Summary: Build Flash objects to enhance your projects
Difficulty: Medium to Hard
Articulate Studio ‘09 lets you build attractive courses without any programming. You don’t need to write HTML nor spend hours developing a project in Adobe Flash. But let’s say you want to go just a little bit further. Well you can. Just build your own Flash content and import it into Presenter, Quizmaker and Engage. Creating your own Flash content doesn’t have to be a painful exercise. And while you’re at it, integrate some of the code from the Articulate Presenter Player SDK, and you can really make your courses stand out from the crowd.
In the Articulate 2009 Guru Awards, Bronze winners SSC did just that. Kineo built a player using custom Flash and the Articulate SDK. SSC took the theme and made this exciting looking course. Kineo spent time developing this player but building a few eye-catching effects is easier than you might think.
In a few minutes, you can create Flash objects and import them into Articulate without even opening the complicated Adobe Flash software.
Here are a few examples:
Multiple Videos.
Create a Flashy opening page with multiple videos in your first slide. The video banks in these slides are one imported SWF object which in turn has three embedded movies.
Create A Full Slide Button
Here is a very simple demo giving just an idea of how you can give buttons functions using the Articulate Presenter Player SDK.
You can create your own functional buttons in the course. This one changes the view mode to Slide Only. Uses SDK. You can create your own customized control panel with a View button, a Play, Stop and Pause button etc
Create Video Index.
A similar idea to the multiple video page, but enable the user to click on a video to go to a slide in your course. Uses SDK.
How Do You Do It?
I made the multiple video feature with SWF Quicker by Sothink. I sometimes used the Articulate SDK which includes Actionscript code which I put in the SWF movies also using SWF Quicker. If you have the Platinum Membership Plan then you can get the Articulate Presenter Player SDK for free by contacting Articulate Support. If not, you might be able to buy it as a standalone (you need to make a request to Articulate Sales). To help you out further, there is a special forum dedicated to the SDK.
Hi Dave,
I’ve been looking into the possibility of using the SDK, and I’m after a bit of advice. I’m no Flash developer (I have used Flash to create some very simple animations, but that’s about the extent of my experience), and I’m wondering whether or not it’s something I’m likely to be able to teach myself.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Jade
ps it was great meeting you at the conference last week – I hope you enjoyed the day as much as I did.
Hi Jade, I certainly did enjoy the conference and glad you did too! I don’t use Flash myself. I generally use Sothink’s SWF Quicker when I want to use the SDK. As far as wondering if it is difficult to use, it really depends what you want to do. If you want to create custom made Flash buttons to navigate within the Articulate player, then that is “quite” easy. You just need to use the ActionScript available in the SDK. If you want to redesign tabs, then that will require a little more work. Hope that helps a little and be sure to get back with your ideas!
Hi Dave,
I’m interested in possibly purchasing access to the SDK and have a few questions. Does is use ActionScript 2.0 or 3.0? Also, does it allow someone if they have the appropriate skill level with Flash/Actionscript to modify and customize any part of the Player Shell, or just certain parts? Can the customized swf be saved in a template (for example if I have the SDK installed and I make a custom player, can the rest of my team who does not have the SDK use my customized player when they publish?)? Thanks for any clarification!
Hi Troy,
The SDK uses ActionScript 2.0 only. It won’t allow you to customize everything in the player but it does allow you to add extra outline tabs or tabs at the top. What is does do is give you access to a number of commands so that you can create your own SWFs and embed them within the player. The customized work can be saved in a template and used by others. I’d encourage you to look at the documentation on the Articulate site. It gives a pretty clear idea of what you can and cannot do. The full documentation is almost identical except that it gives you the valid commands and includes examples and FLAs. Hope that helps.