Lectora Cookie 4K limit issue with IE7
July 19, 2011 12:00 AM
Good morning everyone,
We have 2 Lectora titles that are being hosted by the same domain (standard Windows web server, no LMS). Each tutorial is in its own virtual directory, so each tutorial has a unique URL. No I-Frames.
The retained variables for these two courses are both stored in the same cookie file in Internet Explorer. If a user takes both courses and is using Internet Explorer 7, the user eventually reaches a 4K size limitation, and the second course no longer writes to the cookie file. The user experiences issues with the course providing feedback that they have not completed the content, when in fact they have.
Running each course independently is fine. The cookie file is never overloaded. It's when a user takes the first course, does not delete cookies, then takes the second course, the second course is writing to the same file and becomes overloaded.
I believe IE8/9 has a higher cookie size limit.
Is there a setting in IIS that can be set to create separate cookie files per course on the same server, or is there another location to tell the browser to create independent cookie files?
Thanks for you help.
'Chris
Discussion (4)
@clavoro 50435 wrote:
BTW, is it documented anywhere that there is no 4K limit in IE8 and beyond? Does any limit exist in the new browsers? Thanks again.
You can start here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306070
I tested the issue again this week and it only seems to be a problem in IE7. Has anyone used a workaround to prevent IE7 from clearing all the values once 4K is reached, other than renaming variables/values to shorter lengths? Thanks.
If the variables MUST be retained, then here are a couple of workarounds.
1. At the end of the first course as they exit, run a Reset All Variables action. This will at least clear the values in them.
2. There are several things you can do to reduce the amount of storage required to resume your course.
- Don’t retain variables unless you really need to.
- Use short variable names.
- Change question variable names from “Question_00xx” to “Qxx”. (that saves 10 characters on each question)
- Use short variable values. Instead of “finished” and “not finished” use 0 and 1 or “y” and “n”.
- This next tip can save you thousands of characters and allow you to have well over 100 questions instead of 30-40. In multiple-choice and multiple response questions:
- Code the answer choices as just A, B, C, D in the Question Creator (wizard).
- After finishing the wizard, click on each answer choice text block and check the Initially Hidden property so the student does not see them. Move them out of the way as no one will ever see them.
- Then create a text block with the real answers and line the radio buttons or check boxes next to the correct answers.
- This works fine unless you show the Results page at the end of your test. Then you really need to use the complete answers in the question wizard.
- Ex. “Question_0001=Coaching the individual;” takes 38 characters; recoded to “Q01=a;” takes 7.
- Do not retain the information in short answer or essay questions.
- When you publish your course, choose the “short names” option. It may already be chosen for you.
Thank you Ben. I have decided to simply shorten all variable names to 4 characters. This brought the file size down by 1.5KB, which is enough to keep it below the threshold. I appreciate the quick response.
BTW, is it documented anywhere that there is no 4K limit in IE8 and beyond? Does any limit exist in the new browsers? Thanks again.
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