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Question

Flash player retired by 2020, I will need to redo all the courses stored in my LMS !

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
August 2, 2017
4 replies
2354 views

Here we go again!

Rumours of Adobe stopping support for Flash player has many people panicking.

Please Adobe staff, can you once and for all reassure Captivate developers that the 'old' courses, exported to play through flash at a time where this was the only option and HTML5 wasn't even an idea, will still work for the centuries to come.

Please put this to rest! I have my teams going mad.

Thanks

This topic has been closed for replies.

chuck_jones_1

Inspiring

In my work with a large federal government agency, I've suggested we begin tracking this item on our yearly strategic plan, beginning with identifying those courses which will be affected and how we will remedy each. Those we created in Smartbuilder or Captivate are swf output and will need to be re-published. Another course I created solely in Flash - well that's either headed to the trash or to re-development from soup to nuts in Captivate.

After seeing this blog post the other day - and after Paul Wilson and Joe Ganci both shared with me on another blog that about 50% of their projects are desktop only vs. the other 50% mobile, I suspect we will see that mobile number rise quickly - and that this will be a good thing for our community. Why? Because if these courses have to be re-published anyway (and in some cases re-built), then organizations may decide that THIS is the time to up their mobile game and make these courses via desktop or mobile. Either way, can you say "Job Security"? For independent contractors out there, this is an opportunity to earn some additional money. Make your clients aware of this and then offer them your assistance in developing a transition plan and moving their courses to the HTML5 model by 2020.

Lilybiri

Legend

Warning has been broadcasted since long, even on this forum I try to warn everyone to change to HTML5. Even at this moment Flash player plugin is no longer installed by default in some browsers. Don't blame Adobe, there are many other companies responsible for this switch that started years ago. Be sure: there is NO way back.

Hope you did read this article by Akshay: Flash & The Future of Interactive Content for eLearning | eLearning

J

Jim Leichliter

Legend

If I were you, I'd get started right away. It's the browser vendors that will determine how quickly Flash dies, not Adobe.

Persiusx

Participating Frequently

Exactly. I just did some research on this because we also have an LMS with swf courses and we're gonna have to re-do all the courses. Ugh...

Here are some timelines for the browsers which i've read from an official post from Adobe:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chrome
If the site continues to use Flash, and you give the site permission to run Flash, it will work through the end of 2020.

Firefox
To provide guidance for site authors and users that continue to rely on Flash, Mozilla has updated its published roadmap for Flash in Firefox. Starting next month, users will choose which websites are able to run the Flash plugin. Flash will be disabled by default for most users in 2019, and only users running the Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) will be able to continue using Flash through the final end-of-life at the end of 2020. In order to preserve user security, once Flash is no longer supported by Adobe security patches, no version of Firefox will load the plugin.

Microsoft

We will phase out Flash from Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer, culminating in the removal of Flash from Windows entirely by the end of 2020. This process began already for Microsoft Edge with Click-to-Run for Flash in the Windows 10 Creators Update. The process will continue in the following phases:

Through the end of 2017 and into 2018, Microsoft Edge will continue to ask users for permission to run Flash on most sites the first time the site is visited, and will remember the user’s preference on subsequent visits. Internet Explorer will continue to allow Flash with no special permissions required during this time.
In mid to late 2018, we will update Microsoft Edge to require permission for Flash to be run each session. Internet Explorer will continue to allow Flash for all sites in 2018.
In mid to late 2019, we will disable Flash by default in both Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer. Users will be able to re-enable Flash in both browsers. When re-enabled, Microsoft Edge will continue to require approval for Flash on a site-by-site basis.
By the end of 2020, we will remove the ability to run Adobe Flash in Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer across all supported versions of Microsoft Windows. Users will no longer have any ability to enable or run Flash.

Erik Lord

Inspiring

First, this forum is only occasionally visited by actual Adobe Staff. Most folks here are user volunteers.

To your question, I don't think such assurances can be give.

The Flash Player will be retired. Many web browsers are already blocking Flash from running by default, requiring user action to allow the Flash Player to load. It is likely in the near future even that behavior will be less-easy and user's will have to go into the browser preferences to enable Flash to load at all (indeed this is already an issue with Chrome in some cases).

You and your teams essentially have 2 years to, at minimum, upgrade your older courses to a new version of Captivate, publish to HTML-only, test thoroughly, and adjust as needed.

It is extremely likely that any SWF-based content will either require significant workarounds to run in a browser or, more likely, be simply impossible to open without using older browsers.

And btw, nothing works for 'centuries to come'...

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