Background:
Articulate is a software company that has developed software packages for creating online, interactive, e-learning course presentations.
There is a plugin for WordPress called “Insert or Embed Articulate Content into WordPress” created by elearningfreak that allows content editors to easily upload and embed Articulate content into their WordPress posts.
Problem:
One of our hosted website customers had installed the plugin in their WordPress site. The plugin installed without issue, and they are able to see the button for uploading the content.
Articulate Plugin for WordPress
However, trying to upload content looks like it will work, but never actually finishes:
Articulate upload
This screen just remains indefinitely, and the progress bar continues from left to right until we eventually exit.
This seems to be a fairly common issue according to the plugin support page, and the recommended solution is to make a couple of changes to the php.ini file for the site:
post_max_size = 50M
max_execution_time = 60
max_input_time = 60
upload_max_filesize = 50M
The file we were initially working with was small, (transfer time of less than 2 seconds using FTP) so it was unlikely that changing our maximum file size or execution time would resolve the issue. We tried anyway, but this made no difference.
Next, we decided to contact our good friends at Munter Westermann Arts and Media. As web design and development experts, I thought they may have seen this behavior, or something similar, before.
They came back with 2 interesting items: a workaround, and a possible solution.
Workaround:
How to manually upload the presentation:
- FTP upload files directly to articulate directory wp-content/uploads/articulate_uploads/{presentation-name}
- Go to Add New Page
- Click on ‘a’ icon
- Click on ‘Content Library’
- Select the directory name ‘presentation-name’
- Select embedding options
As of the writing of this article, this exact question is posted here without an answer.
Solution:
During their testing, MWAM discovered that they were unable to use the built in PHP zip functions trying to extract the Articulate archive after uploading:
[29-Sep-2015 12:56:09 America/New_York] PHP Fatal error: Class ‘ZipArchive’ not found in /home/websitename/public_html/wp-content/uploads/articulate_uploads/unzip.php on line 11
So of course this points to a host issue – and we are the hosting company.
To resolve the issue, we simply logged into our cPanel server, and under:
- Software
- EasyApache (Apache Update)
- Customize Profile
- Exhaustive Options List
We enabled the “Zip” functions and built the new PHP profile.
As soon as this finished, logged back into our customer site and tested the “Insert or Embed Articulate Content into WordPress” plugin again, and it completed without issue.
Articulate upload complete
Conclusion:
If you are experiencing an issue with your Articulate archive uploading through this plugin, and the recommended php.ini file changes haven’t helped, reconfigure, or ask your hosting provider to ensure that the “Zip” functions are enabled/installed for your site.
If your provider is unable or unwilling to make these changes, use the steps in the workaround to manually upload and extract the presentation. Or you could always consider a new hosting company 🙂
Good luck, I hope this is helpful.