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Gabe Anderson

Word of Mouth is the Articulate blog, hosted by Director of Customer Advocacy Gabe Anderson.

Gabe loves to share his passion for all things tech and enjoys learning from Articulate customers around the world.

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Articulate SDK

Monday, July 18th, 2005 by gabe

57 Comments


If you’re a Flash developer or have one on staff and are considering purchasing Articulate Presenter, but aren’t sure whether you should join the Platinum Membership Plan, here’s the only reason you should need: The Articulate Presenter Player SDK.

pl_sdk_icon.gif

The Articulate Presenter Player SDK gives Flash developers the ability to create custom Flash movies that extend and interact with the Articulate Presenter Player. With the SDK, developers are able to:

  • Add functionality by developing custom player tabs.

  • Add player features by creating custom player toolbar items.
  • Customize certain player assets.
  • Communicate with the player via runtime API methods.

Download sample documentation, join the Platinum Membership Plan, and start customizing your Articulate projects even more!

Have a custom project you’d like to share with us? Let me know.

57 Responses to “Articulate SDK

I have a question on the SDK. My particular need is to pass a variable through the flash movie so a viewer can click on a link in the movie and be redirected to a web page with the variable as part of the URL.

Is this possible using the SDK?

Beatty Carmichael  |  Posted at 01:49 pm on July 19th, 2005 |  #

Yes, this is possible. The link that would open this Web page would need to reside in a custom tab or tool. Please contact us for more details.

Gabe Anderson  |  Posted at 10:07 am on July 22nd, 2005 |  #

Does SDK allow me to customize the player controls? As in get rid of the single play/pause/advance button, and make a new controller in flash.

James Jones  |  Posted at 11:43 am on July 27th, 2005 |  #

James- Yes, this is possible with “ast_remote.fla” in slide-only mode. Please refer to the bottom of page 3 of the SDK documentation.

Gabe Anderson  |  Posted at 04:48 pm on July 27th, 2005 |  #

Is it possible to build a swf file which loads a flv video (full presenter video, e.g. 40 min – one single file)? And the file should be placed into the presenter panel and should stay there the whole presentation´s time, regardless of which slide is playing.
Thanks,
Arthur

Arthur  |  Posted at 04:30 am on April 8th, 2007 |  #

Hi Arthur-

It’s currently not possible to have a single Flash movie span across multiple slides (only 1 Flash movie per slide is possible), but you’re welcome to request the feature for consideration in the future.

gabe  |  Posted at 11:19 am on April 9th, 2007 |  #

I have the same need as Arthur – the abiltiy to play one flv video and easily sync the slides to various points in the video.

Guy Wiggins  |  Posted at 09:38 pm on April 11th, 2007 |  #

Is there a way with the SDK to integrate custom Flash activities, but report back SCORM logic to the player?

Dwayne Thomas  |  Posted at 12:22 am on May 11th, 2007 |  #

Dwayne- I’m not clear what you’re trying to do, but you might want to submit a case or ask your question in the forums. The SDK isn’t really about SCORM or LMSes, though – it’s all about customizing things like the appearance of the player, adding custom tabs, creating custom controls, and the like.

gabe  |  Posted at 02:24 pm on May 15th, 2007 |  #

Is it possible to remove the “Articulate Online” badge at the bottom left corner of the presenter window (provided you have the SDK)?

S

Shane Cronin  |  Posted at 08:32 am on May 21st, 2007 |  #

Hi Shane- You can remove the “Powered by Articulate” logo from the lower left-hand corner of the Articulate Player by following the instructions in this Knowledge Base entry.

gabe  |  Posted at 09:15 am on May 21st, 2007 |  #

Thanks Gabe. Much appreciated. S

Shane Cronin  |  Posted at 06:49 am on May 23rd, 2007 |  #

hi

I have some question

1.1. I nee playback control bar on presenter panelvideo
is possible ?

2. Is posible to change tab,label, ot title in spanish (ej:Notes, thumbmail, search, net, previous) on your product .

3.I have the other question , i dowloaded your product presenter, is excelent.
You use the trigger player.html, is work well. i test the product , i am happy with this.

But i have one difficult, i dont use the trigger palyer.html, i have my owner container (contents) in flash , i make the script fla, is a windows container, i setup the paths player/playershell.swf, on my script appers the next error
Error opening URL “file:///C|/linuxrhce/c1p32/slidegroup.swf”, my container try to load movie playershell.

