Last week Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome web browsers stopped supporting Flash (.swf and .flv files) due to security vulnerabilities in Flash Player. Both browsers were blocking Flash plugins by default.
This May Adversely Affect Clients Using:
- SCORM courses;
- Flash files embedded or linked to in courses (introductions, tests, course pages, scripts);
- Flash files used on home pages;
- Flash files used on any other content editor pages in the system;
Although not related to recent events, remember that users cannot access Flash content from iOS devices by default.
Work Arounds
Adobe released an update, but users may still run into situtations where they are not able to view Flash content.
Flash Player Update
Users may need to manually update their Flash installs. Visit Resolution for recent Flash Vulnerabilities for more details.
Browsers
Even with a Flash update, browsers may still block the content. Firefox or Chrome users can still choose to allow Flash: when they see a blocked plugin page, they must grant permission to update the plugin and/or allow Flash to load for the page.
Permanent Solutions
SCORM
Many course authoring tools have a method of output to HTML or “Mobile”. If you have the source files, then you can resave in this format and update the file in Informetica. For SCORM items, please review the Updating SCORM document in the system’s Support > Resources. Here are links to publishing SCORM in HTML format for some of the pouplar course authoring tools being used by our clients:
Flash Content & Videos
Flash files (.swf and .flv files) can be converted to another viable video format using video conversion software. For example, Windows Movie Maker that was included with several Windows versions.
Also of Note
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer has not yet banned Flash. However, the future of IE itself may be less supported in favor of Windows 10 and their new browser, Microsoft Edge. There is speculation that Flash will still be supported.
YouTube
YouTube stopped providing videos using Flash in January 2015. The site now uses HTML5 video formats (.mp4) for all modern browsers.