• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

No more Flash Player...what do I do?

New Here ,
Jan 11, 2021 Jan 11, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Now that Adobe has stopped using Adobe Flash Player, can anyone tell me how I can publish my Captivate files and run them through a Sharepoint site? I used to publish them and then place the .swf file into Sharepoint to play them.

 

HELP! 

Views

1.4K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 12, 2021 Jan 12, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Demise of Flash Player has been announced almost 4 years ago. Most companies have prepared for that and updated their Captivate courses since a while.

To answer your question more directly. HTML output is like a webste and needs to be uploaded to a webserver or a LMS. Sharepoint is not a webserver. That webserver needs to support JSON.

<Moreover not every feature is supported for HTML output and a lot of features are ONLY supported for HTML output. It is not just publishing to another output format, but needs serious reworking and checking. Since you uploaded just the SWF, you already lost some functionality because neither the JS nor the CSS file was invoked which happened only when the normal workflow, starting from the htm file was used. Maybe those courses had very little interactivity? 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Jan 12, 2021 Jan 12, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi Lilybiri,

Thanks for the information, but it does not answer the question I had,
which was 'what do I do'?

Instructions on how to publish and how I can place the published file on
Sharepoint would be helpful.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 12, 2021 Jan 12, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

HTML5 output is not a single file as was possible with SWF. Your HTML5 output is made up of dozens if not hundreds of files that must all work together and the output folder structure must be preserved otherwise linkages will break. 

 

As Lieve tried to explain to you, HTML5 content is designed to be delivered from a web server, not a LAN server or local disc drive.  And since a SharePoint server actually works more like a LAN file server, not a web server you are going to find that your HTML5 content cannot be run from SharePoint. 

 

Very simple projects created in Captivate and output to HTML5 may still work when run from a LAN drive, but not if your project is a 360, or responsive, or interactive video project.

 

You need to forget about SharePoint and upload your HTML5 output to a web server.  Additionally, that web server also needs to enable JSON files as well for everything to work.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 12, 2021 Jan 12, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I told the same as Rod... you need a WEBSERVER and Sharepoint is NOT a webserver.

 

Moreover publish to HTML5 is just changing the publishing dialog box, but you need first to check every slide and item to see if it is compatible with HTML5 output. I answered your questions but you didn't understand me at all. Lot depends also on the version you used for the older project. Maybe have a look at the tutorial which I added to this blog post, where I explain which different scenarios you can have to face when upgrading older courses for HTML5 output:

http://blog.lilybiri.com/using-cpquizinfoanswerchoice-for-survey-conversion-from-swf-to-html

 

 

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Jan 13, 2021 Jan 13, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

So to make sure I am clear, companies that have spent enormous amounts of time creating educational content that would launch from an executable file, now need to have a specific webserver and republish all of their files. Even though Adobe still allows them to create executables in their current version of Captivate, they just won't launch. Is that correct?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 13, 2021 Jan 13, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Rod or Lilybiri- so the option to publish as exe and burn to CD (we deal with CD still- I know...) is no longer supported by Captivate. Essentially the EXE is a Flash file and because Flash is no longer supported this functionality, though an option within Captivate, is not really a viable option. It's there to select- but don't select it because it won't work.  (Not being snarky- I just have to provide justification to my management who keep telling me Captivate still has the Publish as EXE available therefore... publish it... and then they are frustrated it won't play.) Thank you for expertise. I know with Flash being no longer supported I have been working at getting our CBTs on an LMS and most are. But we do have to support ships that don't have servers or internet and require CDs as well. 
Thank you for your help!

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 13, 2021 Jan 13, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Yes that is correct.  Adobe gave several notice several years ago that Flash was ending. 

 

Anyone who did their homework on EXE output from Captivate would know these are actually self-running Flash SWF players.   Whether or not the EXE files will launch on an end user's system at this point in time will depend very much on the exact configuration of that system.  Some may, but most won't.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 13, 2021 Jan 13, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

You can tell your management that Captivate 2019 has now been around since late 2018, more than two years ago.   Had Adobe agressively decided to drop publishing support for SWF or EXE output when Cp 2019 was released there would have been howls of protest from organisations that felt the Flas EOL was still a long way off and they needed to support their current output.  But Adobe and every other authoring tool vendor have been warning NOT to keep using Flash.  If your management chose to ignore that advice, they have nobody else to blame but themselves.

 

Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you should.  This is ONE reason why I've never taken up bungee jumping.

 

In your specific situation, I would suggest you try looking into using HTML5 content delivered from a CD ROM which launches its own web server when it starts up.  That's a much better solution than EXE, but it means you are going to need to work out the technical details.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Sadly Adobe made a very serious mistake.

Yes they gave lots of notice but surely they should have offered two versions of Captivate:

  1. Flash-free and

2 another that still supported flash until its demise.

The fact this current version still produced flash files was extremely dangerous.

I strongly feel Adobe have allowed Captivate to fall so far behind other e-learning products; it's clear it is not seen as a core product.

Adobe bought a comppany many years ago to give themselves access to many good software products a side product in this purchase was Authorware which lead onto Captivate.

Adobe have struggled with e-learning and never really understood the market or its direction.

