PG Software Development

I'm about to embark on setting up a new laptop with Windows 10 and will obviously need to migrate my Toolbook 11.5 license. As a preliminary, I had a look at the Toolbook support site and noted a couple of issues that will possibly affect me. I need to know if the latest version of Powerpac does anything to address these...

Specifically, will Powerpac address the media playback problem in Google Chrome build 42 and later? ie. Chrome no longer supports Quicktime and WMP, it only supports Flash. AND... Will Powerpac provide Toolbook compatibility with the new MS Edge browser? Currently Edge does not provide Active X support.

Grateful for any insight.

Geoff Pearson

Please check out these related forum topics:

1. http://www.pgsoftwaretools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=152
2. http://www.pgsoftwaretools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=182

ToolBook v11.5 patch 4 disables Edge support, but the latest PowerPac versions enable it again (you do not have to uninstall patch 4 if you've already installed it). The PowerPac provides it own media player support that uses native HTML 5 support. When developing in ToolBook with the PowerPac, you should always check the menu item Enable IE HTML 5 display to ensure IE launches in standards display mode and allows access to native media players. This is the default behavior of the PowerPac for some time now.

As far as the WMP ... it is not necessarily installed in Windows 10, so it is not a good idea to support WMV media. Use the open source conversion product Handbrake to convert your media to MP4 and it will play using PowerPac's htmlVideoLoader() function. This provides exceptional playback support with time markers, end of media notification, as well as full screen playback support.

Regarding Flash, developers should see the hand-writing on the wall regarding Flash. It is still supported in ToolBook AND by several PowerPac functions. However, browser support will continue to diminish. This may or may not be true but if you want to have the most compatible content on the widest array of devices, then consider Flash as an unsupported product in your content. Even YouTube uses HTML 5 MP4 media as its default unless an older browser is detected.

Quicktime has always been difficult to support. Most non-apple products do not necessarily have it installed AND currently Apple support of the product should be considered going the same route as Adobe's Flash player. Here again MOV quicktime media can easily be converted to MP4 using the open source Handbrake conversion utility.

Google Chrome still supports Flash as of this post AND it does a fine job with MP4 playback using the PowerPac function htmlVideoLoader().

Thanks Clifton.
So... following installation of toolbook 11.5 on the new laptop, I should ignore Patch 4 & instead just go straight ahead & install Powerpac?

Re. Edge support... will the toolbook app. still open in Edge given that when publishing to DHTML, Edge is not on the Toolbook browser list?

Some of my courses use audio clips. They are mp3 files & play with time markers in the UMP player (up to four players on a page). How does Powerpac handle that? Will I need to convert the files to mp4 and/or do I need to replace the UMPs?

It doesn't really matter if you install Patch 4. The PowerPac will still make your content work in Edge.

However, the UMP is not reliably supported anymore in any browser.

Play your mp3 audio using the PowerPac function pgSoundLoader() and they will work in all browsers.