Best Practice - Software Simulation Projects

Hello,
I'm beginning a new software simulation project where I will need to switch back and forth between demonstration mode and training mode. The talent will explain and demonstrate the software, then ask the learner to click or type to get to the next step. What is the best way to capture the screenshots and integrate them as needed?

Thanks, that's exactly what I was thinking. My concern is that it's a pretty long simulation -- about 1.5 hours on video currently. I don't want to run into problems with the file being too large. Right now I have 229 slides in the training mode. I started trying to capture all three modes, but I had to stop and start several times, and it's difficult to keep track of all the separate files. I think I will start over, but chunk recordings into segments, so I can deal with fewer slides at a time. I understand that I can link these separate files with a click box. Is that correct?

Similar Messages

Best practice for responsive projects

Does anyone have tips on best practices for responsive project?
I understand that 3 different layouts can be created. What happens if a learner is not using one of the 3 devices that were set up in a responsive project, and their screen size is different from any of those

Jay,
Dr. Pooja Jaisingh offered very valuable tips for good practice in responsive design last week in her webinar. 'Do's and Don'ts of creating Responsive Projects with Captivate 8'. I don't see the recording yet On Demand, but keep an eye on it.
Did you test a responsive project with F11 (Preview in Browser)? You will be able to change the resolution of the browser window and see that the content, if well designed (you can have absolute positioning, size as well) will move, shrink to adapt. The break points (3 devices) allow you to make more invasive changes at those points: dragging some objects out of the stage in the scratch area because they take up too much space for phones is one example. Or replacing a big screenshot with many details by a zoomed in detail screenshot for the mobile breakpoint. That is my way of explaining, responsive is not just have the three layouts for devices, it is also adapting between those breakpoints.

Problem with multiple output for software simulated project

When a software simulated project in captivate is published more than thrice, the output is not generated properly, i.e not in-line with the project. Is this a problem with my system or due to some settings in captivate which is not activated?

Thanks for the suggestions Malcolm,
They're very handy app's for sure, but unfortunately they didn't fix the problem.
Detour DID overide the routing for iChat's general bleeps & noises, but not the audio stream from video conferences (which is the problem I want to fix).
If anyone has any other suggestions for fixes, I'd appreciate it!
Thanks again,
Jason

How to prevent audio bleed in software simulation project?

How do I go about avoiding audio bleed in occurring when I'm publishing a software simulation project? I've used the Action field to move from one slide to another slide.

Is it happening with the Swf output or with the HTML5 output? Can you please try increasing the slide time by .1 sec so that the audio completes before the slide and see it resolves the issue.
In case if you still face the issue, then is it possible for you to share a sample project with us so that we can investigate the issue. Please upload it to a shared workspace and send me the link at [email protected]
Thanks,
Nimmy Sukumaran.

Help Please!! SAP Best Practices on creating Projects in NDS...

We are doing a Proof of Concept on using NDS to develop non-SAP Java applications. We are attempting to determine if we can replace our current Java development tools with NDS/WAS.
We are struggling with SAP's terminology and "plumbing" for setting up/defining Java projects. For example, what is and when do you define Tracks, Software Components, Development Components, etc. All of these terms are totally foreign to us and do not relate to our current Java environment (at least not that we can see). We are also struggling with how the DTR and activities tie in to those components.
If any one has defined best practices for setting up Java projects or has struggled with and overcome these same issues, please provide us with some guidance. This is a very frustrating and time-consuming issue for us.
Thank you!!

Hi,
Following URls gives you info about how to install JDI, what are DC's,SC's,how to define Track,how to manage versioning etc..
You need to install the JDI separately. Go to http://service.sap.com/patches -> Entry by Application Group -> SAP Net Weaver -> SAP NETWEAVER -> SAP NETWEAVER 04 -> NWDI -> JDI 6.40 -> #OS independent
https://www.sdn.sap.com/sdn/downloaditem.sdn?res=/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.km.cm.docs/documents/a1-8-4/sap enterprise portal 6.0 sp4 netweaver stack 4 developer sneak preview download.abst
https://media.sdn.sap.com/public/eclasses/nwbcil/Java_Development_Infrastructures_files/Default.htm#nopreload=1
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/01/9c4940d1ba6913e10000000a1550b0/content.htm.
http://127.0.0.1:4180/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.sap.devmanual.doc.user/16/6c40450311774a8bb16f73e450f634/frameset.htm
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2004/helpdata/en/38/33eb9c3e1fe2409a9eba8246b933ca/content.htm
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2004/helpdata/en/78/52f0d3b3c8d1409d99a2148b2be596/frameset.htm
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2004/helpdata/en/78/52f0d3b3c8d1409d99a2148b2be596/frameset.htm (deleting workspace folders)
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2004/helpdata/en/26/4b0d0930034b73aa3332ddc8c75e9d/content.htm
http://www.sap-press.de/download/dateien/817/sappress_java_programming.pdf (Chapter on JDI)
Hope this info helped you!
Regards,
RK

