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#1 2012-06-06 14:07:43

**_oldkingcole3_**

Link to external file (located on network share drive) not working

I have a course built with Adobe Presenter 7.07 and PowerPoint 2007.

In the course, there is a page (five of them, actually) that contains a link to an official policy document on a shared network drive on the client's network.

I created the link by placing a 100% transparent rectangle over an image of the cover-sheet of the policy. Then, I right-click the transparent rectangle and choose Hyperlink... and add a file path in the format \\server_name\volume_number\shared\path\to\file.doc. ( NOTE: I also tried entering a URL-style path: file://server_name/volume_number/shared/path/to/file.doc, but PowerPoint immediately converts this back to the \\server_name\... format).

I have tested links to external files on my own company's shared drive by creating a dummy version of the policy on a network attached shared drive on my company's network. When I build this test version of the course and click the link to the policy, it launches just fine.

However, when I deploy the actual (not test) course with the path to the policy on the client's network, the client clicks the link and nothing happens. No error message, nothing. We have verified that the policy is at the location specified by the link, and that the person running the course has access to the file and can launch it into MS Word from its location on the network share. Yet when they click the link in the course, absolutely nothing happens.

I do not know how to fix this, and am hoping someone here has seen and solved this problem before.

We've tested on two different configurations with the same results.

What I know:

    Configuration 1:
        Browser: IE9
        Operating System: Windows 7 Pro x64
        Flash Player 10.3

    Configuration 2:
        Browser: IE8
        Operating System: XP Pro SP3 x86
        Flash Player 11.2

    Authoring:
        Adobe Presenter version: 7.07
        PowerPoint version: 2007

    Results:
        The link to the file is correct.
        The file exists at the location specified by the link.
        The learner has access to the file on the networked share and can launch it via a double-click from Windows Explorer
        The client gets no error message of any kind on either configuration.
   
Could it be a flash security setting? We tried right-clicking the page in the course and choosing Settings... but didn't see any setting relevant to accessing local or networked files.

So I'm stumped. Can anyone here help shed some light?

Thanks!

    -Ray

Last edited by **_oldkingcole3_** (2012-06-06 16:04:11)

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#2 2012-06-06 18:26:05

**_Jorma_at_RealEyes_**

Re: Link to external file (located on network share drive) not working

Presenter outputs Flash, which plays by server rules. As such, it cannot call a local file path, so any local file path hyperlinks are disregarded and will not function in a published Presenter presentation.

That is why there is the ability to attach files to the presentation, so you can have access to them.

If you can make an HTTP call to the files, then the hyperlinks should work.

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#3 2012-06-06 18:47:58

**_oldkingcole3_**

Re: Link to external file (located on network share drive) not working

Hi Jorma,

Thanks for the quick reply! We tested the same kind of link internally at my company and it worked fine. But now, in light of your reply, I am realizing that our test was not a 100% match to our client's situation.

We ran the test version of the course directly off our local hard drives (by double-clicking the index.htm file in the build folder of the published course). Launched that way, the course had no trouble accessing the policy document from our networked shared drive. However, using this method, the course was launched from within the same network domain as the file it needed to access.

Our client, on the other hand, is running the course out of our LMS. We use a cloud-based LMS, so for the client, the course comes from a different network domain than the file it is trying to access.

What I'm unclear on is whether this matters. I just don't know enough about how Flash security works. My understanding is that the course is downloaded from the LMS but then runs directly in the learner's browser (in the browser's installation of the Flash Player plugin). If that is the case, it seems like the course would be running (along with the browser) inside the client's network, which is also where the policy file is located.

Our LMS administrator is gone for the day, but I will try to load our test course into the LMS tomorrow so I can see if the test course can still access the file on our local network share if launched from the LMS in the cloud.

Do you know if the domain from which the course is downloaded affects its file access rights when it runs?

Thanks!

    -Ray

PS: We don't want to attach the policy docs to the course because then they would drift out of date as the policies get updated. HTTP access to the docs is not currently available.

Last edited by **_oldkingcole3_** (2012-06-06 18:52:11)

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#4 2012-06-06 22:05:08

**_Jorma_at_RealEyes_**

Re: Link to external file (located on network share drive) not working

I suppose there could be something in the output files that deals with domain policies, but in my experience, local file path hyperlinks have never worked. It may be worth spending some time digging through the XML files in the output, but I don't believe there is anything that can be done about it.

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#5 2012-06-07 17:35:40

**_oldkingcole3_**

Re: Link to external file (located on network share drive) not working

Hi Jorma,

I can confirm now that when I run the course directly off my local hard drive by double-clicking the index.htm file in the publish folder, the course DOES allow me to access file:// URLs.

However, when the same course is accessed from our cloud-based LMS, those same file:// URLs fail to work.

We will likely replace direct links to the files with instructions to the learner for how he or she can manually retrieve the policies from the company share drive.

I don't know if it's easy to do, but one thing that would've helped me understand this problem quicker is if the Flash code generated by Adobe Presenter could pop up an error message when a learner attempts to follow a file:// link which the Flash security policy disallows. With no error message or feedback of any kind, it was hard to know what was going on, which in turn made it hard to know what we had to do to resolve the problem.

Anway, thanks again for your help.

Cheers!

    -Ray

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