/t5/captivate-discussions/swf-compatibility/td-p/8014921Jan 29, 2016
Jan 29, 2016
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Hi. Does anyone know of any issues, concerns, watchouts when it comes to making swf published projects available to a variety of user PC builds? In other words, how compatible is launching SWF files?
/t5/captivate-discussions/swf-compatibility/m-p/8014922#M209889Jan 29, 2016
Jan 29, 2016
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What do you mean exactly? Normally all browsers on desktop/laptop (can) support Flash output. On the contrary, mobile devices will not play SWF-output.
Looking to see how reliable that output would be. So the biggest wildcard so to speak would be Flash Player's being present on the learners' computers.
It would appear you haven't been keeping abreast of the latest announcements by Adobe regarding the future of Flash.
Since Adobe is now encouraging all developers to avoid using Flash for future projects it would seem prudent to avoid SWF as an e-learning output. Otherwise your content could stop working in the near future when organisations abandon use of the Flash Player.
Wow...Rod...nice condescending tone. It would appear that you are arrogant and pompous I guess anyone who hasn't been "keeping abreast" of the latest announcements is an idiot in your eyes. Do us all a favor and keep your arrogant "help" to yourself.
Sorry you happen to feel that way, but I feel you're being rather hasty in making such sweeping judgments. You've just arrived on this forum, have no discernible history of posting here, and yet you launch into a personal attack on one of the people most likely to have offered solutions to any problems you were experiencing with Captivate.
For the record, I DO NOT regard anyone that missed Adobe's announcement as "an idiot", but I do see the imminent demise of Flash and SWF as an extremely serious issue for the e-learning community. Part of my responsibility as one of the major contributors to this forum is to make sure Captivate users do not get blindsided by this development.
Most long-time users of this app have been creating SWF content with it for many years. And that means some users have a significant amount of course content set up in ways that leave it very vulnerable when SWF gets suddenly switched off by some corporate decision beyond our control. Redeveloping that content for HTML5 compatibility could take many months or even years in some cases. E-learning developers that don't start preparing right now for the inevitable day when Flash content stops working could find themselves in a very stressful situation.
But rest assured YOU need not fear being 'helped' further. Anytime I see you raise a question on this forum, I will be sure NOT to chime in to offer assistance.
I do appreciate your thoughts on the demise of Flash and SWF...and I think your response was valuable. Please know that my reaction to your response was excessive (my apologies), but you do have to admit that your post had a condescending tone. I know you don't feel that anyone who doesn't stay up to date on Adobe announcements as an idiot, but you could make someone feel that way. So here is some feedback....never make assumptions about what someone has or has not done. Instead of "It would appear you haven't been keeping abreast...." try "This may or may not be news to you, but Adobe had an announcement regarding_____. Here is a link. I found it provided valuable insight."
Thank you for the apology but I stand by my belief that no statement in my original post was inappropriate.
The original poster's question clearly showed they WERE unaware of the recent developments regarding deprecation of Flash content, otherwise they would not have asked if there were "any issues with SWF". I merely pointed out that their question appeared to indicate they were in the dark about these extremely important recent announcements from Adobe itself.
I have NEVER said (or even intimated) on this forum that failure to keep up to date with all Adobe announcements would mean someone was an idiot. If I did this I would be calling myself an idiot because I could never keep up with all announcements from Adobe either. Even keeping up with what Adobe does in the e-learning genre is nearly a full-time job.
Thanks for the advice about how to write my posts, but after your first salvo and the way you addressed me, I feel you may be more than a little hypocritical telling me to "never make assumptions about what someone has or has not done".
/t5/captivate-discussions/swf-compatibility/m-p/8014927#M209894Feb 01, 2016
Feb 01, 2016
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While Rod's reply is likely prudent, I don't know if I'd be quite so definitive.
It takes a long time for stuff to get pulled out of most environments. I know a few places that are still on XP!
Browser's are probably pushing obsolescence more than anyone...i.e. how Chrome dropped support for 'NPAPI' plugins...which is pushing Oracle to pretty much drop Java as a plugin...
So, again, it's probably prudent to avoid SWF output as eventually Flash - as a SWF plugin - will fade away.
But it won't happen overnight (or even this year, IMO).
Otherwise, explore HTML output. Pretty much all browsers can handle HTML5 output, and little of Captivate 9's HTML5 output isn't supported - at least in my experience. There may be no good reason to output to SWF. Try HTML only and see if that works for your target audience/environment.
The new Animate CC outputs OAM, and if you import in to Muse you will get the Flash player error. OAM files have become swf. Crazy but I just discovered this. You can export from Animate as WebGL, and have it be responsive, but you can't get WebGL in to Muse. It's an awful state until they fix these issues.
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