pipwerks

A recent post in the elearning development forum reminded me that I forgot to post some unpublished Captivate variables I dug up a while back.

When I designed the LegacyCaptivateLoader, I was focused on giving the ActionScript 3 SWF the ability to control the ActionScript 2-based Captivate SWF; I hadn’t given much thought to how the situation affects Captivate SWFs using one of the workarounds I just described. Can the embedded SWFs still work? Will JavaScript calls from Captivate still work with ActionScript 3’s ExternalInterface system? The short answer is yes, but it may take some tweaking on your part.

A few months ago I wrote about the dilemma of trying to load Captivate SWFs into an ActionScript 3-based parent SWF.

Dilemma solved!

I present to you the ActionScript 3 class LegacyCaptivateLoader. This class utilizes ExternalInterface and a proxy SWF to facilitate sending commands to and querying data from an ActionScript 2-based Captivate SWF.

Being an idealist, I eagerly bought into what was being covered in grad school. I believed (and still do, to a point) that every project should follow ADDIE or a similar model. C’mon, it makes sense, doesn’t it? The line in the sand had been drawn: skip these principles at your own peril. Now that I’ve spent a few years working full-time as an instructional designer-slash-eLearning developer, I’ve learned first-hand that the instructional design ideals taught in grad school are quickly thrown out the window when you get a ‘real’ job.

You may be familiar with the famous “Captivate variables” (see page 201 in PDF link), but did you know about “rdcmndHidePlaybar”? It isn’t mentioned by Adobe in their documentation, but it’s a handy one to know about.

Adobe has a short but useful article detailing how to make your Adobe Captivate movies more accessible.

These are pretty simple (borderline “no-brainer”) steps a Captivate author can easily implement.

I decided to create a simple forum dedicated to e-learning development. I’m not saying I have the answers, but I’m hoping I can at least foster some good conversations and maybe get some of my peers talking and helping each other out. I’m also hoping to use the forum to promote web standards in e-learning development (as Martha says, “it’s a good thing”).

Update April 7, 2008: I’ve written a new AS3 class named LegacyCaptivateLoader that uses ExternalInterface to bridge the AS3 SWF and the Captivate SWF. Check it out.
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Today was the day… I gave a presentation at the eLearning Guild’s DevLearn 2007 conference in San Jose. Topic? Captivate-to-Flash ActionScript Communication. Not a sexy title, I know, but there was a pretty respectable turnout… which indicates to me that a lot of people want to use Captivate but are feeling quite frustrated with [...]

Here are my first impressions of Captivate 3’s improvements and new features.