Getting the multiplex setting to work for Revealjs slides

[eteitelbaum]

I am not understanding how to get the multiplex setting to work for Revealjs slides. After I have enabled multiplex, e.g. multiplex: true and render the presentation, how do I present from the presentation-speaker.html file? Am I supposed to just be able to open it in a browser? When I do that, it doesn't look like slides. It just looks like an outline of my talk without any formatting.

[cderv]

Documentation for the Multiplex feature from Reveal.js built-in Quarto is here: https://quarto.org/docs/presentations/revealjs/presenting.html#multiplex

how do I present from the presentation-speaker.html file

Usually you open the presentation-speaker.html on your computer, and your other presentation is online for people to connect.
When you will change slide on your side, it will change also for viewer looking at presentation.html

Am I supposed to just be able to open it in a browser?

it should work, but you could also serve the file locally. quarto preview should do that for you, which is integrated in IDE (RStudio IDE or VS Code)

When I do that, it doesn't look like slides. It just looks like an outline of my talk without any formatting.

it is probably something with resources not loading. You can check in your browser console (F12) the error you may have.
If you move the HTML file after rendering, you also need to move the resource folder otherwise, reveal.js and other resources won't be found. Using self_contained: true can be an option but can slow down loading: https://quarto.org/docs/presentations/revealjs/presenting.html#publishing

Hope it helps

[eteitelbaum]

Thanks. What am I looking for exactly when I hit F12? I see "Inspector", "Console", "Debugger", etc. I don't see anything like an error message but I don't know if I am looking in the right place.

I do not see a resources folder. Only the -speaker.html file. Is there supposed to be a separate folder where the .qmd file lives?

When I render or preview with multiplex: true. The speaker view toggle is unresponsive (meaning if I click on it it does nothing). Perhaps that is a clue as to what is going on?

[cderv]

Thanks. What am I looking for exactly when I hit F12? I see "Inspector", "Console", "Debugger", etc. I don't see anything like an error message but I don't know if I am looking in the right place.

Yes if there was an issue, it should be in Console pane. Resource not found could be seen in a Network pane (maybe not shown by default)

I do not see a resources folder. Only the -speaker.html file. Is there supposed to be a separate folder where the .qmd file lives?

Did you use self-contained: true ?

When I render or preview with multiplex: true. The speaker view toggle is unresponsive (meaning if I click on it it does nothing). Perhaps that is a clue as to what is going on?

Yes it seems something is not right. Could you provide a reproducible example of this ? Share a document that don't work for you so I could test ?

Thanks

[piiskop]

The description of using my own multiplex server in Quarto manual is not correct or comprehensive enough. i am describing what i did:

1. i cloned the content from reveal / multiplex.

2. In the folder where i cloned the data into step 1, i executed npm install reveal-multiplex.

3. i executed node node_modules/reveal-multiplex and the server started to run at port 1948.

4. i configured my router to direct the traffic to port 1948 into the server machine.

5. i opened the site for multiplex. It tells: "reveal.js multiplex server.".

6. i generated tokens and included the following lines in my presentation file:

   output-file: ../../_book/qmd/presentation.html
   format:
     revealjs:
       incremental: true
       self-contained: true
       multiplex:
         url: 'http://manual-for-rstudio.tennis24.ee/'
         secret: "16759825730498538629"
         socketId: "f3edf0ff0d09982e"
   

7. i clicked the button for rendering and it created two files in the output folder: one also for speaker notes.

8. i opened the presentation in the web browser.

9. i wanted to open the speaker notes but got the error message instead:

   presentation.html:1843 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'open')
   at presentation.html:1843:30
   at Object.speakerMode (presentation.html:1824:5)
   at HTMLAnchorElement.onclick (presentation.html:2385:37)

   The speaker notes open if the multiplex information is not there.

Am i doing something wrong? Why does it not work?

[cderv]

However, i have to open the main presentation file on the computer that shows the output to the audience, and the speaker notes file on my smartphone. This way remote controlling works.

We described Multiplex in here: https://quarto.org/docs/presentations/revealjs/presenting.html#multiplex and explain the following

Do you think this should be clarified ? What would be the suggestion that would have help you understand better ?

[piiskop]

you are right: the information about these two files is really there. However, i could not find it. Maybe the reason for the latter occasion was that i was stuck in the next section about the server. my suggestion is to enlist the instructions step by step starting with the server setup and configuration as it must happen before it can be used.

As we are discussing multiplex, is there a way to use a virtual laser pointer through it?

[cderv]

my suggestion is to enlist the instructions step by step starting with the server setup and configuration as it must happen before it can be used.

Do you mean instruction from https://github.com/reveal/multiplex that should be put in our doc ?

[piiskop]

Yes, at least the part about creating your own server.

[cderv]

Thanks for the precision. We probably don't include it to avoid having it un-sync with the official doc if things change. We'll look at adding some more information in our doc though. thanks for the feedback

[turcotte]

Would it be possible to dynamically obtain the secret, prompting the presenter for it? If they use a password manager, entering the secret wouldn’t be an issue. This would allow placing file-speaker.html in output_dir, right?

I really like having file-speaker.html on the server. It lets me access my presentation from any device. Here, the restriction would be any device with my password manager installed.

Marcel

[mcanouil]

Note that multiplex is not a Quarto feature per se. It's Reveal.s. I doubt Quarto will take on to add dynamic prompting of any kind here as it would switch the burden on Quarto and all the security issues that could arise from this.

Meanwhile, you can set your own server, set secret/id explicitly in your document YAML (from a private repo, etc.)

• https://quarto.org/docs/presentations/revealjs/presenting.html#multiplex-server

[turcotte]

Makes sense! Thank you for the reply!