Captivate 5 : "Loading..." Screen

[Guest]

Hi Everyone,

I am running a Captivate 5 Trial version for few days, and I am hoping somebody could share ideas on how to remove this gray "Loading..." screen.

Everytime I publish a SCORM (1.2) compliant pproject this gray screen always pop in, either running it locally or via our LMS. I have observed that when I publish it without Reporting selected it won't appear, so I suspect it has something to do with the SCORM setting in Captivate 5.

I have seen a similiar thread here and applied what has been approved as a fix and safe solution but didn't work either.

Anybody else who got ideas?

Thanks.

[Allen_Partridge-1MiBZx]

Can you let us know the LMS and the browser you are using please? Also, how large is the project? Are you using the preloader? and at what percentage?

Allen

[Guest]

We are using SABA as our LMS and IE version 7. Wether I include our own preloader, which we usually set to 100% or using the default Captivate 5 preloader the gray loading screen still appears. Moreover, even publishing just two plain slides with enabled reporting the screen still appears.

Thank you.

[Guest]

Marking this thread answered.

Thank you Manish for the assistance and for the solution of course.

Best Regards,

Miguel

[Guest · Accepted solution]

You are welcome Miguel.

For everyone who is facing this issue:

- You can download the 'CaptivateMaintimeline.as' file from here

- Place this file at: <root>:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 5\AS3

-Manish

blogs.adobe.com/captivate

[Cristian_M]

This solution does not seem to work for me, not even when running the presentation locally.

Just after the preloader, I always get the "Loading..." gray screen. What could I be configuring incorrectly?

[Xeon64]

I am having the same exact thing happening and I can not figure it out. I have Connect Pro 8 and Captivate 5.

[lovat]

Manish,

This fix works for me - removes the gray 'Loading' screen.

Do you know if it will have any effect on AICC reporting?

Thanks,

Greg

[AICC]

Manish,

Will this also improve the problem with the preloader not working correctly?  For example, I have a course which I would like to start playing after 5% loaded.  Will your new action script file.  Fix this too?

SEE THE POST HERE?

http://forums.adobe.com/message/3659244#3659244

-doug

[Xeon64]

I am confused as to what you are asking. What action script file are referring to? I do know the preload feature that comes with captivate does not work well and that the setting the load percentages does nothing.

[AICC]

Xeon64,

Since you have also discovered the problem in captivate 5 (w/ the external preloader animations and w/ the field in the publish settings), is their another mechanism you use to get around the inconsistency?

About my post:

When Captivate 5 is installed, several action script files are dropped into the installation folder.  I started searching through those files (as mentioned above).   The folder i am speaking of is here (windows 7 64bit OS):  C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 5\AS3

Many different actionscript files are located in this folder.  I was hoping someone would know if these files are comiled into the published swf, and if they are compiled into the published swf....are these the correct files to alter for the preloader?

I have written many preloaders in AS2 and yes they were not entirely accurate, but they did give a resonable level of percent loaded..  I actually wrote an entire shell loading external content (swf, jpg, mp3) into a main timeline which presented the course material using xml files as the storyboard.

Captivate 4 used the actual timeline when determining how long to show a screen or audio file.  In other words, if an audio file was 35 seconds.  You would see the audio file shown across 990 frames(@ 30 frames a second).

Captivate 5 does not use the timeline anymore.  Captivate 5 actually analyzes all of the objects in the course and uses variables to determine the movement and timing in a course.  Captivate 5 also uses AS3.

Last night,  I saw an option to export a captivate course into flash.   I am going to look into this option.. to fix preloading.  I may also be able to externalize some of the content when the project is in flash.   http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2010/08/flash-export-in-captivate-5.html  Hopefully all the scorm compliance will still be in place when doing this.

-doug lubey of louisiana

[Xeon64]

I have yet to get the preloaders to work. Both the Captivate and External Preloaders do not work right. I really wish I could get this figure out since my clients assume a slide is blank when an external swf is being loaded and the click to the next slide. If I prevent them from going to the next slide they think the module is broken.

