine.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Andy

Report · Oct 28, 2009

Thanks for the info.

That's a pretty large movie! 1236x899

However, the overall size shouldn't really be an issue here.

I just tested a Captivate and it seems fine. The controls work for me after I compile a CHM file. When you right-click the Captivate in the resulting help file, what version of Flash Player is being reported?

In Captivate you have an option to create the file with related content external or internal to the main part of the movie. Which setting are you using there?

About to head to bed soon. Anything further will likely be tomorrow unless someone else picks this up.

Cheers... Rick

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Report · Oct 28, 2009

Thank you, Rick. Which "external" or "internal" settings are you talking about? Sorry, I could not find any....

It shows Flash 10 version.

Also, I am using the steel skin with TOC "separate style". I believe the skin and its controls may affect the experiment.

BTW, Yes, the movie is quite large.... It is a full-scale software application demo. Each clip is about 9MB, which is not a big deal for the decent Internet connections. Anyway, it is much better than using progressive downloads.

Best,

Andy

Report · Oct 29, 2009

Hi again Andy

In Captivate 4, if you click Edit > Preferences > Publish Settings you have options that govern whether your Captivate Resources are externalized or not. If they are Externalized, likely you need to think about this when it comes to RoboHelp. Especially with version 6, you may need to add additional files to your list of Baggage files in RoboHelp.

Cheers... Rick

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Report · Oct 29, 2009

Thank you, Rick. No, the resources are not externalized. I will try to make a simple test from 2-3 slides, compile robo help and upload it here.

I believe, the problem is with MS flash rendering and not with captivate.

Best,

Andy

Report · Oct 29, 2009

Hi Andy

Yes, please do that. Just create a small and simple Captivate project, then zip it up and attach here. I'll be happy to test for you from this end.

Cheers... Rick

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Report · Oct 29, 2009

Hi Rick,

Finally, I have managed to find the problem. It has nothing to do with Robohelp or MS winhelp or captivate. It was caused by a special widget DomainLock, which restricts playing the movie on the defined domains or a localhost. When I removed it, everything works fine. I have been playing with its settings, but could not make it work. In fact, it works and restricts domains, but makes a mess with chm rendered help files (movie controls only).

Any ideas where to dig?

thank you!

Andy

Report · Oct 29, 2009

Hi Andy

I'm not sure. Is this something you purchased somewhere? If so, can you provide a link?

Cheers... Rick

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http://www.cpguru.com/2009/08/09/captivate-domainlock-widget/

Report · Oct 29, 2009

Rick, have a look:

BTW, it is a good thing to have. Our guys already asked the author or that widget. Let's see, if he can clear it up.

Best,

Andy

Report · Oct 29, 2009

Hi Andy

I've been in touch with Michael (The creator of the widget) and I've been doing some testing.

Essentially, the widget ties your Captivate project to a specific domain. For example, www.Google.com. This means that if your Captivate movie isn't actually running from Google.com ( or whatever domain you specified ) you *SHOULD* be seeing the error message produced by the widget. It sounds to me as if the error isn't being shown when you view the topic.

I just created a small movie using Captivate 4 (using the widget) and I inserted it into RoboHelp 6. I am seeing the error message that I expected to see. The movie doesn't simply lock up on me as you seem to be reporting.

I'm thinking that if you plan on delivering the content via CHM, you need to consider the behavior and make the following changes.

Possiblity A: Remove the Widget that locks the Captivate to a specific domain. Admittedly this does relax the restrictions and allows the movie to be played anywhere. Other users may decompile the .CHM file and copy the Captivate SWF freely.

Possibility B: Configure the .CHM file so instead of embedding the movie, it references it from the domain you are locking it to. This would ensure that only the movie from your domain could be viewed. Then it wouldn't matter if the .CHM was copied. The video will only come from your site. Note that I'm not certain this will actually work yet. I haven't tested (but plan to) so it's mostly theoretical at this stage.

