Is Flash (.swf) support going away?

[RaceBannon]

My boss asked me to find out if the rumors of flash's demise are true and how will it affect our company. We have web based training that is authored in a proprietary application, but that application uses a custom built audio players (built in flash AS1 and exported as a .swf file). The training plays in a browser (IE or Firefox). I'm already struggling trying to re-write the player in AS3.0.

FYI: no mobile training is being created

My ultimate questions are:

1. Is support for flash .swf files going away (in the next 5 years)?
2. Will current or future .swf file have to be re-written in HTML5 (or whatever the flavor of the week is) to work correctly in IE and FF going forward?

thank you in advance for your opinions/comments.

[Frets]

There are a few swf to html5 convertors that do just fine.

Including Swiffy https://developers.google.com/swiffy/
Which can be used by uploading smaller (1mb) swf's to the site where they are converted to html5 or the adobe flash extension which allows you to export html5 from flash


There are also plenty of other ways to make swf work in different circumstances as html or as standalone .exe' for kiosk type environments Such as - http://northcode.com

[realMakc]

@Frets and how would swiffy help him with audio players?

@RaceBannon rewriting to as3 will not do anything for you since you will still end up with swf files (just of higher version). if I were you, I would be checking out html audio tag - it might just work ootb for you.

[RaceBannon]

Frets
Problem with swiffy is i still need to be able to edit the flash file to add different audio for each different use, and adding the audio file each time will go above the 1MB limit


RealMakc,

A little more background on my situation: the audio player is actually just a timeline flash file set up so i can add the audio (narration) to one layer, then adjust the timeline labels to fit the length of the audio. That way the rewind and fast forward buttons stop at the end or beginnings of sentences. Since Adobe Flash CC (my latest version, which overwrote the previous version) does not support AS1 or 2 i can't edit the timeline (to add a different narration) anymore. If i can rewrite the code into AS3 i should be good, for now (i think)).

You suggest going to HTML5, in your opinion is that the future of flash? will browsers loose the flash capability?

thank you both for your input

[realMakc]

Since Adobe Flash CC (my latest version, which overwrote the previous version) does not support AS1 or 2 i can't edit the timeline (to add a different narration) anymore.

You can still get CS6 version from the cloud:

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[FlashLackey]

Frets
Problem with swiffy is i still need to be able to edit the flash file to add different audio for each different use, and adding the audio file each time will go above the 1MB limit


RealMakc,

A little more background on my situation: the audio player is actually just a timeline flash file set up so i can add the audio (narration) to one layer, then adjust the timeline labels to fit the length of the audio. That way the rewind and fast forward buttons stop at the end or beginnings of sentences. Since Adobe Flash CC (my latest version, which overwrote the previous version) does not support AS1 or 2 i can't edit the timeline (to add a different narration) anymore. If i can rewrite the code into AS3 i should be good, for now (i think)).

You suggest going to HTML5, in your opinion is that the future of flash? will browsers loose the flash capability?

thank you both for your input

Browsers already don't have Flash capability out of the box. It's just a guess at this point. But, I think that plug-ins that allow playing Flash files will still be around for some time. It's a matter of how likely your target viewers will continue to be comfortable installing the plug-in as time goes on and it becomes more rare to already be installed.

Not sure what the training pieces are like. They might be fine in HTML5. But, more likely than not they will be a pain to make in a platform that was intended to adjust paragraphs and handle hyperlinks. Honestly, it might be worthwhile to consider a bigger shift and look at moving that type of business onto Android or iOS.