I went to your site Doug and I am located in the same City as you and work in the same industry.

[AICC]

very cool.  we may have to collaborate in person.  I will keep you up to date on my progress.

I agree with you.....blank screens. pauses, delays and inaccurate progress meters are really bad (client thinks it is broken).   I am going to continue and try to get this working and may call adobe to see what options are available.

Do you work in elearning?

Our company caters to the power and petro-chem industry. (mainly).

-doug

[Xeon64]

My background was in graphic design but I have been doing elearning for about a year and a half because of my experience with Adobe applications. We are in the petro, ammonia, power, and various other industries. I probably have taken your training at the Safety Council whenever I have to go into a plant.

My email address is jdonaldson@chemtechllc.com and will soon be jdonaldson@champ-tech.com

[AICC]

MORE RESEARCH COMPLETED.....STILLL DOES NOT WORK in LMS properly

..... any time adobe wants to chime in on this I would greatly appreciate it.

Still have problems but made a little head way...

The SWF/AS3 preloaders which come installed with captivate do not work out of the box..     These preloaders are shells which Adobe shipped with the product.  To get these preloaders to work,  you have to alter the action script using FLASH.  So this is what I did.  I altered the battery swf preloader and added code and textboxes into the process which showed me 4 things.

     1> little animation to show me how much content was loaded

     2> a label to tell me the actual percentage of content which was loaded

     3> a label to tell me how much Kb was loaded out of the total Kb.

     4> What percentage of content needs to be loaded before the movie starts playing.

So now I at least have an accurate preloader which works.

I attached this CUSTOMIZED preloader to the captivate project (under publish settings) and attempted to run a couple proof of concepts.

Concept #1>  no reporting for the LMS....straight HTML on the web server   (no questions)

Concept #1 RESULT>  preloader works perfectly...course starts perfectly  (worked perfectly at 20%, 50% and 80%)

Concept #2> use SCORM 2004 reporting and publishe the content to the LMS web site.(no questions)

Concept #2 RESULT 20% (publish settings were set to be 20%)>

     preloaded 20%; screen went blank for at least 15 seconds;  loading... screen appeared for at least 1 minute   (NOT GOOD !!!!)

Concept #2 RESULT 50% (publish settings were set to be 50%)>

     preloaded 33%; loading... screen appeared for at least 1 minute  (NOT GOOD !!!!)

     WHY DID THE PRELOADER DISAPPEAR AFTER 33%...i setup the course for 50%

Concept #2 RESULT 80% (publish settings were set to be 80%)>

     preloaded 33%; loading... screen appeared for at least 1 -2 minutes (NOT GOOD !!!!)

     WHY DID THE PRELOADER DISAPPEAR AFTER 33%...i setup the course for 80%

MY QUESTIONS ARE THIS??

     1> what is this blank screen?

     2> why does the captivate course go into a loading mode for 1 minute or more?

SUMMARY:

     I set my course to start after a specific percentage and I expect it to start after that.   Even if it does not start

     I would like the preloader to continue to be shown to the customer until the course can "REALLY" start.

Thanks,

Doug Lubey of Louisiana

[AICC]

OK...i believe I found the magic checkbox

TO ADOBE:

Where is the documentation of your accepted business practices

with respect to your publishing settings.

SUMMARY:

How to ensure you do not get a blank box nor have the loading screen

show up for more than a second or two.

THE MAGIC NUMBER IS PRELOAD 33.4%  (or 1/3 of the course)

....Do not go below 34% for preloading or you will get a blank screen.

RULE #1> AUTO-PLAY (captivate will always think it needs to start @ 33%)

If you have the course setup to AUTO-PLAY you must use 34% for preloading...

The "loading ..." screen will appear for a couple seconds and then your course

will start playing... To note; under some circumstance the audio would

not play on the first slide. TO FIX THIS... insert a "title screen" w/o audio on the first

slide.