Sumary , How do i do to load, your presetation in my container. I dont like use code HTML,,,, i use only script flash 8 professional.

My container script must be any directory, for this case i put this in the same ( player.html).

When i execute playshell.swf , i do click on, this work well.

Edgar Garcia  |  Posted at 01:28 pm on June 21st, 2007 |  #

Hi Edgar-

I’ve submitted a case on your behalf with your questions, so that we can help you in more detail.

gabe  |  Posted at 05:40 pm on June 21st, 2007 |  #

Our LMS is, laugh if you must, NOT SCORM compliant. How can I pass something like Student ID to an Articulate Presenter learning object? Would the SDK be usefull for something like that? Or is that more a more basic function?

Judith  |  Posted at 10:12 am on August 15th, 2007 |  #

Hi Judith-

The SDK is for modifying specific Player elements. The sample documentation outlines exactly what can be done.

Although there might be some creative ways to accomplish your goal, it is probably not possible with the SDK. You might want to ask about this in our forums, though.

gabe  |  Posted at 11:26 am on August 16th, 2007 |  #

I wish to insert a swf which provides a streaming inteface for flv’s into the presenters pane. Will the SDK allow us to pass flv filenames to this swf via the xml that currently drives articulate ??

David Brenchley  |  Posted at 10:12 am on October 1st, 2007 |  #

I am inserting a flash .swf file with two frames into Articulate. It starts on Frame 1, then the learner clicks something, and it advances to Frame 2. I need to set it up where each frame of the flash file is viewed before the slide is considered complete in Articulate.

Does the API allow for this type communication between Flash and Articulate? Can inform Articualte that the Flash file is complete, and thus the Articualte slide is complete?

Thank you.

John Bartlett  |  Posted at 03:33 pm on October 4th, 2007 |  #

David & John- You might want to ask these questions in our community forums.

gabe  |  Posted at 09:55 am on October 8th, 2007 |  #

To Edgar’s point, is it possible to reference an Articulate presentation from an *externally-hosted* HTML page?

Thanks,
Andy

Andy  |  Posted at 09:44 am on October 31st, 2007 |  #

[...] creating a consistent look across the Articulate suite including Engage and Quizmaker. By using the Articulate SDK you can create a consistent user interface and a brand experience to meet the most exacting [...]

Kineo & Clive: 60-Minute Masters for SMEs - Articulate - Word of Mouth Blog  |  Posted at 11:27 am on November 8th, 2007 |  #

Hi
with the SDK, is it possible to customize the layout of the slides of a WBT, particularly, have an identical layout for interactive Engage and not interactive Presenter slides? I would like to have a consistent slide layout regarding color, frames, titel etc. Thanks!

Kerstin  |  Posted at 05:20 am on November 22nd, 2007 |  #

Hi,
we need a detailied Track-Report, in which every single slide-/videoaction can be monitored. We want to know more about the frequency of each Chapter.
Any Idea?
Thanks for your support
Dirk

Dirk lambach  |  Posted at 06:23 am on December 6th, 2007 |  #

Dirk- For tracking & reporting (down to the slide level), I’d recommend you sign up for a free trial of Articulate Online.

gabe  |  Posted at 05:35 pm on December 6th, 2007 |  #

Kerstin- You can learn in Dave’s blog how to create custom Engage color schemes.

You might also want to go to our forums for some pointers on creating an integrated look and feel.

gabe  |  Posted at 05:38 pm on December 6th, 2007 |  #

My query is for Articulate Presenter 5.2 [Next/previous buttons]

Can I disable previous button for first slide and next button for the last slide?

Sanjay G  |  Posted at 08:59 am on January 3rd, 2008 |  #

I am also needing to disable the Next and Previous buttons. Is this possible through the API? I need to be able to stop a viewer from continuing until they interact with my slide. Thanks,
Ian

Ian  |  Posted at 10:53 am on March 20th, 2008 |  #

I’m using my SDK to add a formatted notes tab and a custom toolbar item to my project, but I’m running into a few snags. If both items use the art_plugins.xml file, how can I use this to have BOTH items in my player? Or do I have to choose just one? Thanks.

Michelle  |  Posted at 08:45 pm on June 10th, 2008 |  #

[...] Articulate SDK is a great way to customise your Articulate Presenter presentations, with custom Flash buttons, [...]

Hi all,

I’m a Flash Developer, currently working on a project which requires a certain Articulate behaviour, which must break apart the built in Articulate’s structure.

