embedding audio | eXeLearning.net

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This topic contains 10 respuestas, has 3 voices, and was last updated by Anónimo Hace 11 años, 7 meses.

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31 mayo, 2013 at 6:33 #3397

Jethro
Member

Hi,

As per another topic, I’m hoping there’s no problem to ask a question in English..! I’ve trawled the forum via Google Translate but don’t think there’s an existing thread covering my question.

My volunteer group would like to convert a series of (lecturer-presented) Powerpoint slideshows into SCORM packages for a new eLearning part of our website. I guess this is a familiar scenario in the eXe community. Responsibility for the selection of software for SCORM package generation has fallen to me.

To replace a volunteer need to present the slideshows in a lecture setting, we’ve recorded audio files to accompany each page within an eLearning system. I would like the audio to autoplay but have controls available to pause and restart the audio. Trouble is… I can’t make eXe work for me.

The HTML5 options stall with a “Loading…” message. Flash and Quicktime options will work on my own machine – but Quicktime will not work on a colleague’s machine and Flash, I anticipate, will not work on students’ iPads.

Can anybody tell me how to solve this..?

More background…

Before I found eXelearning.net, I had been trying out eXe from exelearning.org. I successfully had the mp3s playing with the Quicktime plug-in on my machine. On the exelearning.org version, I tried manually adding code for the Google player – but this broke as soon as I removed the Quicktime player from the same iDevice. I guess this is because the media file is removed from the package resources? (I could add it manually but this might be a step too far for the other volunteers who will be working on the project as soon as we’ve chosen the editor to use, so is not a good solution for the group.)

For what it’s worth, I’m running a version of eXe downloaded from exelearning.net this week. (Release notes within the programme say “Version 1.04 (r3532) 2008-05-09”.) My computer runs MacOS v10.8.3 and Safari v6.0.4 however other volunteers willl likely be using a mixture of operating systems/browsers.

We have dozens of Powerpoint slideshows to copy-paste into eXe. I’d love to get cracking on them if anybody can help me sort out the audio issue.

Many thanks!
31 mayo, 2013 at 7:01 #3398

Anónimo

Hi Jethro:

Welcome to exelearning.net forums. Even if most users here speak Spanish, we are happy to get questions in other language and we encourage users to write in other languages (English or French preferently).

HTML5 is not fully supported by all browser with all file formats. Are you using mp3 with Opera? Looks like it is not supported:

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_audio.asp
31 mayo, 2013 at 7:06 #3400

Ignacio Gros
Keymaster

You can use HTML5 audio.After inserting the audio, edit the HTML code and add this: autoplay=”autoplay” You will have <audio width=”300″ height=”32″ src=”resources/audio.ogg” controls=”controls” autoplay=”autoplay”><a href=”resources/audio.ogg”>audio.ogg</a></audio>Instead of<audio width=”300″ height=”32″ src=”resources/audio.ogg” controls=”controls”><a href=”resources/audio.ogg”>audio.ogg</a></audio>That should work. I hope so…
31 mayo, 2013 at 7:40 #3401

Jethro
Member

Thank you both so much for replying so quickly!

Jose: Not Opera. MacOS with Safari.

Ignacio: Sadly, this does not work. With a fresh attempt on a clean new page at embedding HTML5/ogg, as soon as I press “Insert”, Safari gives me this message:

http://127.0.0.1:51235

HTML5 does not work in all browsers.

Selected file: ogg

Continue without changing your settings?

If I press “Cancel”, naturally I am sent back to the “Insert/Edit Embedded Media” window.

If I press “OK”, the media appears in the iDevice, as you might expect but on leaving the editing mode of the iDevice, the media player is frozen with a “Loading…” message.

Likewise, if I then edit the media settings, for example to include the autoplay parameter, the same error message is displayed; if I say “OK” to that, the attempt to change the setting is ignored in the HTML.

As per your post, I can confirm that the generated HTML is:

<audio width=”300″ height=”32″ src=”resources/Aims.ogg” controls=”controls”><a href=”resources/Aims.ogg”>resources/Aims.ogg</a></audio>

(OS and browser versions as per original post.)

Many thanks again for your help. Is there anything else I might try..?
31 mayo, 2013 at 7:57 #3402

Anónimo

HI Jethro:

Mmmm, my message is wrong (I’ve been too quick to answer) but I think that the problem is that your browser (Safari) does not support .ogg format in audio element: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_audio.asp
31 mayo, 2013 at 8:28 #3403

Jethro
Member

Aha!

<audio width=”300″ height=”32″ src=”resources/Aims.mp3″ autoplay=”autoplay” controls=”controls”><a href=”resources/Aims.mp3″>resources/Aims.mp3</a></audio>

Manually editing the iDevice HTML to this works perfectly in Safari! Awesome! Except that leads to three further problems…

Firstly, I can’t assume that my fellow volunteers will be able to follow manual coding within the iDevice.