Cheers... Rick

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Report · Oct 29, 2009

Hi again Andy

Okay, after much tweaking, I finally made this work. Hopefully you won't require as much tweaking as I did. Part of my own issue was that I don't normally use Internet Exploder. Instead, I'm a FireFox fan. So my IE wasn't up to the task of playing Flash content. When I tried to install the Flash control, it kept failing. Of course this failed to work in a .CHM file because .CHM relies on IE components.

As near as I can tell from my testing, you can make the video work in a CHM by amending the references to the SWF to include the http://www.DomainName prefix. Once you do this the Domain Locker should work and allow the .CHM to properly present the Captivate movie.

Hopefully this helps... Rick

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Report · Oct 29, 2009

Hi again Rick,

It is even more simple... If you want to distribute your help content (chm) only for off-line using, you may define your domain as localhost. Michael's widget works perfectly for us except this problem with the embedded swf in chm files.

I will be doing more tests to see exactly what is happening here. I will post an update as soon as I get somewhere.

Best,

Andy

Report · Oct 29, 2009

Hi Andy

Okay, so we have discovered a bug. I've just finished reporting same to Adobe. I tried to test with version 8 of RoboHelp, but it refuses to show me Browse Sequences.

However, I'm very curious about something. You said:

andyG928 wrote:
Hi again Rick,
It is even more simple... If you want to distribute your help content (chm) only for off-line using, you may define your domain as localhost...

If you do that, doesn't the SWF simply play on the PC? If you are doing this, I'm wondering what the added value of the Domain Lock widget is offering. I mean, the whole point of locking to a specific domain is to protect your content and ensure it's not copied and must be played only from your domain, no?

Cheers... Rick

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Report · Oct 30, 2009

Hi Rick,

It looks as you have nailed the problem! If we remove the sequence bar, it works. However, it is a bit more tricky, because it also works on small movies (2-4 clips) with Sequence bar and without DomainLock, but doesn't work with DomainLock. Perhaps, this bug is sensitive to the size of the project and other controls (?).

Anyway, we need to remove the sequence bar to make the playback controls work. Not a big deal as the sequence bar itself is not a huge added value. Probably, even a bit confusing.

If you do that, doesn't the SWF simply play on the PC? If you are doing this, I'm wondering what the added value of the Domain Lock widget is offering. I mean, the whole point of locking to a specific domain is to protect your content and ensure it's not copied and must be played only from your domain, no?

Regarding localhost and direct domain restrictions. we use the DomainLock widget in two ways:

1) to protect online tutorials from playing on other domains and locally (adding the www.myDomain.com as its parameter)

2) to protect captivate tutorials, which are embedded into application help files, from viewing on-line (adding localhost as its parameter). In that case it can be played only on the end-user desktops and not via web.

Thank you for your great help!

All the best,

Andy

Report · Oct 29, 2009

Hi again

Okay, this gets curiouser and curioser the more I look at it.

At first blush it appeared things were working. Then I tried the playback controls. Odd, the controls will allow a single click and they will carry out whatever function you clicked. But that seems to be it. Further clicks appear to be disallowed. I tested with a fresh Captivate movie as well as one that uses the Domain Lock Widget.

Wondering if this was an overall issue with SWF content in general or if it was simply tied to the Playback Controls, I then tried adding some button objects to each slide to allow the user to navigate from slide to slide. This seems to work.

I thought (hoped actually) that perhaps it was simply the default playback controls causing the issue. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be. I tried creating a SWF using the Aluminum controls. Same issue.

At this point I have to admit that I'm more than a little stumped. I'm surprised that I've not heard of this before or that others haven't reported it. However, I use Captivate files in my CHM files all the time. The main difference is that I never use playback controls in my movies. I am always using either Buttons or Click Boxes to navigate.

So being generally unsatisfied and poking it further, I seem to have found the culprit. I did the same thing in RoboHelp 7 and there wasn't an issue. What was different? I scrutinized the code and there was no difference. Hmmm

Then it hit me. The difference here was that where the Captivate playback control only functioned after the first click, the RoboHelp project was using Browse Sequences. So I edited the window definition and turned them off. BINGO! The Captivate works fine now.

I also tested using RoboHelp 7. Same issue there as well.

Definitely this should be reported to Adobe as a bug. Link is in my sig.

Cheers... Rick

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