Copying/Creating a URL to a specific course - Best practice


Userlevel 7
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I have found that many admins have trouble with this...Many times, you want to point a user to a specific course but you don’t always want to turn on the Enrollment Links as this can bypass eCommerce and approvals. The typical error an admin makes is to navigate to a course that they are enrolled into or have used the Learner Preview option (enrolls you) and grab that link from the address bar...This causes issues if shared since it tried to find the course on the users’ My Courses & Learning Plans page and usually puts up a 403 error. In order to get around this, navigate to the course via the CATALOGUE search. Click on the tile to view the course but DO NOT enroll. You can safely grab that link to use in other pages, widgets, etc.. The look should look something like this:

https://www.xxxxxxxxxxx.com/learn/course/internal/view/elearning/129/aligning-goals-and-priorities-to-manage-time

What’s important to note is that link contains the following: ‘course/internal/view’ 

Example of the same course link AFTER I enrolled or used the Learning Preview:

https://www.xxxxxxxxxx.com/learn/course/129/aligning-goals-and-priorities-to-manage-time

Essentially, you want to point to the catalogue only when grabbing these links…

Hope this helps!


22 replies

Userlevel 7
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hey @lrnlab, this is awesome, I had no idea this is how it works, I guess I never noticed since I’m basically enrolled to everything as the superadmin of our platform…

I checked if it’s possible just by adding /internal/view/elearning in between course and the course number and without having the course in an actual catalog, but unfortunately, it seems that no matter how I adjust the Advanced Settings of a course, it doesn’t work for standard users (still works for superadmins it seems?)

Nevertheless, it’s very useful even if it requires you to have a course inside of the catalog. We don’t really use ecommerce and have lots of trainings that will forever remain outside of the catalogs but I’m sure we can find some uses for this. Thanks!

Userlevel 7
Badge +7

@abartunek yea, this scenario requires that the course be in a catalogue the user has access to otherwise it won’t work. If you’re not using catalogues, are you enabling the Course Enrollment links? Not quite the same thing as it automatically enrolls the user however they work well.

Userlevel 7
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Yeah, we use enrollment links all the time. The solution you mentioned here is still something we can benefit from. I think we will be using it every time we release a new, optional course for our employees.

When sending out newsletters informing about new, optional course, we always included enrollment links. It worked fine but then users were already enrolled after clicking - your solution is better because it will give them an overview before they decide to enroll themselves or not and we will end up with less people enrolled but probably a better completion rate. 

Userlevel 7
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@abartunek you could always add them to a catalogue the users have access to but don't add the catalogue page to your menu...this should (in theory - haven't tried it) give them access to the course without seeing the whole catalogue...just a thought.

Userlevel 3
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We have this problem with error code because of our multi-domain and links not working for all, and also trying to capture link when signed in as Super Admin. To get around this, many times I will sign on as a typical user on a different browser and capture the link to the course or channel that way to be sure it will direct the learner to the correct place. 

Userlevel 7
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Thank you so very much for sharing this tip! Super helpful!!

Userlevel 5
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Realize this is an older thread but I found it via search, as I have been struggling with explaining this to my users. The problem is that users will just go into a course they are enrolled into themselves and copy the link from the url bar, as @lrnlab describes. In my case it’s not just superadmins but all users do this - they just assume the LMS works like a typical website. It’s a real hassle for everyone and I do wish Docebo would figure out a way to avoid this somehow via their url routing. Enrollment links are not a good workaround - users should have the option to enroll after viewing the course overview page, not just automatically enrolled.

Userlevel 7
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@mark I understand what you’re saying however because the links change depending on where the user views the course I’m not sure this would ever be possible...another option I can think of would be to use the personal playlists. Users can add courses to their playlist and then share their lists with other users. A few more steps but it works very well.

Userlevel 4
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Hi @mark, might I suggest voting for this idea now that it’s been ported over to the Community?

(Have to disagree with @lrnlab’s suggestion that it may not be possible for Docebo to fix this. It’s absolutely possible, the question is whether or not Docebo is willing to fix it. But they ought to be, because the status quo is frankly unacceptable from both a learner and admin perspective.)

Userlevel 5
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Thanks @Ian - I just upvoted it. No reason why Docebo can’t do a simple check and reroute ala:

if (!user enrolled)
{
//redirect to course overview page
}

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +5
if (!user enrolled)
{
//redirect to course overview page
}

 

<compliment>

     I think in script a lot and when I saw this it made me smile.

</compliment>

This is THE MOST HELPFUL reply I have seen on the “URL issue”!  THANK YOU!!  SUPER Helpful!

We have this problem with error code because of our multi-domain and links not working for all, and also trying to capture link when signed in as Super Admin. To get around this, many times I will sign on as a typical user on a different browser and capture the link to the course or channel that way to be sure it will direct the learner to the correct place. 

I do this OFTEN as well. I have a “fake partner” userID and I use it as my testing account and typically would have to log in as this person to capture the “non-internal” URL to copy/paste/share so that I am not sharing INTERNAL URL’s. The original poster’s helpful hint above has me jumping for joy at the moment! 

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Bump- this was the post I referenced during the DU Live: Managing and Automating Enrollments.  

This was so helpful and sending many kudos to @lrnlab for sharing!

Userlevel 7
Badge +3

Thanks @Ian - I just upvoted it. No reason why Docebo can’t do a simple check and reroute ala:

if (!user enrolled)
{
//redirect to course overview page
}

 

Could be even easier than this with the multiple locations and conditions, just treat them as essentially alias’s to the pages so you could have 15 URLs that all get you to the right spot. This would be useful in other areas too like in custom pages where you change the name and the old url is now useless, it could just be a new alias for that page.

Does anyone know if it’s possible to generate a deeplink directly to the course player? (Skipping the enrollment / catalog page altogether)

I’m able to retrieve this link from the console when I open the course preview but this link only remains active for a short time (less than 24 hours). Wondering if there’s a setting to make it persist or generate a URL from the API that always plays the course content immediately. 

Thanks!

Userlevel 7
Badge +3

Closest I get to this is to use the enrollment link for the course and configure the course player to auto-launch, if it’s they have not completed the course yet it does what you are describing. if they have completed then they end up needing to re-launch the player when returning. 

Thanks! That’s useful to know, but not exactly what I need. What I really need is to be able to generate a persistent URL similar to this: 

//cdn1.dcbstatic.com/files/b/e/xxxx_docebosaas_com/3856874/jwnxC6CO2434I8CfylFN8LA/tincan/13079_1612327491_p1ge6p33f1bjm1kiq322121pca1s574_zip/index.html

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +3

Right, I understood, that’s why it was the closest :),  that’s not really possible as that has a temporary access key encoded into it. The prior description is the closest I’ve gotten to to that.

Otherwise you will need some sort of mini webapp that is hit, authenticates, generates a token and encodes the url to redirect to in real time.

Or a sever to host your files and then frame them into docebo, but then you’re just going around it all and using your own host anyways.

Thanks, this is what I was starting to suspect. Appreciate your help.

Userlevel 3

@jasong, we use deep links for a few of our courses that are used as embedded content in our solution.  The user needs to be enrolled in the course for it to work, so i’ve set up auto enrollment for all users.  I then copied the url with the word player in it. e.g, https://*.com/learn/course/55/play/301/unify-plus-overview;lp=69 and that works for us.  The key is that the user is auto enrolled.

 

With the new player rolling out next year, i’m guessing all my urls will change :-(

Hi - Was this ever solved.
I’m facing a similar issue where we would like to get an enrolment url through the API ?

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