Alternatives To Rewriting Flash Applications In HTML5

Over the last decade, Flash has gradually lost market share in interactive browser-based applications, being replaced by open web standards like HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly. This is because of their broader compatibility across a wide range of browsers, devices, and environments to satisfy user demand and improved security.

This decline led to Adobe officially ending the support and distribution of the Flash Player and Flash has also been disabled in most modern web browsers.

However, Flash retains a significant audience in a variety of long-life Enterprise applications, video games and creative content.

In these circumstances where continued use of Flash via modern browsers is no longer possible, many people and organisations are looking at ways to extend the life of their content, for example by converting Flash to HTML5.

How to continue to access Flash content

A complete rewrite of Flash in HTML5 is often cost-prohibitive, impossible (if the application is third-party) or impractical. However, there are a couple of alternative options:

CheerpX for Flash

CheerpX for Flash is, in essence, a JavaScript/WebAssembly middleware library that transforms any Flash page into pure HTML5.

CheerpX for Flash is compatible with any Flash application, is fully static and served via HTTP, and is completely self-hostable. By adding CheerpX for Flash to any existing Flash application, it makes it accessible to any standard modern browser, without a local Flash installation.

Ruffle

Ruffle is an Open-Source Flash Player emulator written in Rust and maintained by the community. Ruffle runs on all modern browsers through the use of WebAssembly and is primarily focused on supporting video games and creative content. It only has partial compatibility with AS3 (the vast majority of ‘complex’ Flash applications), and does not support Flex/Spark applications.

Remote / Proxy Browsers and Citrix

Another option is to run a ‘proxied’ browser on a remote virtual machine, using a Citrix-like approach. This relies on using a remote legacy browser with Flash support, remotely controlling it and ‘streaming’ its output. This option is not available for internal applications (except if an internal Citrix or Citrix-like architecture is present), and carries a high per-user infrastructure cost.

Packaged Browser

“Packaged browsers” are essentially applications that wrap a (usually legacy) browser engine along with the Flash Player, locked to a specific web-based Flash application. They are deployed as separate applications, so need to be installed by an end-user and accessed as a desktop application. They are normally only used for internal applications.

Conclusion

Modern web standards have surpassed Flash in their capabilities and offer a much more seamless experience, without security concerns and performance issues. Despite the long-awaited demise of Adobe Flash in 2021, some content owners might still not have made the much-needed transition from Flash to HTML5, due to the cost and practicalities.

We hope this guide and list of alternatives prove useful in the transition to the new web standards.

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