Developing SCORM Content for Use in Connect Pro

This document serves to describe a prototype that was developed to allow SCORM-based content to launch and track in Adobe Connect Pro (Connect Pro).  The SCORM-to-Connect prototype is, in my humble opinion, very easy to use.  Please review this document and the resulting files for your own opinion and tests.

Note:  This truly is a prototype and should be used as such.  If your content doesn’t launch or track, I’d be surprised, though I’m certain a change to the prototype could be made to better support your specific content. 

The SCORM-to-Connect prototype follows the requirements of content, in general, in Adobe Connect Pro.  Content that is imported into Adobe Connect Pro needs to be a single Assignable Unit (AU) or in the case of SCORM, a single Shareable Content Object (SCO).  Adobe Connect Pro does not import content that contains multiple SCO’s in a single package.  Connect Pro includes support for Curriculums, which allows you to create the same effect.  However, the content needs to be separated into individual SCO files at import into the Content tab.

Requirements

• SCORM-based content.  The current SCORM-to-Connect prototype supports SCORM 1.2.  It can support SCORM 2004, but it is not currently enabled.  A section at the end of this document explains how to enable SCORM 2004 support for your own testing.
• Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro account
• Sample Files associated with this document are available for download.  They may be compressed in .zip format and may require you to install an extraction program such as 7-Zip available from http://www.7-zip.com.
• SCORM to Connect – Prototype (ZIP, 40KB)
• SCORM to Connect – Prototype with example content (ZIP, 440KB)
• SCORM to Connect – Walkthrough (HTM/SWF)

Overview (a brief technical perspective)

I have presented or trained many organizations and individuals on the AICC and SCORM standards.  Most of my trainings (some available for download from the internet) involve more in-depth discussions of differences between the LMS standards and potentially intricate details of the standards themselves.  This brief overview doesn’t cover much of any of that.  It provides more than enough technical information to confuse non-developers and no technical information at all to assist technical developers.  It’s just an overview, to help bring some context into the SCORM-to-Connect prototype.

The AICC standard uses an HTTP-POST for communicating data between content and an LMS.  The SCORM standard uses Javascript to communicate much of the same data.

Note:  Adobe Connect Pro follows the AICC standard for its communication mechanism

The intent of this prototype is to make SCORM-based content believe it is communicating with a SCORM-based LMS.  The SCORM-based content then uses the SCORM API (or basically a series of JavaScript functions) to send and retrieve data with the LMS. 

What the prototype is actually doing is using the AICC standard to communicate with Adobe Connect Pro to retrieve data and populating a number of JavaScript variables with that data.   Those JavaScript variables are either retrieved or updated by a series of JavaScript functions.  Those JavaScript (JS) functions mimic the functionality provided by the SCORM-API. 

When the prototype is launched, it uses the AICC standard to retrieve data from Adobe Connect Pro.  That data is stored in JS variables and then a set of JS functions are enabled.  Then the SCORM-based content is launched.  The content finds the JS functions and believes this to be the SCORM-API provided by the LMS and calls the functions to get data from the LMS.  The JS functions get the values of the JS variables and returns them to the content.  As the content progresses, it calls the same JS functions to store data in the LMS, which in turn updates the JS variables.  When appropriate, the prototype sends the data (stored in the variables) to Connect Pro, again using the AICC standard.

Note:  Because the prototype is JavaScript-based – which is interpreted by the browsers – it has restrictions from the browsers.  In general, browsers do not allow cross-domain communication (though there are workarounds that could be employed).  This prototype is therefore only supported when the content resides on the same domain as the Adobe Connect Pro server.  If you use the Content tab to import this content into Adobe Connect Pro – you will be able to launch and track the content into Adobe Connect Pro.  If you expect to store the content on any other server; or have the content stored on the Adobe Connect Pro servers and launched/tracked from another LMS, this is not supported.

Using the Prototype

To use the prototype, you simply need to perform a few steps:

• Extract the contents of the prototype into a folder
• Copy the SCORM-based content into the “content” folder
• Determine the name of the launch file from the SCORM-based content
• Edit the file called “index.htm” that is found in the root of the Prototype files
• Change a reference to the launch file (found on or around line 10) to reflect the actual name of the location and name of the SCORM-based launch file

var windowContent_str = "content/SCORM.htm";

Note:  In the line above, the SCORM content is found in the sub-folder called “content” and indicates the file called “SCORM.htm” is the launch file for the SCORM content.

• Compress (zip) the root of the prototype files with the SCORM-based content
• Import resulting zip file into the Content tab of Adobe Connect Pro

A Captivate recording of the steps to use the Prototype can be found in the Sample Files section, above.

