File Management / Backup / Versioning

[bdusablon]

Wondering what the folks using Articulate do to backup files and control versions. Especially with Articulate's insane automatic folder structuring - what do you guys do?

[GerryWaz]

A little bit of everything--and nothing. A big problem for us . . .

Learning at our company is decentralized and many of our Articulate developers are SME's or non-developers. We have relatively few professional developers, except for contract workers or vendors--but increasingly most divisions and departments cannot afford them--so they gravitate to Articulate products because for a modest investment they can get into the e-learning game.

Unfortunately many of these new developers are not always people with adequate Windows file management abilities, and even understand how network drives work (don't get me started on the non-ISD skills).

We recommend they have have their project files in a single folder and then publish their project files to zip and store them. That said, some elements do not get transferred (i.e. custom templates and library stuff).

When we upgrade our LMS shortly, we hope to offer a content repository as part of our LMS governance process for sharing content (we don't have an LCMS).

I'm hoping that next version of AP--whenever it comes--has some improvements in this area.

[brianosmi]

If used in the presentation, are Engage interactions and QuizMaker source files included in the "Publish Project Files" option when publishing from Presenter?

[GerryWaz]

Hi, Brian,

I believe QuizMaker files are included if, back when you integrated the QM quiz with AP, you selected "Include Source Files." It also looks like the Engage INTR file is included.

Best!

- Gerry

[gabe]

I'm a big fan of Mozy for super-secure, automated backup (with nice Windows explorer integration) that you don't even have to think about after you set it up. I've been using it since they were in beta.

The free plan gets you 2 GB (and an extra 250 MB if you use my link above). The unlimited plan is only $5/month.

Mozy recently made big news by signing an estimated $10M/year deal with GE.

And Gerry is correct that publishing to project files will include source .aqm and .intr files.