Captivate - LMS - SCORM communication problems

Question

I'm developing a SCORM compliant LMS, and having some problems with Captivate generated contents.

Basically, the behavior is: If you see a SCO (captivate generated content) with for example 15 slides and 1 question in each slide quickly, my lms is not tracking all the 15 question, only the first 3 or 4. If you wait a long time at the end, or if you take the content slow, it works fine.

After a lot of google searches, and debugging and tracing, finally, I found two main issues:

1) Captivate - SCORM API communication is asynchronous (is the same than flash - javascript communication). So, when the user see the content quickly, the function calls get more and more dealayed, and at the end, maybe the user is answering question 15, and the content is sending question 4 information. I cannot change the Flash or JS-Flash interface, because this is provided by Captivate.

There is a way to make this sync?? I mean, to force the flash wait some way?

2) The functions are taking longer each time they are called, for example, setValue takes 7 milliseconds the first time and 200 the last time is called.

To understand this problem, here is a little background: Captivate contents (all contents really but more captivate) calls a specific function many times, the SetValue function, one of the SCORM API functions. This function takes two parameters (fieldName, value) the firstone is the name of the field to be set, and the second the new value. In my implementation, this function first validate the value using a regular expression, and then set the value in an object.

Ok, I can add a lot more info, but I don't know what is really important, I'm not hoping you fix my code without seeing it, but I'm out of ideas, and need new opinions, ideas, directions.... maybe that sombody ask the right question... help :)

Thanks

Regardful

Answer 1

When publishing for SCORM, Captivate does not use synchronous communication methods.* Depending on the browser, Captivate uses either FSCommand or the old-school getURL method to communicate with the HTML file; the HTML file then uses JavaScript to relay the data to the LMS via the SCORM API.

The response (if any) is relayed from JavaScript to either FSCommand or a proxy SWF (for getURL), which is then monitored internally in Captivate via a callback function. This callback function uses timers, and that's probably where your problem lies.

If you're setting g_intAPIType to 0, you're forcing the browser to use FSCommand, which isn't supported in all browsers and operating systems. Setting g_intAPIType to 1 means you're forcing the browser to use getURL, which is cross-browser but has a few drawbacks (including lots of clicking sounds).

In both cases, the data is sent via an internal queue script, which uses the waitForResponse callback function.

The performance problems you're encountering are likely due to the queuing, and the asynchronous communication compounds the problem because of timers attached to waitForResponse. Changing g_intAPIType will probably only have a minor effect on your performance issues, though using getURL (g_intAPIType=1) may help improve consistency from browser to browser.

Regardless of the g_intAPIType settings, you cannot prevent the internal tracking mechanism from using the asynchronous waitForResponse function, so there is no way to stop Captivate from using timers when getting/setting data; over a period of time you will probably start to notice longer and longer delays like the ones you described, esp. if you're making a lot of calls to the LMS.

(* Small exception: I've been informed Captivate 4 and 5 use ExternalInterface if the project is built in AS3 and is published for SCORM 2004, but it appears the queue and waitForResponse timers are still used, basically treating ExternalInterface like the asynchronous methods listed above.)

Luanaluanda

update for those who are interested: Captivate 6 has a completely re-written SCORM codebase, supplied by Rustici Software (scorm.com). Captivate 6 should not exhibit any of the issues described in this question. – Luanaluanda

Answer 2

Some Options:

You could change how you are doing the questions. Instead of 1 per frame put all the questions on 1 frame.

Otherwise, you will need to do some JavaScript magic in your SCORM Player JavaScript. I would start with minimizing the JS code with a tool like JSMin.

Then try to cache the JS files so they are only loaded once. I suspect that the files are being called over and over with each frame.

Biconcave

About "You could change how you are doing the questions. Instead of 1 per frame put all the questions on 1 frame.", is not an option, I only have control on the LMS code, other people (clients) are doing the SCO content. Yes, I actually have some JS magic, but my solution is complex, and browser dependent, and flash version dependent... I need a better approach. (I'm hiding the flash while the scorm comunication is taking place with a transparent gif and a waiting cursor). Cache js files, yes, they are being cached, but not enough. Thanks – Regardful

Answer 3

"There is a way to make this sync?? I mean, to force the flash wait some way?"

Apparently, the problem is this one : "Captivate is the only SCO that calls SCORM JavaScript functions asynchronously. Firefox is the only browser that does not force synchronous communications between the SCO and the supporting JavaScript. When a Captivate SCO, running on Firefox, submits a status update to one of the JS functions, Captivate does not wait for a success or fail response before submitting the next status update. Since Captivate is quite verbose in its communications and JavaScript is not multithreaded, quiz status submissions can stack up and overwrite each other. This can cause a loss of data - especially for longer quizzes. [...]

If you'd like to see the asynchronous problem with any other LMS, take a long Captivate quiz using Firefox and answer the questions very quickly. Some of the questions near the end will get dropped.. " (interzoic.com forum)

And maybe a solution : "The slow issue is resolved when I force the g_intAPIType to 0 (into the .htm file), so it force Captivate to communicate as if it was into IE."

Pep

Answer 4

In captivate, while publishing a scorm you will see option "Send tracking data at the end", Use this option, it will resolve your problem.

Jane