Found the following beauty when on Youtube:
You shouldn’t have to invent your own language (“Favorited?”) to make your UI work.
Archive for the ‘Techniques’ Category
In a recent ePUB I got lazy. Rather than having separate XHTML files for each section I kept them in larger files and used HTML anchor and name tags to match them up. Problem is this doesn’t work.
What I had was one file per chapter, divided into sections. So my content.xhtml looked like this:
<h1>Chapter Title</h1> <h2><a name="part1"></a>First Part</h2> ... <h2><a name="part2"></a>Second Part</h2> ... <h2><a name="part3"></a>Third Part</h2> ...
This was then accessed from toc.ncx as follows. Important link bits in bold:
... <navPoint playOrder=11><navLabel><text>Chapter Title</text></navLabel> <content src="chapter.xhtml" /></navPoint> <navPoint playOrder=12><navLabel><text>Part 1</text></navLabel> <content src="chapter.xhtml#part1" /></navPoint> <navPoint playOrder=13><navLabel><text>Part 2</text></navLabel> <content src="chapter.xhtml#part2" /></navPoint> <navPoint playOrder=14><text>Part </text></navLabel> <content src="chapter.xhtml#part3" /></navPoint> ...
None of these TOC links work when published as an ePUB (testing in Adobe Digital Editions).
Bit of digging (this helped) and testing, and issue is with the “name” piece. These are not recognised. Instead you need to use IDs.
The good news is you don’t have to change the toc.ncx references, or any other references to the sections. Only the targets need to change. Edit your content from:
<h2><a name="part1">First Part</h2>
To any of the following:
<h2><a id="part1"></a>First Part</h2> <h2><a id="part1" name="part1"></a>First Part</h2> <h2 id="part1">First Part</h2>
Obviously the third option (add the ID to the heading itself) is the cleanest. However the first option is the one easiest to implement via global search and replace. Which means it was the one I chose.
One of the most annoying omissions in Sharepoint 2007 is the inability to share calendars between sites and subsites:
- maintain a master calendar and view it (or part of it) in a subsite, or
- maintain a calendar in the subsite and “roll it up” with other subsite calendars to a master view in the main site.
Apparently this is rectified in Sharepoint 2010 but if you’re unable to upgrade, and aren’t allowed to build your own webparts, you’ve to look elsewhere for a solution:
- use a 3rd party webpart (can recommend the Bamboo Solutions offering having used it elsewhere), or
- hacking together via the page viewer webpart (I never got this to work but your mileage may vary)
However this article describes a 3rd option we implemented which met the requirement by not using calendars at all. Instead we used XML.
Just had a frustrating issue in building a new ePUB where the validation (thanks Threepress) failed saying the OPF file was missing. Even though it was there clear as day in the source files.
If you do have an .OPF file but get this error, then the issue is not with this file at all, but with container.xml (which lives in the META-INF folder). This file does little more than point to your .OPF file. The error therefore arises if it points in the wrong direction.
In my instance the issue was caused by using an ePUB template/shell with a different default value for the filename and path to the .OPF. Note if I’d been paying attention the error message gives you all the information needed to resolve the issue since it reports a different filename for the .OPF to the one created. If they don’t match then container.xml is the culprit.
Here’s the all important line in container.xml. Make sure the name and match match your own construction.
<rootfile full-path="OEBPS/content.opf" media-type="application/oebps-package+xml"/>
Whenever you record an action within a UPK capture, it uses a template to determine how to describe each action you complete. You can customise this template text so that steps are presented in a language and format that best fits your requirements. Your customisations are then automatically applied across all your published outputs: simulations and documentation.
Note this topic explains how to change the standard text for all steps, and all captures. If you just want to make a one-off edit to the text in a single step you can make your life easier by just editing it directly. Just click the Insert template text as user text button in the frame properties and edit away.
How template files are organised and applied
UPK provides separate template files for each language. To find the current files for your required language open your library and navigate to System > Templates. The template files are organised in separate folders for each language:
There are probably a million reasons why UPK does not work when published on your LMS. This may help resolve one of them.
Just created a LMS package without issue. But when publishing on our LMS (we’re using Oracle iLearn) the module would work fine until I try to run one of the simulations. After clicking “See It”, “Try it” or “Know It”, nothing would happen.
Turns out the reason why not was because I’d built the package with the wrong version of SCORM. When publishing (and SCORM version is set when publishing, not as part of the UPK options), UPK defaults to SCORM version 1.3 (2004).
However our LMS is only at 1.2. So the reason why the simulations were not loaded was simply that the package and LMS could not communicate over progress/status.
Changing the SCORM version to 1.2 in UPK, and republishing the LMS package, resolved the issue. The package now presents, completes and tracks perfectly.
[Annoyingly, this setting is not saved so you have to remember to reset it each time you publish. Would be better as a global option - you listening Oracle?]
I’ve had a regular issue with UPK where it did not recognise my shortcut key to start and stop recording. I’ve been using automatic recording and set (via Tools > Options) UPK to use the PrintScreen button to start and stop. But then I’d be banging the PrintScreen button like a monkey, and nothing would happen.
Tried changing the start key, re-starting UPK, but nothing changed.
Well today I found out why. And it’s nothing to do with the key you select. The trick is to make sure the target application has focus BEFORE you click your start key.
The issue I had is I’d click Record in UPK, and then my next step would be to move the UPK recorder window out the way, and then click PrintScreen. Which meant that UPK, not my application had focus. And thus nothing would happen.
Now I move the UPK window out of the way, then click back in the target application, then click PrintScreen. And UPK starts up immediately.
Problem solved.
Check out my average score from some elearning I had to complete recently for surf lifesaving:
Just one more correct answer and I may have got my average up to 94.52631578947369%!!
To be fair, at least they did not need 14 decimal places to tell me how long the course took.
UPK provides simple functionality to tag and manage content by user role. Any of your content can be identified by the role(s) that perform it, and you (or your user) can then target content by those roles:
- only publish content for a specific role (ie only their procedures, or an LMS package just for them)
- publish for multiple roles but allow users to pick the elements of interest.
For example the following screenshots show a single player package with two roles (core and advanced) defined. Foreign exchange functionality has been tagged as being for advanced users only. Selecting/unselecting this role changes the visibility of the section.
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| core and advanced roles | core role only | advanced role only |
While designed for classifying content by user role, there’s no reason why you cannot use in other ways. For example, you could use this functionality to classify functionality by application version.
One of the quickest and easiest enhancements you can make to your UPK outputs is to add your own logo. Once selected (and you only select once) this same local replaces the Oracle item in the header of the player package, and in all the published documents.
To add your own logo you need to first make one. According to the upload screen this should be no larger than 230 x 44. Additionally, while it does not say this anywhere, use a .GIF format file. The Player Package, once published, always publishes your logo in that format, and its conversion tool is not great. My first efforts used a .PNG image, and I ended up with some peculiar dithering, as shown here.
 Logo as PNG - Nice dot pattern |
 Logo as GIF - no dithering |
Note you don’t have to upload the image to your library. When requested it can simply be loaded from your computer.
To upload select Tools > Customize Logo from the menu. Ignore the category and simply select your image and click OK. UPK will then automatically apply the logo across all the publishing templates.
For bonus points you can also update the other Oracle-branded image that appears in the player package heading.
However there does not appear to be a simple way to do this in advance. Instead you need to publish the package, and then go looking for banner_image.png in the img folder:
The default image is 525×54 so aim to replace with something the same. It is also right-aligned by default, so give thought to how the left-hand end will blend in with the background.