e-learning
A number of people have recently asked me about the scorm.save() function in the pipwerks SCORM wrappers. What is it, and when should it be used? The pipwerks scorm.save() function is a shortcut for SCORM’s Commit (SCORM 2004) and LMSCommit (SCORM 1.2) methods. Invoking commit in
How-to
Here’s a handy way to determine if two JavaScript objects are identical without using a framework like jQuery or MooTools: var compare_objects = function (obj1, obj2) { var parameter_name; var compare = function (objA, objB, param) { var param_objA = objA[param], param_objB = typeof objB[param] === "undefined" ? false
Tips and Tricks
Someone recently asked me if it was possible to customize Captivate’s SCORM manifest to reduce the need for manual editing after publishing. In her case, the manifest needed to be edited to include SumTotal TotalLMS’s custom SCORM extensions. The answer is yes. Here’s how. Find the Captivate
CSS
Most browsers do not allow images to be cropped using CSS3’s border-radius. Tim Van Damme recently posted a workaround for this issue. It’s a nice trick, and doesn’t require JavaScript. It does, however, require an extra span to be added to the page’s markup, which is
Adobe Flash
As you’ve probably read somewhere on the interwebs, HTML5 is bringing native video support to browsers. This will enable us to embed a video file directly in our HTML, much like a SWF or image. Background You may have also heard that there’s currently a big controversy over
How-to
As a Mac user, one of the more annoying issues I frequently encounter is funky PDF handling in Firefox and Safari. For instance: * Adobe doesn’t make a version of Adobe Reader that’s compatible with Firefox on Mac OS X * Adobe Reader is only supported in 32-bit versions of
Chamilo
Moodle, Moodle, Moodle. It’s popular. It has helped many people quickly set up their company’s web-based training. But truth be told, it doesn’t really do much for me. I have never found it fun or sexy or even intuitive. I imagine many people feel that way. So
How-to
Someone recently posted a blog entry ranting about the use of the term “best practices” in our industry. I understand the frustration with thoughtless pronouncements about best practices, especially coming from people who may not know any better; it will often sound a lot like how mom used to say
JavaScript
Update (August 2010): I have published a new list of Captivate variables that are specific to Adobe Captivate 5. Check it out. The folks at Adobe recently published a list of Captivate 4 variables. While it’s a solid list, it’s not really a complete list. Here is a
best practices
Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is at Release Candidate 1, which means it will be released very shortly. IE8 is a brand-new browser and will represent a considerable shift from IE7/IE6; it will follow standards more closely and will offer much improved CSS 2.1 support. However, because of some
excanvas
excanvas.js is a script that enables developers to use the canvas element in Internet Explorer; since IE doesn’t support canvas or the canvas API, the excanvas script converts (most) canvas commands to Vector Markup Language (VML), the only vector rendering language supported natively in Internet Explorer. excanvas is
@font-face
Like many other web professionals, I’m tired of the limited font set we have to work with. Gee, should I use Verdana on this site or Georgia? Maybe Arial? Meh. Bor-ing. The merits and legal implications of CSS3’s proposed @font-face are being hotly debated, which means the proposal