"Invalid File Version" error when viewing Authorware web pieces

The Authorware Web Player prompts an "Invalid file version" error (see image below) when trying to display an Authorware web piece.

This error occurs when the piece being played is not supported by the installed web player. The Authorware Web player has 3 different versions: Compact, Complete and Full. The Compact and Complete web players will only play content that was packaged with the current version of Authorware. The Full player can also play web pieces created in lower versions of Authorware, from Authorware 3.x to the latest release. For more information regarding these versions, please refer to Distributing the Authorware Web Player (TechNote 16696).

Make sure to install the appropriate version of the Authorware Web Player. In order to view web pieces created in both the current version of Authorware as well as previous versions of Authorware, install the Full version of the Authorware Web Player. If you currently have the Compact or Complete version installed, uninstall this version, then install the Full version of the player. For instructions on uninstalling and installing the player, please refer to Step 4 of the TechNote Troubleshooting Authorware Web Player for Windows (TechNote 14720).

To avoid the error on end-users' machines, edit the codebase parameter of the HTML file to point to the current Full version of the web player instead of the Compact and Complete versions. Change the codebase parameter as follows so that Internet Explorer users will automatically download the Full player:

For more details about using codebase parameters, see HTML code for Authorware Web packaged files (TechNote 13550) and HTML parameters for Authorware Web Player installers (TechNote 15883). Due to formatting limitations in this TechNote, the codebase example above may appear on two lines. This code should reside on one line.

Note: For Netscape users, the pluginspace parameter of the HTML defaults to downloading the latest Full version of the Authorware web player. However, if the users have the latest Complete or Compact version of the player installed on their machine, the Full version will not be downloaded even it is specified in the pluginspace parameter of the HTML. Users need to manually download and install the Full version of the player from Macromedia's web site.

Developers can also license the player for distribution from an intranet or CD-ROM to avoid difficulties in downloading the player from Macromedia's web site. See Licensing and deployment of the Authorware Web Player (TechNote 14236) for more information about licensing and distribution issues.