Great new resources on OTN: best practices and OPM project polishing tips

Two great new resources are now available on OTN.
Oracle Policy Modeling Best Practice Guide
A clearly laid out paper that walks through a series of valuable recommendations. It will help you to design and model rules that maximize the advantages of using Oracle Policy Automation's unique natural language approach. Leverages more than 10 years of practical experience in designing and delivering enterprise policy models using OPA. Highly recommended reading for all skill levels.
Tips for Polishing a Policy Modeling Project
This presentation contains dozens of useful tips for delivering rich and natural-feeling interactive interviews and other decision-making experiences with OPA.
See the links at the top of the New and Featured section on the OPA overview tab, and also at the top of the Learn more section.
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/apps-tech/policy-automation/overview/index.html
Jasmine Lee has digested much of her 10 years experience into these fantastically useful new materials - and they're free!
Davin Fifield

Thanks Davin to posted this info!
Thanks Jasmine these material very nice.

Best practice for this project?

Hello,
Total n00b here, so please bare with me!
I'm working on one of my first AE projects getting my feet wet as well as following along with some books and Lynda.com training vids, but I thought I'd post here as well.
The project I'm working on is nothing more than a glorified slideshow. Basically, it consists of a 30 different still images (each image is different). For each still, there is a basic title sequence (fades in/out), then the still fades in, there's a pan/zoom, then fades out, then on to the next one. Total time per still is 30-40 seconds. Finally, there will be a single audio track playing over the full piece. Like I said, pretty simple.
What I'm wondering is, what's the best way to set this up. Should each still's sequence be it's own composition and then nest each composition within a master composition, should this all be done in a single composition, etc.?
Basically, I'm curious as to how to best deal with having this all reviewed, having to make changes, etc. For example, once I put the initial piece together, I'll render out a version for review. If I have to make a change to one of the sequences, is there a way to deal with this so I don't have to spend the time rendering the entire job out again, just for a short 1 second change to 1 sequence within the entire job? What's the best way to deal with this?
I'd love to hear what suggestions people may have!?
Thanks!
Kristin.

My personal approach would be just one comp, one text layer, and one black solid layer under the text and on top of the images to control the fading (I got the impression you want to go blank, rather than transition directly from one image to another).
Create a new solid, set it to your BG color, and make it "comp size".
Use the text tool and type your first title.
Select them both and use the align window to center your text horz and vert (actually your centering it to the solid, which happens to be the size of your comp)
Set up opacity fades on your title, and BG solid to reveal the 1st image, and set it up to pan and scan, then fade the BG solid back up.
Now go to where you want to fade up the next title, and open the text properties until you see Source Text, and enable keyframing.
Drag the new created square "hold" keyframe to the begining of time, then select all the text and change it to your 2nd title.
Then copy and paste your fade keyframes, tweak as needed, and repeat...
I prefer this approach as it keeps everything in one comp where you can see it (handy for syncing to your music layer), and you dont have a bunch of duplicate title layers that are essentially the same thing.
As for needing to change just a small part of it, depends on your finally delivery format. If you are giving them one long file, and just need to change a small part in the middle, make the change, then import your last rendered animation (best way to import is to drag the file from an OS browser window to the AE project window).
Bring the old anim into your comp as the top layer, so AE doesnt have think much about constructing each frame, then go to the beginning of the part you have changed, and with this cover layer selected "ctrl shift D" to split the layer. Then move to the end of your fixed portion and with the 2nd half of you cover layer selected, "alt [" which will jump the beginning of the cover to there, so AE only has to deeply contemplate the frames that you have changed. Although with this project it shouldnt take long to render any how.
Well, thats my two cents, or more like a buck thirty five.

What's the best practice to define project/processes?

