Search Engine for Lectora

[xithis]

Just a quick heads up. I just finished up a SearchEngine for published HTML/SCORM/AICC courses in Lectora.

Its a library object that you drop in, and when you publish you have search functionalty like other software out there *cough articulate *cough

I'm finishing up documentation this weekend. I'll update this thread with more details.

Special thanks to Jan Ashmos for her beta testing it in a real world environment.

[xithis]

I've uploaded a demo to my share site. 
You can download it here:  http://www.box.net/shared/s1d0hliniu

Included in the zip file, are instructions on installation and a Library Object.

Let me know if you have any questions,

Thanks!

Greg

[tecocat]

This is very exciting!! Do be sure to keep us updated!

[bruman]

Hello Greg.

Thanks much for making this solution available.It will go a long way in making search capabilities available for learning modules created using Lectora.

I have a question regarding its use.

I followed your directions from the PDF document, and am not sure about the AU number a001 as I am publishing to HTML. Does that matter? What number am I using in this regard?

Secondly, after checking to ensure all external files were in the correct place, I published and tried on a web server. When I click the search button, the search window opens but nothing is displayed. Using Firefox I am able to see a HTML error message.

I receive the following error message.

Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; GTB5; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; MS-RTC LM 8; OfficeLiveConnector.1.4; OfficeLivePatch.1.3)
Timestamp: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 23:02:27 UTC

Message: 'window.opener.top' is null or not an object
Line: 6
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI:file http://.../write_search.js

 

Not sure why the search window does not display the search box. When I view the source of this search page, the code is there, but it is not running in the browser.

Thanks in advance.

Bruman.

[xithis]

When publishing for HTML you don't need to worry about setting the AU.  You can just leave it as is.  I determine weather or not the course is HTML or SCORM/AICC.  I need the AU only if publishing to multiple AU's, if not, no need to change.

As for the error that you are recieving, it looks like something specific to a version of the browser, which version of IE/Firefox are you using?

Its been tested and working fine in IE 7,8, Firefox 3.5, Chrome.  When you let me know what version you are using, I can better tailor a fix for this situation.  (looks like the Javascript engine is not interpreting my code properly)

[bruman]

Hello Greg.

The version of browers I use are:

IE: 8.0.6001.18072

Firefox 3.5.5

As I indicated the search screen opens but the code does not run. I changed the javascript position from 'Other' to 'Meta' in the HTML External Object but no change was seen.

Again, thanks for the support and this wonderful code share.

Bruman.

[xithis]

AH! I think I got it, you aren't publishing with the  TitleManager Frame.  Can you republish with that frame (under publish options, check the box), and see if it works? (need to add this clarification in the instructions for HTML publishing)

Now, another question... do you need to run a course without the TitleManager frame for any reason?  If so I'll add support for it.  Right now I need the TitleManager Frame to maintain SCORM/AICC support.  (er, well so I don't have to write a bunch of additional code :P)

 

[bruman]

There is no reason for me not using the Title Manager Frame.

However, there seems to be another issue that may be due to the course I used the search tool.

I went ahead and created a brand new course with a couple chapters and pages, inserted the search tool and it worked. I did not add the Title Manager Frame when publishing, and it still worked. Added the Title Manager Frame and it worked as well.

In the previous course I inserted the search tool, it has quite an extensive mix of External HTML objects with Javascript and I am wondering maybe one of my code is blocking the search tool from running. I did check the Title Manager Frame in the previous code as you indicated but the search code still did not run.

So I proved that it worked but not sure what was blocking the code in the previous course.

Bruman.

[bruman]

OK. Good news. Got it working in my previous course.

I had placed the Table of Contents in the Course Title and not in a new page. Once I made this change, the search tool worked.

Greg: Thanks again.

Bruman

[xithis]

Great!  Glad you got it working.  Let me know if you run into any issues and I can fix it either through code or instructions.

Note: I already have a huge feature list I am working on for version 2, (which should be coming out in late January)