Creating a release makes your sim accessible via a custom URL to reviewers or participants. Before finalizing, don't forget a thorough Q&A process!
VIDEO: SEE IT IN ACTION
KEY TERMINOLOGY
Test URL Links can be shared with peers, SMRs, Editors, and clients to review your project as the learner will see it.
Publishing creates a Public URL Link that is used for a participant or SCORM access to administer the course.
NOTE: In order for your project to be accessible to learners and data captured in the SimGate Dashboard, both of the following need to be true:
The project needs to be located in the public enterprise folder in Portal (NOT your private project folder), and
The project needs to have been published to a public release in Studio
Unpublished changes reflect any changes that haven’t been saved since the previous release. This is especially helpful when multiple authors are designing within the same project.
"Live" -This is the current version that the public URL participants and SCORM packages are pointing to.
"Latest" - This is the latest version of the project that has been released. These changes will NOT be reflected in the public version until that release has been published to the public site.
DIY STEPS
After logging in to your studio project, to create a release, click on the “Release” icon in the upper right.
NOTE: If this is your first release, you will see a message instructing you that this is where you publish your project. You will click “Create First Release”.
A popup will appear, requesting details for your project's release, such as name or notes (which is helpful to denote changes from release to release). Click "Create" to proceed.
The release page now displays the current version of your release and any future releases you create.
To generate a test link, click on the URL link below the "Test Site" column. You can open the test link in a new window or copy the URL to share with others.
To publish your project, click on the "Publish" button located to the right under the "Public Site" section.
NOTE: If it's your first published release, a message will notify you that publishing will update all current sessions using the simulation.
After publishing, you will notice a few key indicators:
On the left side of the "Create Release" button a label indicating "0 unpublished changes." This means no changes have been made since the last release.
"Live" -This is the current version that the public URL participants and SCORM packages are pointing to.
"Latest" - This is the latest version of the project that has been released. These changes will NOT be reflected in the public version until that release has been published to the public site.
FAQ
Test Link Access
Test links are intended for the author (or their reviewers) to make sure the sim functions as intended in SimPlayer before doing a final public release.
To view Test links, users need to be registered users in their enterprise Dashboard OR Sign Up at login
Anyone who is already registered within the enterprise, WITH access to this specific link, will be able to view the test link.
If they have an account but forgot their password, have them select the “Reset password” and follow the password recovery process.
If they do not have a registered account, have them select the “Sign up” link.
From there they will be prompted to create an account.
Once they create an account, they will be able to proceed to the simulation with that special test link provided.
Published Link Access
Publishing creates a Public URL Link that is used for a participant or SCORM access to administer the course.
For the Deployment of your course, you can decide which types of sessions your project supports and how participants can log in to the published project. There are many different ways to do this and this depends on how you have set up the course in your project settings.
Please review this article for more information: Overview: Studio Project Settings for Session Types and Log-in Settings
Projects need to be located in the public enterprise folder in Portal in order to create live public links and SCORM pacages.
To access this public URL, you will need to set up a Session and Users in the SimGate Dashboard. Please review this article for more information: Overview: Dashboard Guide for Admins
Why don't I see my project listed in the dashboard dropdown when creating a session?
For your project to be accessible via the dashboard both of the following need to be true:
The project needs to be located in the public enterprise folder in Portal (NOT your private project folder), and
The project needs to have been published to a public release in Studio
If a project is located in your private project folder, you can still create test links and test SCORM packages (for testing purposes) but the live published links won't work, no data will be captured in the SimGate Dashboard, nor will the project show up in the dashboard.
Why am I not able to view the published course when I visit the public URL?
You must set up a Session and add Users in the SimGate Dashboard in order to access the course.
In general, you must be set up as a user in a session on the dashboard in order to access the published course.
The exception to this is if you have set up the project as Sessionless or Anonymous Login (via settings in Studio).
Please review this article for more information: Overview: Studio Project Settings for Session Types and Log-in Settings
If you have set up the project as “Sessionless”, then the user does not need to be attached to a session. If it is not set up as “Sessionless”, then you will need the user to be associated with a specific session (also created in the dashboard)
If you want your login to be "Anonymous", this is done through the dashboard, go here for those steps. It requires you to publish the public link to the project, create a session in the dashboard, and use the anonymous access options on the session creation page.
To set up your "Sessions and users" please review this article for more information: Overview: Dashboard Guide for Admins
