You may term this as yet another horror tag to a year already plagued with many problems, but Flash to HTML5 is a reality that most of us have to tackle most urgently before the year is over. For instance, most of our company discussions nowadays are focused on the flash to html5 conversion as Adobe will no longer support the flash player plug-in by the end of 2020.

Till a few years back, Adobe Flash was the ubiquitous choice for any sort of multimedia development such as animations, games, videos, e-learning materials, etc. It was the only software that could provide access to any graphic, animated, or content related items on the internet.

One just could not avoid the de-facto Flash and its other Adobe family software if one needed a presence on the internet in any manner. This dependency was despite Flash’s inherent shortcomings such as stability issues, security gaps, complications on mobile devices, performance defects, and more.

In 2015, however, twice Adobe was forced to announce that the risks associated with Flash did not have any existing patch. This led the leading browsers to advocate for the deactivation of flash plugins.

Even as early as April 2010, Steve Jobs had exactly predicted the demise of Flash and had cited six reasons namely, openness, reliability and security, performance and battery life, touch, the “full web” experience, and the quality of 3rd party development tools. Steve Jobs had also further recommended the use of JavaScript, CSS, and HTML for future development.

The Conundrum

This soon-to-be-obsolete technology leaves us with a big problem on our hands.Having ruled unopposed for many years now, all of the existing courses, advertisements, apps, animations, interactivities, and all other content have been published on Flash. From 2021, however, this legacy content will become obsolete and will not run on any of the browsers.

The only way to save the legacy content and make it relevant and usable is to convert it from flash to a more contemporary format, such as HTML5.

With the year still a few months shy of turning over, there is still hope for those of us who have yet to start on this urgent conversion process. Only in a few isolated cases will this conversion turn to be just a simple update. The rest of us will need a solid plan of action to ensure this conversion happens perfectly and smoothly.

HTML5 to the rescue

HTML or Hypertext Markup Language is a markup language used by the World Wide Web. It is a coding language that helps us to see things online.

The number ‘5’ after HTML means it is the fifth generation of HTML standard. HTML5 is a mobile-ready platform that is responsive and adjusts automatically to various mobile devices as per their usability and size.

The main benefit of using HTML5 is that it provides device-agnostic content. In the present day of mobile-based content, one needs to ensure that the content is independent of devices.

One major problem that flash always had was that it would require you to define and stay within a restrictive screen size. The use of HTML5 however, breaks down this challenge by being responsive to any screen size.

HTML5 saves everyone a lot of time and effort by allowing one to write the semantic and descriptive codes cleanly. This cleaner code is compatible with all types of devices without writing reams of new code for each type of device.

From the user perspective, it allows access to the content anywhere, anytime, and helps them on their learning journey without ever worrying about owning a particular device or plugins. HTML5 also provides a simple structure that makes the work of the coder easier and faster.

HTML5 allows content to flow and adjust easily to any sort of device where the learner does not need to scroll the pages and one need not wait too long for video and audio files to load. It also allows for adding new videos, audios, geolocations, intriguing interfaces, etc. in a ‘cleaner’ manner through the Doctype tagging system.

Converting the flash content to HTML5 integrates and synchronizes this whole process for all sorts of devices present in the market. It also allows you to break-up your learning paths or add interesting navigation that provides an engaging and immersive experience.

The Action Plan

The steps described below when undertaken in the exact order will help your conversion project immensely:

Evaluate:

One should start by evaluating the existing content and trying to figure out if it is still relevant. If the answer is no and it is obsolete material, it is best to simply retire the course, asset, app, or program and create a new one instead of wasting time converting it.

If on the other hand, you do not want to start from scratch and the content is still relevant, you should focus on how much of the content you need to rebuild or redesign from the start and how much can be salvaged. The answer to this will depend upon the number of flash-based units and animations that make up your published content.

Once this list is finalized, it is a good idea to cross-reference it to help you track the various pieces of content throughout the conversion process.

Source files:

Find and sort the source files for all of the content on the list that needs to be converted to HTML5. These source files are required by the developer to convert them properly.

In most cases, different tools are employed to create content and not all of it is Flash. So, one needs to identify the tools that were used to create this content like Adobe Captivate, Adobe Flash, Adobe Animate, Articulate, etc. and ensure that all the source files are in order.

In such cases where the source files are missing for any reason, the content shall need to be created from scratch, or at times only parts of it may be salvaged.

Choose your tool

One needs next to identify the appropriate authoring tool for the conversion work. There are a lot of free tools available online and you need to decide if you have the necessary in-house capabilities to undertake this mammoth conversion work.

The other option is to find a suitable partner for your organization who can undertake this work and provide you with the final HTML5 files.

Do remember that a smooth conversion is possible only when the existing source file can be exported to the new version which supports HTML5.

In such cases where existing tools do not provide conversion, you may need to create new packages or rethink your technical options to make suitable graphical and usability adjustments.

A test

Before you start the full-blown conversion process it is a prudent step to do a ‘pilot run’ or a POC. This will test a few modules, chapters, etc. of the entire course or app without wasting too much time, effort, and money. It will also allow you to check the converted content on the desktop as well as on various mobile devices.

Always remember that more tests are better than less and putting in efforts at this stage will help you avoid major problems later on.

In case this test fails, you may have to rethink your strategy and maybe revamp only portions of the content or even replace the entire course.

Another way to reuse your legacy content could be to figure out and restrict the mobile devices on which the content runs fine. One may target only a few devices until one can find suitable content replacements.

But that is only a cheat code when you are in dire straits and suitable only when you have some control over your end-user like within a small group of people.

Tech-talk

Now is the time to finalize the GUI and the interactivities by choosing the right template that works best for your kind of content.

Test, test, and test

Development leads to testing before it may be allowed to be published. Rigorous quality checks need to be done for any Flash to HTML5 conversions on all of the devices that your users may have access to including mobiles, PCs, laptops, etc.

Sterco Learning has been providing high-end services on the web, new media, and e-learning for over 20 years. Contact us today for a hassle-free and professional flash to html5 conversion experience in case any of the above-mentioned steps seem too much for your team to handle.