RULE #2> ****DO NOT USE AUTO-PLAY ****

If you use auto-play...your preloader will always disappear after 33.3%....If you use

a setting lower than 34%...you will get  a blank screen.  SO TURN AUTO-PLAY OFF

and also set your preloading percent higher than 34%. 

     I TESTED 34%...and the loading screen only appear for 3-4 seconds...it was commmunicating to the LMS

     I TESTED 42%...and the loading screen only appear for 1-2 seconds...it was commmunicating to the LMS

     I TESTED 51%...and the loading screen only appear for 1-2 seconds...it was commmunicating to the LMS

NOTICE: none of these settings had question banks in them....this will be my next tests...

OTHER THINGS I OBSERVED:

The playbar will always appear after 33.3% of the course is loaded.  And check this out....The playbar is enabled once it is loaded  (SO YOUR CUSTOMERS will be able to click on the menu items)......once the click on the menu items and your preloader is setup to be higher than 34% the dreaded "loading screen" appears and your informative "Preloader" goes away.   ADOBE SHOULD OF DISABLED THE MENU BAR UNTIL...THE percent preloaded matches what I setup in the publish settings.

Search Engine reference:

ADOBE CAPTIVATE 5 preloader

captivate five preloading

how to adjust the preloader in captivate

how to make the preloading of a trianing course using captivate 5 to work

captivate 5 preloader does not work

captivate 5 preloaders do not work they have to be modified using flash

preloading captivate training courses do not work in a LMS (learning management system)

Thanks,

Doug Lubey of Louisiana

www.douglubey.com

[juliewales]

Sorry I'm confused, after I install the

- You can download the 'CaptivateMaintimeline.as' file from here

- Place this file at: <root>:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 5\AS3

How do I install it or run it etc.

I don't know if this will fix my issue as I'm not getting the grey screen at the beginning of my project.  I have on my 3rd slide a menu and if I click on any of the last two options on that menu I'm directed to the grey screen, my preloader doesn't work and when the movie starts moving again it skips the next slide and opens the one after that.

I'm confused.

Cheers

Julie

[RodWard]

Once you've placed the patched .as file in the required folder you don't have to do anything other than republish your project/s.  Captivate uses this internal file when creating the published output.

Julie, your last post seems to indicate that you are using a menu slide in one of your initial modules to load other modules in the course. Is that correct?  Or is this menu just pointing to other slides inside the SAME module?

Also, where is this course being delivered from?  Are you running off a LAN or a web server, LMS or no LMS?

[juliewales]

Hi, thanks for the reply

I have a menu slide that points to other slides within the same module.  Therefore the last 2 menu options are at the end of the module, hence my problem with loading times.  With regards to viewing the module, I am only previewing and publishing and viewing with IE.

Any help you can provide as I can't get the preloader to work at all.

Thanks

[RodWard]

I think your issue might be due to the fact that when your menu item jumps to a slide location near the end of the module it has to first render all of the slides in between first. So while it does that you are just seeing a blank screen.

[juliewales]

that's exactly it, is there anything I can do?  Also I still can't get the preloader to appear?

[RodWard]

Regarding your preloaded not working: Are you testing this from a web server or on a LAN drive?

If the latter, you will find that preload ears do not work on LANs.

[juliewales]

Hi

I am working on LAN drive.  My IT depart are just going to publish this on to a web server just now so that I can test this out.

I tried to fix the problem by creating different modules from the different menu options as this would solve the loading issue.  However when trying to open a module from within a module I'm getting an error.  Is this because I'm working on a LAN drive?

[RodWard]

Could be.  Calling another module outside of the Captivate module when running off a LAN or hard drive would require you to have that folder location set up as a trusted location in your Flash Global Security settings.

[juliewales]

Hi there

My IT department has put my module onto the web server and the preloader still isn't working, any ideas?  They were having problems publishing an .exe file so the module is now in a .swf file format.

could this be making a difference.

any further help would be much appreciated.

Julie