 

Fortunatly I am not in the position having seen this comming and have moved to other software to produce e-learning 

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Where there is a will, there is a way..... I'm trying to find that way.  🙂 In the meantime thank you for your responses and we move forward! 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

@Bernie 
I simply CANNOT agree with you here.  The assertion that Adobe should have published two DIFFERENT versions of Captivate simply ridiculous.

The fact that Captivate 2019 can publish to EXE and SWF does not mean you are forced to use those outputs.  If you want "Flash-free" output, just publish HTML5!

If you want to keep publishing Flash-based outputs, the answer is easy, just use Captivate 2019 (or any version before it) and DO NOT UPDATE when Adobe eventually ditches these outputs in some future version of the app.

There is nothing "dangerous" about still having the ability to publish these outputs from Captivate.  The only "dangerous" thing here is to ignore all the copious warnings about the Flash end of life and blindly continue publishing outputs that are now no longer supported.

Now there are SOME things about Adobe's decisions in the e-learning market that I don't personally agree with either.  But the fact that Adobe has managed to position their e-learning authoring tool at the very top end of the market year after year would certainly seem to indicate that they know a fair bit about how to run a successful software business.  

If you prefer to move to another e-learning authoring tool, you are certainly within your rights to do so.  But after all these years that warnings have been given about the death of Flash I really do not see how you "didn't see this coming".  You cannot have been paying attention.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

No 

Not my problem I have used many parellel developing tools for years but for adobe to turn out flash containing products even tthree months ago was digusting and mileading to custoimers we are seeing on this forum this afternoon. These are non programmers who had no dideal they were using a dead product. 

But just look at Adobes own product range....Creative cloud offers products which produce better HTML 5 output than captivate yets cannot be easily intergrated into a captivate course!!.

 

 

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Dec 07, 2023 Dec 07, 2023

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

Defective logic - It Dec 2023 and I still have training videos from mid 2015-2016 that I now need, but can't access because Adobe dumped flash with no plan B in place.

Actually, Adobe like Microsoft have sown themselves in to be non-replaceable.  Doesn't raise them much above the POS level.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

My memories differ from yours. Authorware and Captivate have existed for some years independently from each other. Captivate was named 'RoboDemo' before Macromedia renamed it to Captivate, but is not something originated from Authorware.

You may have other data of course, also about eLearning authoring tools used in the world...

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Well I was a user of Authorware.......that shows my age!!! Adobe bought Macromedia they initially continued to sell authorware then yes as you say launched Robodemo and dropped support for authorware at that point.

You are right the products was not developed from Authorware Adobe dumped those developers.

Captivate has always been a poor neighbour of the bigger Adobe products Photoshop etc. at teh moment if you buy a Creative Cloud licence you get incredible value for money far in excess of what you get with a similar price for a captivate licence.

My yes is adobe have felt they have had a market share from captivate without having t do too much development.

Now flash has been dropped the product lacks so much of what can be achieved by using other HTML 5 development tools including those within the creative cloud licence. which can produce same results but of course give you far more value for money.

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Sorry, the name Captivate was given by Macromedia, not by Adobe. Macromedia launched Captivate 1,2,3. I started in beta test for Adobe with Captivate 4. BTW I have also used Authorware, and at a certain moment Flash had a version which was closer to Authorware but they abandoned that path which I regretted a lot.

I am an ACP and AEL, do use a lot of CC applications but none of them can really result in eLearning assets as Captivate can do. As a lifelong trainer and professor I require pretty high level of interactive eLearning and never was able to achieve with other eLearning authoring tools what Captivate can, in collaboration with other CC applications and mobile apps for assets, but not for eLearning interactions.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Macromedia, Inc. was an American graphics, multimedia, and web development software company (1992–2005) headquartered in San FranciscoCalifornia that made products such as Flash and Dreamweaver. It was purchased by its rival Adobe Inc. on December 3, 2005

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I am betting I am like the other unhappy learning developers here, an end-user, not the person inking the high priced contracts. I can say as an end-user Adobe has sent many, many marketing emails to me but none that say in the subject "End of Life, Captivate". I am sure if I researched on my own or read all of their news it was in there, but I did not again because I am an end-user worker bee. I also think that in this environment of required online learning due to CV-19, Adobe has really missed an opportunity to gain market share knowing there was an issue and not developing new tools, workarounds, or support, that would have seemed to me to be a no-brainer from a monetary point of view.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I'm sorry. I don't come from a programming background but am a trainer that became a CBT developer.  Truly I had no clue EXE output were self-running Flash SWF Players. It didn't even cross my mind to research. All other SWF files we did move over to HTML5 a year ago preparing for this.  And previously our ships did receive SWF.  I thought back then, I found a pretty brilliant workaround but publishing to EXE rather than SWF. Jokes on me.  But I'm moving a path forward and earning my paycheck.  It's a challenge- but I won't claim defeat. I still prefer Captivate to other programs and think it's a great product. We have had the heads up for years, and I just didn't put 2 + 2 together for EXE files. All good... Happy Thursday! 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jan 14, 2021 Jan 14, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Fortuatley using HTML 5 is not that hard there are many out there who can help you. But of course you will lose many of teh novel things that captivate did with SWF output

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Resources
Help resources