So far, I’ve accomplished quite a bit of customizing. I can start the player on ‘mode 3′, have my own custom menu bar appear, have a flash-made contents menu populated using artAPI methods, but it’s not quite what I have in mind, nor need.

Overall, I basically need to:

1. Start in mode 3
2. Have my own flash-made menu bar appear (3 buttons: contents, back, next).
3. When user clicks on ‘contents’, it should switch to mode 1.
4. When viewing presentation in mode 1, the usual Articulate’s bottom nav bar should NOT appear, instead I should still have my own flash-made menu bar.
5. When “contents” menu is clicked again, it should switch back to mode 3.

Before you all start jumping in with ideas, please note that so far I’ve been able to accomplish point 1,2 and 3. Stuck on 4.

Now, any ideas?

Thanks,

Seb.

Sebastian Servat  |  Posted at 01:22 pm on July 29th, 2008 |  #

we develop an educational software (VB application), than read external flash slides and mp3 narration files using a xml format. Is it possible to convert our project to articulate project using the SDK.

elie  |  Posted at 01:57 am on September 2nd, 2008 |  #

Is it possible to modify the FLA to get different links for each slide.

elie  |  Posted at 02:46 am on September 2nd, 2008 |  #

I’ve developed a training course that we are converting to Articulate, and the course is made of 4 presentations, each with their own test. Is there a way to have the user linearly go through the whole course instead of making 4 individual Articulate Presentations? Articulate seems to only track by slide or quiz, but does the SDK allow me to track multiple quizes or treat multiple Articulate presentations as a one large presentation? Thanks.

Robert Ramirez  |  Posted at 12:30 pm on November 4th, 2008 |  #

Hi Robert- The SDK won’t help you there, but this blog post about multiple SCOs might.

gabe  |  Posted at 10:05 am on November 5th, 2008 |  #

I’m looking at upgrading our current Articulate 5 to the new version of Articulate ‘09. Is there an SDK for Presenter ‘09? If so, I’m curious whether I would be able to use it to program for full accessibility features. For example, there are currently keyboard shortcuts in Articulate for some of the UI buttons, but not all (e.g., the exit button). I would like to be able to program this within the FLA file, as well as clean up some of the nonsense that is read when I view an Articulate presentation with a screenreader. Another accessibility design that I would like to be able to incorporate is tracking focus (e.g., when someone has a magnifier turned on). My customers include the DoD and VA so I cannot ignore the Section 508 regulations.

Tracy Meyer  |  Posted at 10:47 am on January 6th, 2009 |  #

Hi Tracy- The SDK is available for Presenter ‘09, yes, and the functionality is the same as it was for Presenter 5.

gabe  |  Posted at 10:56 am on January 6th, 2009 |  #

Thanks for the quick response. So will I be able to use the SDK to make the Articulate Presenter output fully compliant with Section 508 regulations?

Tracy Meyer  |  Posted at 10:59 am on January 6th, 2009 |  #

Hi Tracy- Sorry if my comment wasn’t clear: There is no specific functionality related to 508 compliance in the SDK. The features of the SDK outlined in this blog entry still apply when the SDK is used with Presenter ‘09.

You can learn more about 508 compliance with Presenter ‘09 here.

gabe  |  Posted at 11:04 am on January 6th, 2009 |  #

We are looking into the SDK and I would like to know if we can link to external image and text via XML to accommodate frequent changes in content without the need of republishing. Is this possible?

shawn nash  |  Posted at 02:47 pm on January 14th, 2009 |  #

[...] Brian Batt reminded the Twitter world yesterday, Presenter ’09 offers a Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Articulate Player. We’re often asked what you can do with the Articulate [...]

I have a previous version of Articulate. Some of my end users recently upgraded to the newest flash player and when they go to play the topic it will open up but not play. Is there a fix for this?

Randy  |  Posted at 11:33 am on July 17th, 2009 |  #

Are there any discounts for “upgrading” to Articulat 09 or do you have to pay the same cost as a new user?

Randy  |  Posted at 11:34 am on July 17th, 2009 |  #

Hi Randy- could you please submit a support case with full details of the issue?