Hi all,
I'm working on a startup, I have about 18 processes and I don't know which is the best way to manage all of them.
I can create just one project with all the processes within or I can create one project per process. My main concern is in the publish & deploy of a new release of just one of those processes.
Is there any way of release a new version of just one process even if there are another 17 processes within a project?
Can I just increase the version of the process from 1.0 to 2.0 without increasing the version of the other 17 processes?
I'm working with ALBPM Engine 5.7

This is difficult, especially when it comes to utilising the timesheets; there is no out of the box solution; so the best thing to do would be to combine the ongoing projects and resources into a single instance; but then to utilise SSRS to get timesheet
reports from both instances if you need them for historical analysis. There is no "import" facility for timesheet data.
Ben Howard [MVP] | web |
blog | book

Best practices, software architecture question

I'd like to offer a challenge to everyone in good software architectural design principles. Here is a mocked up version of some code that I've been working with, grossly over-simplified for this example. Take a look at the following classes and see if you can determine what the parentComponent will be for the JOptionPane that is displayed in the HardDriveController's constructor:
public abstract class Controller {
    private JFrame parentFrame = null;
    public void setParentFrame(JFrame parent) {
        this.parentFrame = parent;
    public JFrame getParentFrame() {
        return parentFrame;
public class MyGUI extends JFrame {
    private CPUController cpuController = null;
    public MyGUI() {
        setSize(300, 300);
        setVisible(true);
        cpuController = new CPUController();
        cpuController.setParentFrame(this);
    public static void main(String [] args) {
        new MyGUI();
public class CPUController extends Controller {
    private RAMController ramController = null;
    public CPUController() {
        ramController = new RAMController();
public class RAMController extends Controller {
    private BusController busController = null;
    public RAMController() {
        busController = new BusController();
public class BusController extends Controller {
    private HardDriveController hardDriveController = null;
    public BusController() {
        hardDriveController = new HardDriveController();
public class HardDriveController extends Controller {
    public HardDriveController() {
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(
                getParentFrame(), "Hey! We're inside the HardDriveController!");
}Did you figure it out? If you said the parentComponent will be null, then you are correct. The logic behind the code had intended to set the parentComponent to refer to MyGUI, but of course, the code does not behave as expected. Now this seems simple enough, but the legacy code I'm working with is full of many examples like this. Notice how MyGUI creates an instance of CPUController which creates an instance of RAMController, which creates an instance of BusController, etc...In some cases, I see a "Controller" class that is 8 or 9 "levels" deep with respect to one controller creating another, creating another, etc.
Let's say that I want the JOptionPane in the above example to have its parentComponent refer to the instance of MyGUI. The following code is one means of passing the reference down to the HardDriveController, while still using the getParentFrame() method in HardDriveController:
public class MyGUI extends JFrame {
    private CPUController cpuController = null;
    public MyGUI() {
        setSize(300, 300);
        setVisible(true);
        cpuController = new CPUController(this);
    public static void main(String [] args) {
        new MyGUI();
public class CPUController extends Controller {
    private RAMController ramController = null;
    public CPUController(JFrame frame) {
        setParentFrame(frame);
        ramController = new RAMController(frame);
public class RAMController extends Controller {
    private BusController busController = null;
    public RAMController(JFrame frame) {
        setParentFrame(frame);
        busController = new BusController(frame);
public class BusController extends Controller {
    private HardDriveController hardDriveController = null;
    public BusController(JFrame frame) {
        setParentFrame(frame);
        hardDriveController = new HardDriveController(frame);
public class HardDriveController extends Controller {
    public HardDriveController(JFrame frame) {
        setParentFrame(frame);
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(
                getParentFrame(), "Hey! We're inside the HardDriveController!");
}Note that the reason I'm calling the Controller class's setParentFrame() method in each extended class's constructor is that I want to ensure that any call to getParentFrame() in these classes will return a reference to MyGUI, and not null.
After this long description, I want to ask all you Java gurus the following question: What is the best means of offering the JOptionPane a reference to MyGUI? My solution passes a JFrame reference all the way down from the CPUController to the HardDriveController. Is this an "acceptable" solution, or is there a more elegant means of getting a reference to MyGUI to the JOptionPane (for example, modifying the MyGUI class to follow the singleton pattern)? Thanks for your input.

Proflux, One thing I failed to mention is that this is a very old codebase and the likelihood of the object graph being reworked is slim to none. I agree with you 100% that the dependency doesn't feel right. But I have to live with it. I mentioned the idea of using a singleton pattern. Here's a mock up of how that would look:
public class FrameRetriever {
    private static FrameRetriever instance = null;
    private HashTable frameHash = new HashTable();
    private FrameRetriever() {
    public static getInstance() {
        if(instance == null) {
            instance = new FrameRetriever();
        return instance;
    public void addFrame(JFrame frame)
        frameHash.put(frame.getTitle(), frame);
    public JFrame getFrame(String frameTitle)
        return (JFrame) frameHash.get(frameTitle);
public class MyGUI extends JFrame {
    private CPUController cpuController = null;
    public MyGUI() {
        setTitle("Test GUI");
        setSize(300, 300);
        setVisible(true);
        FrameRetriever.getInstance().addFrame(this);
        cpuController = new CPUController();
    public static void main(String [] args) {
        new MyGUI();
public class HardDriveController extends Controller {
    public HardDriveController() {
        JFrame parentFrame = FrameRetriever.getInstance().getFrame("Test GUI");
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(
                parentFrame, "Hey! We're inside the HardDriveController!");
}My only concern with this solution is that it couples the HardDriveController to MyGUI because we need to know the frame's title in order to get the frame instance. But at the same time, I won't have to add constructor arguments to any "in between" classes for the sole purpose of passing a reference down the object graph. Any thoughts?

