Can't load files | Adobe Captivate Reviewer 2.0 | Mac OS

When you load Adobe Captivate 5 CREV, SWF, or ZIP files in Adobe Captivate Reviewer 2.0 on Mac OS, you receive one of the following errors:

• User does not have required privileges. Ensure that the user is part of the application owner group.
• The SWF file could not be loaded.

Determine whether you are the owner of the Adobe Captivate Reviewer application or a member of the application group. See Determining the owner of the application group and Determining the members of the application group for detailed instructions.

• If you are either the owner or the member of the application group, check if you or the group have the write permission. If you do not have the write permission, assign write permission to your username or the group.
• If you are not the owner or a member of the application group, add your username to the application group. Then  assign write permission to the group.

cd /Applications/Adobe

ls -l

See Figure 3 below to assist you in identifying the owner, the name of the application group, and the permissions for the applications.

cd /usr/bin

Note: Skip this step if /usr/bin is added to the system path on your Mac.

dscl . read /groups/<group_name>

In the example in Figure 3, the name of the application group is 'wheel'. So, the command is dscl . read /groups/wheel

See Figure 3 below for assistance in identifying the members of the Adobe Captivate Reviewer application.

sudo /usr/bin/dscl . -append /groups/<group_name> GroupMembership <username>

dscl . read /group/<group_name>

If your name appears here, it means that you are the member of the group.

See the following example with these commands highlighted (in red):

         Figure 1: Adding members to the application group

cd /Applications/Adobe

su root

chmod -R o+w Adobe\ Captivate\ Reviewer\ 2.0.app

chmod -R g+w Adobe\ Captivate\ Reviewer\ 2.0.app

Note: '\' is the escape character for spaces. Precede every space between the name of the app with '\'. So, Adobe<space>Captivate<space>Reviewer<space>2.0.app is typed as Adobe\<space>Captivate\<space>Reviewer\<space>2.0.app

The following example shows the commands used to assign 'write' permission to an application group:

 Figure 2: Assigning 'write' permissions to an application group

This issue occurs because if you don't have write permission for the Adobe Captivate Reviewer application.

Often, the root user who has all the permissions (read, write, and execute) is the owner of any application on Mac OS. So, if you have logged on as the 'root' user, you can load the files into the reviewer app successfully. To load the files into the app, the username must be a member of the application group. Furthermore, the application group must have the write permission for the app and its folders.

Adobe Captivate Reviewer app is based on the AIR security model. This model requires that files are in its folder to provide users access to all components of the file. When you load a file in Adobe Captivate Reviewer, the reviewer app picks up the file. Then it writes it into its folder before opening it in the app. To enable the reviewer app to write the file into its folder, the currently logged on user must have the write permission to the reviewer app and its constituent folders. 

Owner, member, group, and permissions

Every application on Mac OS is associated with an owner and a group (called as application group). The owner is typically the root user, but not necessarily so. Any user can be added as a member to the application group.

Both the owner and the group can be assigned with read (r), write (w), or execute rights (x).

     Figure 3: Determining 'owner' and 'group members' of Adobe Captivate Reviewer 2.0.app

• A — Owner. In this case, root.
• B — The application group. In this case, "wheel" is the group associated with the application Adobe Captivate Reviewer 2.0.app.
• C —  Application group membership. In this case, "root" is the (only) member of the application group "wheel." (Multiple members when present are separated with a space. For example, root user tester.)
• D — The permissions assigned to the owner. In this case, the owner "root" is assigned with read (r), write (w), and execute (x) rights.
• E — The permissions assigned to the application group. In this case, "wheel" is assigned with read (r) and execute (x) rights. The '-' before 'xr' indicates that the application group does not have the "write" permission.