As for upgrading, yes, you can receive special upgrade pricing here. You can contact your account rep with any questions.

gabe  |  Posted at 05:33 pm on July 17th, 2009 |  #

Hello -

Just installed the latest upgrade today. When I try to publish i receive blanks in the portion of the window that specifies the desired output. If I go ahead and click published it initializes but then just hangs. I have a support case opened but I wanted to know if anyone was else was experiencing this problem. I’m @ v10 of Flash and I’ve tried this with an existing presentation and with a ppt containing only 1 blank slide.

karen  |  Posted at 05:53 pm on July 17th, 2009 |  #

Update to my last -

Just on a hunch – I cleared my cache deleted all temp files and reinstalled. This cleared up the problem I was also able to do it w/o admin authority, which was a big help.

Karen  |  Posted at 10:21 pm on July 17th, 2009 |  #

Hi Karen- Great! Glad you resolved the issue. In the future, please direct any inquiries about technical issues to our support team – that way we can help you quickly via email. Thanks!

gabe  |  Posted at 09:57 am on July 20th, 2009 |  #

Hi,

I am consumer of the Articulate Presentation.

I have access to it from Java Script. Is it possible to control (Play , Pause , Next , Previous etc) from Java Script , What I mean is there any function exposed by Articulate Presentation which I can use from java script to advance.

How this SDK can help me? , We also develop presentation , does developer needs to use this SDK in some way so that consumer can control from java script ,

We also have lot of presentation already exists with Articulate , Does this SDK can be added to them to control from java script

thanks for help.

have a nice day,
Mahipal

Is this SDK will allow me to

Mahipal  |  Posted at 05:40 am on July 21st, 2009 |  #

I posted a question in the forums and was directed here for possible follow up.

I would like to develop a custom Flash interaction that generates a “score” in a variable. I want to put the Flash SWF into a Quizmaker quiz and have the SWF communicate its “score” to the quiz, just as other Quizmaker questions do.

Will the SDK allow me to do that? Is there any way to do that?

Thanks.

Cyrelle  |  Posted at 12:33 pm on August 28th, 2009 |  #

Hi there,

We’re just starting to look at this tool and the most requested feature is full-screen video capability. Has this been built into the current release or are there plans to incorporate it in the future? Or would we need to get the SDK and develop that functionality in-house? Many of the presentations we do are projected in front of a class and being able to maximize the video to the highest possible resolution and size would be extremely useful. Thanks!

David

David Weber  |  Posted at 01:53 pm on October 22nd, 2009 |  #

Hi David- take a look at this tutorial and associated download. Does that give you what you’re looking for?

gabe  |  Posted at 04:37 pm on October 22nd, 2009 |  #

Hi, I have customised my interface in a course by modifying the ast_remote file, running in view mode 3. What were looking to do is to add a popup menu system that will link to pages within the course. Could you give me a rough idea of how to do this using the SDK? Would this also be done in the ast_remote file or would it be possible to modifly the ‘Test Tool.fla’? Could the titles be dynamicly generated or would we have to manualy imput these?

Many thanks.

Pete.

Peter  |  Posted at 04:29 pm on November 12th, 2009 |  #

Hi Peter- I’d suggest posing your question in our dedicated Presenter SDK Forum. If you don’t have access to it, please submit a request to support.

gabe  |  Posted at 04:52 pm on November 12th, 2009 |  #

Thanks Gabe, yes Im a member Ill give that a try.

Regards.

Pete.

Peter  |  Posted at 04:58 pm on November 12th, 2009 |  #

I have the SDK and I’m trying to build a custom skin. Is there a step by step guide to how to do this?

Andrew  |  Posted at 01:57 pm on November 21st, 2009 |  #

Hi Andrew- have you reviewed the details and video in this blog entry?

We also have a private SDK forum to which you can request access from our support team, if you don’t already have access to it.

gabe  |  Posted at 10:49 am on November 23rd, 2009 |  #

My company has developed a number of courses in which a 3rd party is interested in buying from us for their students. Is it possible to have custom programming within the course to read some kind of license text file?. If the license check fail, the course would not play.

Diep  |  Posted at 01:55 pm on March 10th, 2010 |  #

Hi Diep,

You should be able to accomplish something similar by using the Articulate Online API. For more information, please see the link below:

http://www.mozealous.com/ao-api-samples/paypal-integration/

Whenever I worked in the field, I distributed Articulate content via a CD (published an EXE). I would then protect the EXE file by using a program called Softwarekey:

http://www.softwarekey.com/

When the end-user tries to run the EXE, they’re met with a prompt that requires them to put in a license key and password. After that information is verified, the end-user can then use the EXE without being prompted again.

I hope this information helps.

Brian Batt  |  Posted at 03:51 pm on March 10th, 2010 |  #

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