SumTotal's 'ToolBook' (Older RAD/Content Authoring Tool) Is Approaching Its End-of-Life

Long-time Slashdot reader thegreatbob writes: The old RAD/content authoring system, ToolBook, appears to be entering the final phase of its EOL process. Sumtotal/Skillsoft (the current owner, under which meaningful development effectively ceased) 'may' refuse software activations after the end of 2021, and does not provide a format-compatible replacement. Similarly, they are halting their support services, and will not allow contracts to be renewed.

This may have significant ramifications for the education/training sector, and I have reason to believe that the body of the work dependent on this software is significantly larger than one might expect out of a wayward VisualBasic competitor from the 90s.

The software, which was offered for sale until relatively recently (I'm unsure of the date of cutoff), has not received an update since 2014, nor a major version update since 2011. As such, I'd like to increase the visibility of this particular EOL, in the hopes that interested parties will take notice and have an opportunity to begin the process of moving their courseware out of this format...

If one has never encountered this software before, it is "interesting", to say the least, as is the history of Asymetrix (one of Paul Allen's ventures) and later Sumtotal Systems, through 90s and early 2000s. If one does not care to look into it, it can be thought of as some sort of bizarro-world amalgam of features from Visual Basic and HyperCard.

Another proof

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

that closed, undocumented file format should be avoided.

Re:

[Ostracus]

Open-source DNA.

Re:

[thegreatbob]

No truer words spoken.

School Budgets

[bill_mcgonigle]

If this was used for much courseware it's a pretty dick move.

Many schools have to budget 12-18 months ahead for costs like rewriting or repurchasing courseware. The 2021-2022 budget is already done.

It may not stop working then, but support is usually necessary for school IT. Double-bad if they were renewing licenses last month.

In general, if you work with schools, expect them to move in 1-2 years on a great idea (longer if it's a good idea).

Re:

[Entrope]

According to TFS, this software hasn't been updated at all since 2014 and hasn't gotten a big update in a decade. Exactly what were schools waiting for before moving to something that is actively maintained?

Re:

[Ostracus]

Exactly what were schools waiting for before moving to something that is actively maintained?

Most likely the contract. Sunk cost, but it's paid for and works, as well as familiarity. Actively maintained means more money, might work, and retraining.

Re:

[sabbede]

Another decade to go by? Bureaucracies are slow to move.

Good

[couchslug]

No effort should be made to save a bad idea.

Re:

[thegreatbob]

While I certainly agree this needed to happen - my concern is for the body of work that was created with it, some of which is still in use.

Re:

[Ostracus]

Find tool closest match to it and write a conversion script.

Re:

[thegreatbob]

It has the lovely feature of being very much integrated with its own OpenScript (since its very first release; not unlike SmallTalk/HyperCard in some ways) - more or less every property can be scraped with ease, from within the program. Similar for general image exports.

If you have a functioning copy.

Courseware Comes And Goes

[lunadude]

Yeah, this is one of the many elearning authoring tools I've used over the last 30 years. None of them has lasted. They are dependent on whatever OS or browser they are delivered in. We just harvest the content and rebuild in the authoring package du jour. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Re:

[thegreatbob]

Indeed, despite having last received an update in 2014, TBK never made it all the way to HTML5.