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[まあゆく]

If AIR is embedding the SWF into HTML, NPAPI is required, but will NPAPI continue?

Or is it not supported to embed the SWF in HTML? Or do you want AIR to include NPAPI as before AIR version 21?

thanks.

[ASWC]

AIR doesn't embed swf into HTML ever. Maybe you meant Flash Player instead of AIR? Maybe you meant Animate CC instead of AIR? And/or you don't mean "embed"?

Additionally Adobe already said FP won't be supported after 2020 so if your question is about FP support then it has already been answered by Adobe itself.

[zwetan_uk]

when you use HTMLLoader in Adobe AIR to load an HTML page and embed a SWF

from AIR v1 to AIR v21
the Adobe AIR runtime included its own Flash Player plugin

from AIR v22

the Adobe AIR runtime does not include the Flash Player plugin anymore
and instead use the NPAPI Flash Player plugin installed on the system

see System level Flash Player support for AIR desktop applications

Starting in AIR 22, applications that play swf content via the HTML control (WebKit) will now load the system level NPAPI Flash Player provided by Adobe (https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer).  If this plugin is not available on the system, the end user will be prompted to download and install the plugin from Adobe.

see, if the Flash Player plugin is not found on the system the user will be prompted to install it

Now, in 2020, when Flash reach End of Life (EOL), even if the plugin itself will not be supported anymore

you will still be able to install it.

Alternatively, when you create an installer for your AIR application, you can make it install

the Flash Player on the system (if not detected) or even upgrade it (if the version detected is too low).

[まあゆく]

Has Adobe declared the continuation of AIR, but at the same time as the end of the 2020 Flashplayer, will HTMLLoader's support end?

[zwetan_uk]

まあゆく  wrote

Has Adobe declared the continuation of AIR, but at the same time as the end of the 2020 Flashplayer, will HTMLLoader's support end?

There are no reasons for HTMLLoader support to stop

for many years the AIR SDK has been updated on a regular basis
every quarter: March, June, September, December

see Flash Player and Adobe AIR Features List

also see Adobe AIR releases notes

in 2020, the Flash Player itself will not be updated anymore

but that's about it

at worst, you could switch from embedding SWF in HTMLLoader

to directly load an external SWF with the Loader class

[Colin Holgate]

You mean in 2021 the Flash Player plugin won't be updated.

There are other topics about the lack of a roadmap for AIR, but if you look at the last four years it has gone from AIR 4 to AIR 29. It did skip a few versions at one point, but overall it seems to be still in development.

AIR doesn't require HTML, and also it can't embed SWF (without some publish time difficulties, or if they are SWFs with no code). AIR with a web view can't play SWF any more than Safari can.

[zwetan_uk]

yeah sorry I meant "by the end of 2020"

and AIR can load SWF on Desktop and Mobile

see Loading an external SWF file

for an embed it is about the same

[Embed(source="file.swf", mimeType="application/octet-stream")]
public var myFile:Class;

var data:ByteArray = new myFile() as ByteArray;

var loader:Loader = new Loader();
    loader.loadBytes( data );

Now, on iOS the loadBytes() is not allowed
see this Packaging and loading multiple SWFs in AIR apps on iOS

in general for mobile you can load local SWF files packaged with the AIR app at compile time
and for desktop you can do the same or load bytes from an [embed] tag

the local restriction is mainly for iOS, under Android, Windows and macOS
you could load a remote SWF dynamically

[ASWC]

Since FP won't be updated after 2020 and FP reads .swf, does that mean there will be a point where one can publish a .swf and FP won't be able to read it because of incompatible version? And in that case will the system with AIR providing its own FP at install time be somehow broken as well?

[zwetan_uk]

yes and it is already the case, with versioning

the players FP and AIR are versioned but the SWF file as well

eg.
SWF29 is FP 18 and AIR 18

SWF30 is FP 19 and AIR 19

if someone publish a SWF30 the FP 18 or AIR 18 will not read it

it will be the same mecanism for Flash EOL