HippoCampus.org runs on a secure server. As security continues to be a concern for all internet users, browsers are making efforts to block non-secure content from running in secure environments. Since most learning management systems (LMS) are on secure servers, this means that Hippo content must also be secure in order for our member institutions to embed the content in their courses.
This change helps most of our members and most of our HippoCampus users. However, there is one particular situation that cannot be supported with this model: loading non-secure content from other websites into HippoCampus, such as we offer in the Playlists feature.
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How can you fix non-secure content? The simplest way is to see if the URL begins with http:// or https://. The "s" stands for secure. You can test any content you want to use in a Playlist by simply adding the "s". If it works, use it in your Playlist. If not, see the Workaround below. |
A Built-In Fix For Most Cases
When we secured the HippoCampus site, we automatically changed all existing Playlist content to begin with https:// because many websites do have secure servers, and the content simply has to be intentionally called that way. This fixes the problem for most content without the Playlist owner having to do anything.
Exceptions
However, there is some content that is not available on a secure server. If we (or you) attempt to force it by changing the URL, it will simply fallback to http://. In this case, you will see a blank box or some error notification where the content should be in HippoCampus. This is a case that cannot be fixed with code, because the content owner is not providing secure content for us to use.
A Workaround: Non-Secure Hippo URL
If you need to load non-secure content in HippoCampus and cannot replace it with secure content, we do have a workaround for you. You can switch to our non-secure Hippo URL, which uses http:// and adds an additional prefix of http, in place of www
Follow these steps:
In this screenshot, you can see the secure URL for HippoCampus.org:
Click in the field and type to replace the first part of the URL as follows. Remove
https://www.
and replace it with
http://http.
So now the URL will look like this:
Your non-secure (and secure) content will now load in your Playlist together.
Ask Content Owners To Update
You may also wish to contact the website you are trying to use in HippoCampus, and tell them about the problem. You can ask them to consider getting a secure certificate, and share this article with them to explain why.
If you have any questions or issues with this, please submit a support ticket.
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