My first stab at a custom Articulate Community Player

Updated: May 21, 2010 – Lesson I: Making Your Own Custom Articulate Player

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Actually, I started out with hopes of developing my own Articulate Engage Interaction. About half way into the SDK (Software Development Kit) documentation, I realized it was a bit over my head just yet. So I turned my attention to the building my own player instead.

Just about that time, I came across Dave Mozealous’ blog titled “How I created a custom Articulate Presenter skin in less than an hour.” First thought that came to mind was, “Yeah right, unless you’re a seasoned pro at programming!”  I’m not new to Flash or HTML, but Dave’s article along with supporting Screenr screencasts inspired me to give it a try. Not to mention the huge kudos for answering all my questions!

Following his directions…walla! My first custom skin!

At first glance, this can easily be done in Flash with simple buttons, but it’s a real-live-honest-to-goodness Articulate player published right from PowerPoint!  It’s nothing to write home to Mom about, but I am excited on several accounts:

1. I did it!
2. Anyone can do it!
3. The possibilities are endless!

I’m a graphics guy so the literal term, “skin” to me is the exoskeleton or the outer graphical look and feel of the player. I can design a thousand skins, but I was more interested in the framework. The Player. The guts!

I know myself well enough to know that if I understand what’s going on under the hood – the code and how it all stitches together and communicates, the rest is gravy.

This is a VERY basic custom player. Many of the default Articulate player attributes and functions have been turned off. Ya’know…crawl, walk, then run. Now that I have the basic infrastructure in place, I’ll be using this player (v.1) as a foundation to build onto. Here is my unofficial plan (in no particular order):

1. Seekbar
2. Zoom toggle widget
3. Menu
4. Tab bar
5. Tool bar
6. Logo panel
7. Audio volume slider

Not to rewrite Dave’s article, but I want to chronicle my own development process.  Stay tuned for a tutorial series on how I put mine together:

• The tools and setting up the project
• The skin: Designing and building the grapics
• The coding: ActionScript and XML
• The package and publishing: File management and the .artpkg file extension

Until then, give Dave’s article a try!

Updated: May 21, 2010 – Lesson I: Making Your Own Custom Articulate Player