WebCT Campus Edition™ 4.0 Known Issues

May 1, 2003

TOOL/AREA
ISSUE DESCRIPTION
Accessibility
  • Due to an issue with Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0 on a Microsoft® Windows® operating system, on the Compose Discussion Message screen, when the Tab key is used to move to the Browse button, and the Enter key is used to select the Browse button, the Choose file dialog box does not open. Workaround: Once the Browse button is selected, press the Spacebar to open the Choose file dialog box.
  • When using adaptive software, the Chat, Whiteboard, Equation Editor, and HTML Editor applets may not function correctly. For Chat and Whiteboard, ensure that users are provided with alternate methods of communicating with other users, such as Discussions and Mail.
Administrator
  • Due to an issue with the Tomcat™ server, when restarting the WebCT server on a UNIX® operating system, the HTML Editor licensing server may not restart. If this occurs, the following message appears:
    Failed. See <webct_root>/webct/generic/logs/quicklog for details. Workaround: Wait five minutes and restart the WebCT server again. If unsuccessful, verify that no other processes are using the port. If the server still won't start, contact Support.
AOL®
  • Due to an issue with AOL proxy servers, AOL users may experience browser timeout issues when uploading large files or backing up large courses on a non-SSL server. Workaround: Use an SSL (https) server.
Assignments
  • Due to an issue with the Macintosh® OS 9 operating system, when downloading assignments, the suggested filename may exceed the maximum number of characters allowed by the operating system (i.e. 31 characters). As a result, the filename will be truncated.
CD-ROM
  • Due to an issue with Winamp®, wave (.wav) files cannot be played in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Chat
  • Due to an issue with Microsoft Internet Explorer on a Macintosh operating system, non-US-ASCII characters are not displayed correctly in the Chat applet.
  • In Microsoft Internet Explorer on a Macintosh OS 9 operating system, Chat may not function correctly.
  • Due to an issue with Microsoft Internet Explorer on a Macintosh operating system, user names containing accented characters are not compatible with Chat.
  • On a North American installation of Microsoft® Windows®, languages using character sets other than US-ASCII may not display correctly in the Chat applet. Workaround: Use an installation of Microsoft Windows that is compatible with the language in question (for example, use a Japanese installation of Microsoft Windows to chat in Japanese).
Content Module
  • In Netscape® Navigator®, Active Streaming Format (.asf) videos cannot be played.
  • Due to an issue with Microsoft® Office XP SP1, Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentations do not function correctly on a Microsoft Windows XP operating system when Microsoft® Office XP SP1 is installed. Workaround: Upgrade to Microsoft Office XP SP2.
  • Filenames that do not contain a file extension do not appear in the file list on the Add Files screen in Content Module. Workaround: Use the Rename option in Manage Files to add an extension to the filename.
Course Design Center
  • Due to issue with Netscape 6.2.3 on Microsoft Windows 2000, when adding a tool using the Course Design Center, the Control Panel button text is displayed in gray instead of black.
Discussions
  • Expanding or collapsing a message thread causes the check marks beside selected messages to be cleared.
Documentation
  • In the System Administrator's Guide, Chapter 3, Course Management, Backing Up and Restoring Courses, "Restoring Courses on a Partitioned Server" on page 73, the instructions in steps 1 and 2 are not only applicable to restoring courses but are also applicable to performing other file move operations in WebCT. File move operations in WebCT, by default, use a rename method. However, if your WebCT installation spans multiple partitions, file move operations cannot use the rename method. Instead, a copy and delete method must be used. To enable the setting for using the copy and delete method, complete steps 1 and 2, which are also provided here for reference:
    1. Using a text editor:
      1. Create a new document.
      2. In the document, type the number one (1).
    2. Save the file in <webct_install_directory>/webct/webct/generic/admin/setting, with the filename copy_unlink.
File Browser
  • Due to an issue with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 on a Macintosh operating system, selecting Upload a file may resize the Filename text box.
General
  • If WebCT is running within an integrated frameset, and the top frame is not configured to load from the WebCT server, the entry page does not display. Workaround: Ensure that the top frame is loaded from the WebCT server.
  • On some browsers, the visited link color selected in WebCT is not applied. Instead, the browser's default visited link color is used.
  • On a Macintosh, it is not possible to print any Java™ applets displayed in WebCT.
Import Content
  • When importing a .zip file of course content using the IMS Content Migration Utility, the file will not upload if the .zip filename contains a space. Workaround: Before uploading the file, rename the .zip file by removing the space. (044933)
Internet Explorer 5.1
  • Due to an issue with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1 on a Macintosh operating system, when certain file formats such as .html and .txt are downloaded, Microsoft Internet Explorer displays the files in a new browser window instead of prompting the user to save the file to disk.
Netscape Navigator
  • Due to an issue with Sun™ JVM™ version 1.3.1, in Netscape Navigator 6.2, the Equation Editor does not always function correctly. This is dependent on the version and stability of Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE). Workaround: Upgrade J2SE to version 1.4. Go to http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/download.html.
  • Due to an issue with Netscape Navigator 6.x and 7.x, in Content Module, within a content page, if a student or teaching assistant clicks a link to a multimedia file that is on a CD that the instructor provides, a blank page displays.
    Workaround: On the student's or teaching assistant's computer, edit a preference entry in all.js, a Netscape configuration file. For complete instructions, see the WebCT Knowledge Base. To locate the article, enter Netscape CD as the search keyword.