Best Practice for documenting projects BW

Hi people.
We are studing at the moment a way of documenting new developments of applications of SAP BW.
Is there a standard of documentation recommended by SAP, or a good practice that I use to create and document objects developed in SAP BW.
Can someone help me?

Hi Marques, From my experience this varies from one costumer to another. Everywhere they have different practices, formats of documents, tools, habits, etc.
What I found very useful in BW is using of meta data repository part of TA RSA1. You can easily get some nice screen shots like data flows. Moreover in BW 7.x you have possibility to get documentation of particular transformations, DTPs etc. This can be done when you select particular object via left click of mouse and then hit F1 key.
BR
m./

FAQ: Are there best practices for building projects within the 20 page/state limit?

The 20 page/state limit in Flash Catalyst is there to prevent Catalyst (and your finished application) from running slowly. You can however build efficient applications that have more than 20 states by using custom components. Custom components can contain states as well; so by creating an app that has several states, and using custom components that have states, you can get more unique views of your app while keeping it efficiently built.
Try this:
1. Select some of your arwork where you need more states. Right click and choose "Convert to Custom Component"
2. Double-click to edit the custom component. Note that you can now create states in the custom component. Try creating a few states here.
3. To exit editing the component, double click a blank area on the artboard.
4. If you try creating an "On click transition to state" interaction now you will see that you can choose from both the states of the application as well as the states of the custom component.
Answered by: Ty Voliter. See entire discussion.
More help:
Video tutorial on custom components
Video/demo discussing the benefits of "pushing interactivity down" into custom components, by Ian Giblin @ MAX 2009
(jump to the 11:15 mark, and watch through to about 20:30)
Another forum post by Ty:
Here's an ASCII diagram to illustrate one way of pushing application or top-level pages/states down into a custom component:
Before:
State1     State2     State3     State4     State5     State6     State7...
After (project refactored to push three top-level states down into a custom component):
State1     State2     State3      State7...
                    |
Custom Component
State4     State5     State6
For some projects this can be an inconvenient workaround, and for others it can really clean things up by reducing complexity. If you have several top-level pages in your app that are completely different than other pages (for example, they don't share any objects with the other states) than pushing these down into a custom component makes things a lot more manageable in Catalyst. The layers panel, for example, shows all objects across all states-- this is useful when your states share many objects. If however, your states don't share a lot of objects, the layers panel can get a bit unmanageable. Refactoring into a custom component allows you to fix this by grouping content into a container.

The 20 page/state limit in Flash Catalyst is there to prevent Catalyst (and your finished application) from running slowly. You can however build efficient applications that have more than 20 states by using custom components. Custom components can contain states as well; so by creating an app that has several states, and using custom components that have states, you can get more unique views of your app while keeping it efficiently built.
Try this:
1. Select some of your arwork where you need more states. Right click and choose "Convert to Custom Component"
2. Double-click to edit the custom component. Note that you can now create states in the custom component. Try creating a few states here.
3. To exit editing the component, double click a blank area on the artboard.
4. If you try creating an "On click transition to state" interaction now you will see that you can choose from both the states of the application as well as the states of the custom component.
Answered by: Ty Voliter. See entire discussion.
More help:
Video tutorial on custom components
Video/demo discussing the benefits of "pushing interactivity down" into custom components, by Ian Giblin @ MAX 2009
(jump to the 11:15 mark, and watch through to about 20:30)
Another forum post by Ty:
Here's an ASCII diagram to illustrate one way of pushing application or top-level pages/states down into a custom component:
Before:
State1     State2     State3     State4     State5     State6     State7...
After (project refactored to push three top-level states down into a custom component):
State1     State2     State3      State7...
                    |
Custom Component
State4     State5     State6
For some projects this can be an inconvenient workaround, and for others it can really clean things up by reducing complexity. If you have several top-level pages in your app that are completely different than other pages (for example, they don't share any objects with the other states) than pushing these down into a custom component makes things a lot more manageable in Catalyst. The layers panel, for example, shows all objects across all states-- this is useful when your states share many objects. If however, your states don't share a lot of objects, the layers panel can get a bit unmanageable. Refactoring into a custom component allows you to fix this by grouping content into a container.

