JavaScript can control the playback of Captivate-generated SWFs. I posted some examples about a year ago (example one, example two), but someone recently reminded me I haven’t posted any instructions or explanations for my examples. Here’s a quickie explanation of how you can control a Captivate-generated SWF using JavaScript.
Adobe Captivate 3 doesn’t have a built-in mechanism for sending quiz results to JavaScript. Here’s a workaround you may find useful.
A recent post in the e-learning development forum reminded me that I forgot to post some unpublished Captivate variables I dug up a while back.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.
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.
I researched the different methods available for AVM1 to AVM2 communication, and discovered there are a few workarounds that can enable the AS3 SWF to communicate with the AS2 SWF. I spent the entire day whipping up a Captivate-specific proof-of-concept.
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.
I just got Captivate 3, and eagerly installed it to see if any improvements have been made regarding JavaScript and Actionscript handling. Short answer: nope.
Captivate SWFs can communicate with the host HTML file via JavaScript, but the scripting options suffer from severe limitations imposed by the Captivate authoring environment.