Quiz

 

 

 

 
  • If multiple QuickTime® movie (.mov) files are embedded in a quiz question, only the first .mov file displays correctly.
  • In Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x, in Microsoft Windows 2000, JavaScript™ errors result if you try to add more than 1300 questions to one quiz.
  • Adding a Quiz link to a Content Module in a course where the Quiz tool has not been added causes an Internal Server Error when the Quiz link is clicked. Workaround: Create a quiz first and then add the Quiz link to the Content Module.
  • Adding a quiz to a Content Module with a delivery setting other than Deliver all the questions at once will not display the filename as expected. Instead, the title of the quiz is displayed with "(Quiz: )" next to it.
Return Key
  • On a Macintosh, Microsoft Internet Explorer users using the Return key will have an undesired effect in some cases. For example, while editing a Quiz question, pressing Return in Title, will refresh the page, discarding any changes made to that field.

Server Statistics

 

 
  • In the Admin interface, the Statistics page uses cell padding with non-breaking spaces. Therefore, cutting content with numerical values and pasting into a Microsoft® Excel spreadsheet requires editing to remove the HTML formatting. Workaround: In Microsoft Excel, from the Edit menu, select Paste Special and then Text.

SSL

 

 
  • Due to an issue with the WebDAV client on a Macintosh OS X v. 10.x operating system running on an SSL server, it may not be possible to set up WebDAV successfully. Workaround: Use Goliath 1.0 to set up WebDAV.
  • Due to an issue with Microsoft Internet Explorer on a Macintosh operating system running on an SSL server, clicking Log Out on the Menu Bar can result in a blank page being displayed even though the user has successfully logged out.

WebDAV

 
  • This issue applies to situations in which you have multiple courses and WebDAV is set up for at least one, but not all courses. Due to an issue with the WebDAV client on a Microsoft Windows operating system, in the course that is not set up for WebDAV access, using File Browser to upload files from the WebDAV folder (set up for a different course), generates an error message indicating that there are illegal characters in the file or folder names, although this is not the case.
WebEQ™ Equation Editor
  • Due to issues with the WebEQ Equation Editor:
    • on a Macintosh operating system, you cannot submit equations with curly brackets { }.
    • on the Equation Editor screen, if the Larger or Smaller buttons are clicked during equation creation, the input text boxes become square characters. Workaround: Delete the square characters and reenter the values as required.
    • equations exported from a Microsoft Windows PC cannot be imported to a Macintosh.
    • on a Macintosh operating system, there is a limit to the number of characters that can be used to create equations in WebEQ. Therefore, long or complex equations may not be created correctly when using a Macintosh browser.
  • Due to an issue with Netscape Navigator 6.2.1on a Macintosh operating system, the Equation Editor may not function correctly. Workaround: Use Netscape Navigator 6.2.3, 7.0, or 7.0.1.
  • On a Macintosh, in Netscape Navigator 7.0, clicking Cancel can cause Netscape to crash.
Whiteboard
  • When the start point of a line coincides with the end point of a previously drawn line, the new line may cause the previously drawn line to be deleted.
  • On a Macintosh, in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Whiteboard's accessible interface is not available.
  • Due to an issue with Microsoft Windows, on a North American installation, languages using character sets other than US-ASCII may not display correctly in the Whiteboard applet. Workaround: Use an installation of Microsoft Windows that is compatible with the language in question (for example, use a Japanese installation of Microsoft Windows to chat in Japanese).
  • In Microsoft Internet Explorer, on a Macintosh OS 9 operating system, Whiteboard may not function correctly.
  • Due to an issue with Sun JVM version 1.3.1, when used in conjunction with Microsoft Internet Explorer, images cannot be uploaded to the Whiteboard. A JavaScript error occurs. Workaround: Upgrade to Sun JVM version 1.4.0.
  • When the maximum number of users is exceeded in Whiteboard, there is no error to tell you this is the case. Instead, Whiteboard keeps trying to load and may appear to be stalled.

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