Prototype Files

The prototype is a relatively simple solution and is also relatively easy to use.  Here is the file structure of the prototype:

• index.htm (File)
• scripts (Folder)
• flash (Folder)
• content (Folder)

Index.htm
The index.htm file is the launch file.  It needs to be in the root of the fileset and needs to be in the root of the resulting compressed file (discussed later).  index.htm provides a basic frameset where initially a “loading” screen appears and then later the SCORM-based content

Scripts
This folder contains the bulk of the code.  The JS files in this folder provide the communication mechanism to send/retrieve data from Adobe Connect Pro and to send/retrieve data from the SCORM-based content. 

Note:  The files in the Scripts folder perform the communication between HTML/Javascript and Connect Pro and the SCORM-based content.  The files and their functions are not defined in this document, at this time.  The methods and properties are somewhat described in bit more detail in an article on using HTML/Javascript to communicate to Connect Pro.  Please review that article for additional information on the methods and properties available for custom use.

Flash
This folder is used to store the Flash-based assets used by the prototype.  At the current time, the only Flash file is a “loading.swf” file which displays a loading bar.  This loading file is displayed in the beginning of the prototype when it is launched from Connect Pro.  It displays until the AICC data is retrieved from Connect Pro and stored in local variables.  You can certainly customize this loading file, by creating your own Flash-based file and calling it “loading.swf” and placing in this folder

Content
This folder stores your SCORM-based content.  Simply copy your content into this folder “as-is”.  You should take note of the file that is used to launch your specific content.  If you aren’t sure which file is the launch file of your SCORM-based content, you can either review the “imsmanifest.xml” which might be found in the root of your SCORM files; or contact your content developer.  The SCORM-based launch file needs to be referenced in the index.htm file found in the root of this SCORM-to-Connect prototype.

Importing content into Adobe Connect Pro

If you are importing a single content file (e.g. PDF, HTM, etc) the file can either be imported individually or compressed in zip format.  This section only pertains to multiple file courses which are to be imported into Adobe Connect Pro.

Importing content into Adobe Connect Pro is documented in many places, including here:  http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AcrobatConnectPro/7.0/WS76BDB2C9-24A2-4d4d-B8C2-EAE1A26603F4.html#WSDF93E779-D109-4d12-A66D-29FAC2F03B6B.  There is more information available on importing content into Adobe Connect Pro, including documentation written by me, which can be searched in Adobe.com or the web in general.

To create a valid zip file for importing into Adobe Connect Pro, the files need to:

• contain a single HTM or HTML file in the root of the zip file
• OR; contain either a file called “index.htm” or “index.html” in the root of the zip file

Note:  There are other potential intricacies for properly recognizing file types when importing into Adobe Connect Pro. This may include requiring only a single HTM and single AAM file in the root of the zip file, in order for Connect Pro to recognize the content type as “Authorware”.  However, that’s not discussed in this document.

The root of the SCORM-to-Connect Prototype contains a single “index.htm” file.  This is the file that Adobe Connect Pro will launch when the content is imported and subsequently launched from Connect Pro Content or Training tabs.  Because the root of the Prototype does not contain any other HTM files, its name isn’t that important.  However, you need to make sure that this “index.htm” file is contained in the root of the zip file.  This means you need to open the folder containing the Prototype files and select all of the files/folders (including the “index.htm” file) before creating a zip file.  Do NOT compress or zip up the parent folder.

Please review the format of the example file found in the Sample Files section, above, for the structure of a valid zip file which can be imported into Adobe Connect Pro.

Support for SCORM 2004

This prototype includes a SCORM2004toAICC.js file.  It is this file that can include support for launching and tracking SCORM 2004 content in Adobe Connect Pro.  However, the rules for SCORM 2004 are a bit more intricate and I haven’t spent time reviewing all of the response, error and debugging information that is required for full SCORM 2004 support. 

Note:  SCORM 1.2 also doesn’t have all of the response any error codes returned at this time, and that’s why this is only a prototype. 

If you would like to try launching and testing SCORM 2004 content through the prototype:

• Edit “index.htm” which is contained in the root of the Prototype and example files
• Search for the lines that look like:

<html>
     <head>
          <title>AEC: SCORM to Connect Pro Tracking</title>
          <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
          <script src="scripts/ConnectCommon.js"> </script>
          <script src="scripts/ConnectAICC.js"> </script>
          <script src="scripts/SCORM12toAICC.js"> </script>
          <script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">

• Add a reference to the SCORM2004toAICC.js file such that the change would look like:

<html>
     <head>
          <title>AEC: SCORM to Connect Pro Tracking</title>
          <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
          <script src="scripts/ConnectCommon.js"> </script>
          <script src="scripts/ConnectAICC.js"> </script>
          <script src="scripts/SCORM2004toAICC.js"> </script>
          <script src="scripts/SCORM12toAICC.js"> </script>
          <script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">

• Save the “index.htm” file
• Follow the instructions for copying the SCORM 2004-based content into the “content” folder and creating a valid zip file for importing into Adobe Connect Pro

Conclusion

These prototype files are provided “as-is”, though I expect to be making changes to them.  Feel free to contact me with any updates and suggestions you might have for these files.