Breeze Presenter 5 AICC Issues
Macromedia made some significant changes to the AICC tracking mechanism in Breeze Presenter 5. The following section introduces some of the changes and, more specifically, the issues you might encounter as you develop and implement Breeze Presenter 5 content into an AICC-compliant LMS. You might encounter the following issues:
Cross-domain Communication
Breeze Presenter 5 provides a better tracking mechanism when communicating to an AICC-HACP-compliant LMS. This mechanism supports two-way communication and more tracking options. With this new mechanism, you might see some problems that prevent the content from tracking properly. The biggest issue concerns the cross-domain posting of data.
Breeze Presenter 5 uses ActionScript to perform HTTP posts to AICC-compliant LMSs. When Flash Player attempts to post data to servers that reside on different domains from where the content is hosted, it places some restrictions on ActionScript code. You can find more information on Flash Player security restrictions at www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/fplayer_security.html.
If the Breeze Presenter 5 files (content) are hosted on the exact same domain as the LMS, then you shouldn’t see any problems in the communication with an AICC-compliant LMS. The following examples describe different scenarios for hosting and opening content from Breeze Presenter 5 and content from an AICC-compliant LMS:
- Breeze Presenter 5 files reside on the same domain/server as the AICC-compliant LMS.
- Breeze Presenter 5 files reside on a different domain/server from the AICC-compliant LMS. A file called crossdomain.xml is properly configured and available on the root of the LMS server, and the student uses Flash Player 7 or later.
- Breeze Presenter 5 files reside on an n-1 domain/server from the AICC-compliant LMS, and the student uses Flash Player 6 (not Flash Player 7) and allows cross-domain posting to occur.
- Breeze Presenter 5 files reside on a different domain/server from the AICC-compliant LMS if they are properly configured and opened from an AICC frameset. Opening Breeze Presenter 5 files in this manner limits the communication to one-way, and Flash doesn’t support resume or bookmark data features.
The following sections give you more details on the previous scenarios:
Breeze Presenter 5 files reside on the same domain/server as the AICC-compliant LMS
If the Breeze Presenter 5 published files reside on the same domain/server as the AICC-compliant LMS, you shouldn’t encounter any problems with tracking. When you open the HTML wrapper file from the LMS, Flash attaches the AICC parameters to the URL of the Breeze Presenter 5 file and uses them to communicate data to the LMS. This is the best method for hosting and opening and tracking AICC-based Breeze Presenter 5 content.
Breeze Presenter 5 files reside on a different domain/server from the AICC-compliant LMS
If Breeze Presenter 5 files will reside on a different server than your AICC-compliant LMS, and you have control over both the LMS and student environments, you can deploy successfully. For additional information, read the Flash Player security article. This section provides a brief summary of how the new security settings affect Breeze Presenter 5 files, and how you can host your Breeze Presenter 5 files on a different domain from your LMS.
Essentially, your environment must contain the following if you are successfully hosting and tracking Breeze Presenter 5 content when it is on a different domain from your AICC-compliant LMS:
- A properly hosted and configured file named crossdomain.xml on the root of your LMS server
- Student (client) machines with Flash Player 7 installed
The crossdomain.xml file indicates which domain(s) are allowed to post data to the web server that hosts your LMS. Breeze Presenter 5 content uses an HTTP-POST to send tracking data to AICC-compliant LMSs. You must indicate to the LMS server (through the crossdomain.xml file), which servers will host your Breeze Presenter 5 content. You don’t need to explicitly indicate which servers will host your Breeze Presenter 5 content, but it’s always a good measure to allow only specific servers to post data.
The most basic crossdomain.xml file looks like this:
<cross-domain-policy>
<allow-access-from domain="*" secure="false" />
</cross-domain-policy>
You could copy and paste the previous code into a file called crossdomain.xml and make it available in the root of the web server that hosts the LMS. A sample crossdomain.xml file is available in the AICC folder of the example files associated with this document.
For the policy file to work, your students must use Flash Player 7 or later.
Breeze Presenter 5 files reside on an n-1 domain/server from the AICC-compliant LMS
Prior to Flash Player 7, the only way that Flash-based content could post data to a server in a different domain was if the content and LMS were on n-1 matching domains. For instance, you host content on n-1 matching domains with content.mysite.com and the LMS is hosted on lms.mysite.com. Flash Player 6 allows posts to occur between these domains.
If you host Breeze Presenter 5 files in this type of environment and use Flash Player 6 on the student or client machines, the Breeze Presenter 5 content sends tracking data to the LMS. However, if the students are using Flash Player 7, based on their Flash Player settings, they may see a security prompt that they must explicitly allow before the posts can occur.
Please read the Flash Player security article for information on the Flash Player settings and security restrictions.
Breeze Presenter 5 files reside on a completely different domain/server or do not meet any of the other previous conditions
If Breeze Presenter 5 files do not reside on the same domain as the LMS server and do not meet any of the conditions previously listed, the content may track, but may cause additional browser windows to appear while the student interacts with the Breeze Presenter 5 content. To let students interact with Breeze Presenter 5 content that is hosted on a different domain from the LMS, you can use a frameset. Using a frameset and hosting the content on a different domain does not support two-way tracking. Though the Breeze Presenter 5 content sends tracking data to the LMS, the content cannot use the responses from the LMS (such as location, score, and status).
An AICC-compliant frameset is available in the AICC folder of the example files. You can use the two frameset files in that folder for final preparation of your Breeze Presenter 5 content with an AICC-compliant LMS. To use these files, you do the following:
- Create and publish your Breeze Presenter 5 content for AICC tracking (or publish for Breeze tracking, as recommended).
- Copy the two files, frameset.htm and result.htm, to the same folder where you published the Breeze Presenter 5 content.
Reference the frameset.htm file in your AICC Course Structure files, or open the frameset.htm file directly from your LMS.
Note: You can rename the frameset.htm file. If you rename the content filename or the result filename, you must also change the reference in the frameset.htm file.
