New Preloading Option - Next Clip Preloading

We've added a new feature in Main Settings -> Media Settings -> Next Clip Preloading:

When set, the IMO will preload media for all clips it computes are likely to be the next clip after the current clip. This lets you preload a clip just ahead of when it is needed. Note also that all interactions associated with the next clip will also be preloaded (images only).

This feature can be used alongside other preloading features. So, you can preload a portion of your IMO up front, and then use Next Clip preloading after that. Once an element is preloaded, it is not preloaded again, so you don't need to worry about re[eat preloads.

Works in both Flash and HTML5.

Flash Issues for Large IMOs

A client using ClicFlic for a large simulation IMO with well over a hundred images and audio files was preloading all images and media in a preload clip. On the ClicFlic workstations, this worked fine, but on the client's workstation, Flash presents the Gray Circle of Death (GCOD). It looks like this:

According to Adobe, the GCOD appears when the flash application is consuming too much memory or if it is doing something that could be harmful to the operating system.

We are still learning how to interpret this symbol with respect to ClicFlic IMOs. The only time we've encountered it was this time and it appears to be related to trying to preload too many media files. We'll update this blog as more information becomes available.

Tracing Back Errors

A number of enhancements have been implemented to help diagnose issues where the IMO was reloaded one or more times in mid-administration, or the IMO appears to malfunction at some point.  All of these changes involve writing more data to the result XML so that you can better reconstruct what is happening.

Please refer to the revised API guide, which lists all changes in he very beginning for a summary of these new information elements.

Pepper Flash on Chrome

Chrome on PCs and MACs has it's own flash player, called Pepper Flash.

This player is maintained by Google and not Adobe and has been seen to cause periodic delays in IMO playback.

Since Chrome is fully HTML5 compliant, to avoid this there is now a setting in Main Settings -> Deployment Settings, to tell the IMO to use HTML5 instead of Pepper Flash if Pepper flash is detected, when the normal preference is Flash.

Bug-Fix Update

Along with numerous minor bug fixes, a new Reporting API document was released that includes tne new swpltfrm attribute in the result XML so you can be sure which platform was used (flash or html5).

New Text Field Validation Specifications

You can now specify at author time that the content of a text field must be any of the following:

• A valid email address
• Any non empty alphanumeric string
• An integer value
• A floating point numeric value

For string values, you can also specify that the the string of text satisfy a minimum number of words or a maximum number of words.

If the specified format or word length values are not satisfied, the IMO will fail form validation and present messaging as specified in the interaction form validation settings, and the interaction item validation settings.