Secondly, the resource is only available because I embedded the Flash/mp3 in another eXe page. Without being able to add it through the “Insert/Edit Embedded Media” dialogue, I think that eXe doesn’t include the audio file in the package unless I employ the (dirty) solution above, or manually add the file to the package later. Whichever way around, this will not be an easy thing to explain to my fellow volunteers.

Finally, as per your link to the W3Schools page, mp3s won’t work in Firefox with HTML5. Since we can’t force our students to all use Chrome, there’s no audio format that I could use that would work with all those browsers; both mp3 and ogg versions must be made available like the W3Schools example:

<audio controls> <source src=”horse.ogg” type=”audio/ogg”> <source src=”horse.mp3″ type=”audio/mpeg”>Your browser does not support the audio element.</audio>

Indeed, I could manually edit the HTML myself but cannot assume that other volunteers will be able to. Is there any way to use the “Insert/Edit Embedded Media” dialogue to achieve this..?

Am I correct in thinking that without a revision of the eXe software, eXe is unable to provide the cross-browser support of audio files that is essential to our project..? Sadly, I do not have the skills to contribute the code that appears to be required.

I guess I would face similar issues when it comes to embedding video..?
31 mayo, 2013 at 9:00 #3404

Ignacio Gros
Keymaster

If you are using ogg, try with Opera, Chrome or Firefox. Not all the browsers support that format. That’s the problem with HTML5 audio/video (yes, video too…).Maybe you could add a message in your page explaining that.I Know that its not the perfect solution, but…Other solution is to provide alternative sources (read Multiple Data Rate Sources in this page). Unfortunately, you will have to edit the HTML code after inserting the audios, and you will have to provide a link to the audio file somewhere in your page so that the audio file itself is included in the package.We hope that this will be easier in the future.
31 mayo, 2013 at 9:06 #3405

Anónimo

If I am not wrong, as long as browsers don’t support all file formats, the only way to insert multimedia audio/video for all browsers is adding more than one file format. There is no plugin in TinyMCE (neither in eXe) working like that. So, I see these options:

1) Develop a multimedia / multiformat plugin. Any volunteer?

2) Working in HTML with some help tools:

2.1) Insert all files as links (I could show some tricks to hide them in exported formats and show them in edition)

2.2) Insert multimedia HTML5 code as HTML. You could give your users a code generation helping tool. In similar situations I have create a calc utility, so that our teachers can insert the info they know (in this case file names) and they get the HTML code.

Cheers!
31 mayo, 2013 at 9:20 #3406

Jethro
Member

Jose, Ignaco, Many thanks, again, for your replies.

From my perspective, since IE supports only mp3, it’s a no-brainer that our group’s eLearning material must supply that format. That it is also a working format for Chrome and Safari (this iOS devices?) is an important side-effect. I’d love to support Firefox, too. However, it is a better assumption that users who have installed Firefox are capable of installing Chrome, too. Or that they already have a browser that supports HTML5 playback of mp3s. Therefore, if I have to choose one file format, I’d have to pick mp3 ahead of ogg. Unfortunately, the eXe software only makes it easy to do the opposite.

The course material is not technical. We can’t assume that our students will be able to install browsers or browser plug-ins. As an organisation, we can’t offer the technical support that might be resulting from such needs. The people who will generate the material from the existing Powerpoint slideshows might well have more technical skills – but avoiding things like hand-scripting is the reason why I’ve been asked to find software that will script the packages for us.

I have used open source software for many years. I hate it as much as anybody when a user comes onto furums and bleats about bugs or feature requests. I hope I don’t come across as someone like that. Instead, is there a mechanism where I might contribute funds to the project generally or to a developer specifically in order to get the HTML5 dialogues coded to our (and everybody else’s) benefit..?

We do not have a lot of budget. I would likely fund any work out of my own pocket. But I’d prefer doing that to spending budget on a commercial alternative that still may not meet our needs.
1 junio, 2013 at 14:18 #3414

Anónimo

Hi Jethro:

Thank you very much for your offer. We are analysing if this FR can meet your requirements: https://forja.cenatic.es/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1539&group_id=197&atid=886 It will be developed for next version in summer.

We will give you a detailed answer next week.
4 junio, 2013 at 9:58 #3438

Anónimo

Hi Jethro:

Next eXeLearning version (8) will include a new feature for audio/video using this viewer: http://mediaelementjs.com/

There is no official release data, but I think that it will be published by the end of summer. Probably there will be a beta version earlier.

I think this feature will meet your requirements, so, in my opinion, there is no need to fund any extra development. Anyway, we appreciate your offer and, if you need any other improvement, we encourage you to contribute to the project. I think the easiest way is asking a budget to any of the developers working on eXeLearning or to any other developer working in Python and HTML/JavaScript.

Regards!
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