E-mail Tracking Options

To publish a Captivate file with e-mail tracking enabled, simply create your content, publish for e-mail, and upload your Captivate-published files to your server. This process is very simple, just like publishing for the other tracking mechanisms. When you play the Captivate files, the Captivate-published file (SWF file format) communicates with the Captivate-published HTML wrapper (HTML format), which sends an e-mail through an e-mail client (for example, Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.).

Note: Captivate files that are set up for e-mail tracking display a "Show score at end of quiz" message, which means that they display a Results page. By selecting the e-mail output option in the Quiz Manger, the Results page automatically displays. To set the Results page option, select Movie > Quiz Manager from the menu, click the Quiz tab and check "Show score at end of quiz." On the Results page at the end of the quiz, a Send E-mail button appears that learners can click to generate an e-mail with their results. Be sure to distribute the HTML file that Captivate creates when you publish the Captivate file, because the e-mail publishing template file contains JavaScript functions that actually send the e-mail.

General E-mail Experience

Launching, tracking, and generating an e-mail with a Captivate file requires several steps (including a number of hidden steps that aren't exposed to learners). The typical process is as follows:

1. You create content with Macromedia Captivate and publish it with e-mail tracking enabled.

   Note: This process is not exposed to the learner.

2. The learner navigates to your web server (or is given a URL).
3. The learner launches Captivate content.
4. The content is located on a web server (for example, "http://myserver/captivatecontent.htm").
5. The learner progresses through the Captivate content.
6. On the results page, the user clicks the Send E-Mail button.

7. Captivate content generates tracking data to the LMS by calling the appropriate JavaScript API methods. Captivate sends the tracking data when the learner answers a question or progresses through a Captivate quiz.

   Note: This is not exposed to the learner.

Captivate Publish Process

To publish Captivate projects for e-mail, use the following steps.

1. Create your Captivate project.

2. Add interactivity, such as questions or click boxes, push buttons, or text-entry fields.

   Note: In addition to the sample files included with this article, there are several articles on the Developer Center that describe building interactive Captivate files, including:

   • Exploring Quizzing in Macromedia Captivate by Mark Fletcher
   • Storing Captivate Test Scores in a Database with ColdFusion by Tim Mushen
   • Using Captivate Simulations in Questionmark Perception Assessments by Peter Pundans
   • Output Options in Captivate – Part 1: An Overview of Tracking Options by Andrew Chemey
   • Output Options in Captivate—Part 2: AICC Tracking by Andrew Chemey
   • Output Options in Captivate—Part 3: SCORM Tracking by Andrew Chemey
3. Select Movie > Quiz Manager from the menu.
4. Check Enable Output Options in the Quiz Manager dialog box.
5. Check the E-mail option.

6. Type one or more valid e-mail addresses to receive the e-mail.

   Note: Although you might be able to separate multiple e-mail addresses with a semicolon, check first with what your particular e-mail client requires (sometimes a comma suffices).

7. Click OK to close the Quiz Manager dialog box.
8. Select File > Publish from the menu (or use the shortcut key Shift+Ctrl+P or click the Publish button on the button bar).
9. In the Publish dialog box, make sure you select the Export HTML option; all other settings are optional.
10. Click the Publish button.

11. After you publish, Captivate generates a number of files (assuming that you didn't select the ZIP option):

    • Content HTM file: File used to launch the content from your LMS
    • Content SWF file: File generated from your Captivate project that represents your content

In most cases, you can copy these files to your content server. If you want to distribute files to your administrators, check the Zip Files option in the Publish dialog box and send the ZIP file that is created.

Note: The E-mail Output option requires that the HTML file created when publishing is also used to launch the Captivate file.

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