Best Practices or Project Template for Rep/Version

I have installed the Repository 6i (3) and created the users successfully, even though it has taken a lot of effort to make sure each step is correct.
However, on setting up the workareas and importing the project files, I have been trying back and force to figure out where things go, and who has what access.
Is there something like a best practice or a project template for setting up a basic repository/version control system, that provides
1. the repository structure,
2. corresponding file system structure (for different developers, build manager, etc)
3. access grants, and
4. work scenarios, etc.
The Technet demos and white papaers are either too high-level (basic), or too individual function oriented. I can't get a clear picture of the whole thing, since there are so many concepts and elements that don't easily go together.
Considering that I am a decent DBA and developer, it has taken me 2 weeks, and I am still not ready to sign up other developers to use this thing. How do you expect any small development teams to ever use it? It's one thing to design it to be scalable and all-possible, it's another to make it easily usable. I have been suggested to use MS VSS. The only reason I am still trying Ora-Rep is its promise to directly support Designer and Oracle objects.

Andy,
I have worked extensively with the Repository over the last year and a half. I have collected some of my experiences and the derived guidelines on using the Repository in real life in a number of papers that I will be presenting at ODTUG 2001, next week in San Diego. If you happen to be there (see www.odtug.com), come and see me and we could talk through your specific situation. If you are not and you are interested in those papers, drop me an Email and I could send them to you (they probably will also become available on OTN right after the ODTUG conference).
best regards,
Lucas

Technical documentation for ADF projects - how to and best practices

Hi,
I have a question how to create technical documentation for ADF project expecialy ADF BC and ADF Faces. Is there any tool or JDev plugin for that purpose? What informations should contains documentation for that project, any principles ?Has anybody any experienece. Are there something like documentation best practices for ADF projects? E.g. how to create documentation for bussiness components.
Kuba

I'm not sure there is "best practices" but some of the things that can help people understand are:
An ADF BC diagram - this will describe all your ADF BC objects - just drag your components into a new empty diagram
A JSF page flow - to show how pages are called.
Java class diagram - for Java code that is not in the above two
One more thing to consider - since ADF BC, JSF page flow and JSPX pages are all XML based - you could write XSL files that will actually transform them into any type of documentation you want.

Best Practices for Maintaining SSAS Projects

We started using SSAS recently and we maintain we one project to deploy to both DEV and PROD instances by changing the deployment properties. However, this gets messy when we introduce new fact tables in to DEV data warehouse (that are not promoted to
Production data warehouse). While we work on adding new measure groups and calculations (based on new fact tables in DEV) we are unable to make any changes to production cube (such as changes to calculations, formatting etc) requested by business
users. Sorry for long question but is there is a best practice to manage projects and migrations? Thanks.

While we work on adding new measure groups and calculations (based on new fact tables in DEV) we are unable to make any changes to production cube (such as changes to calculations, formatting etc) requested by business users.
Hi Sbc_wisc,
You can create a new project by importing the metadata from the production cube on the server, using the template, Import from Server (Multidimensional and Data Mining) Project, in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). And then make some changes on this project
and then redeploy it to production server.
Referencec:
Import a Data Mining Project using the Analysis Services Import Wizard
Regards,
Charlie Liao
TechNet Community Support

Best practice when it comes to inserting audio for powerpoint slides

I'm creating a mixture of PowerPoint slides with animation and software simulation projects from captivate.
Currently I have developed the audio files associated with the animation objects for the PowerPoint slide. My question
Should I insert the audio files into PowerPoint and edit the timing of the animation based on the duration of the audio. I have been playing around with the editing and too be honest, I'm getting a tad frustrated trying to conduct the timing.
or
Should I insert the audio via Captivate after importing the PowerPoint slides?
Any help is appreciated.
Regards
AJ

In the Library all audio clips will be stored. Either from the Library or using the Audio Management panel, you can edit the audio clips directly in Audition (part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, one of the best audio applications available) and when saving they are automatically edited in Captivate as well. Same work flow exists with Photoshop: you can edit a source Photoshop file, where Captivate will keep the wanted layers as separate images in the Library, and you can edit them from Captivate right away in Photoshop. The integration of Captivate with other Adobe applications is unique in the eLearning tools.

Best Practice - Software Simulation Projects

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