1 Topic by unwiredben (edited by unwiredben 2020-10-14 11:00:29)

  • From: Austin, TX
  • Registered: 2009-05-07
  • Posts: 471

Topic: What to do about Flash's death?

I just went to try to configure some widgets for a new channel, and ran into the problem of Flash no longer being supported in browsers.  While it's supposed to be completely unsupported at the end of the year (2020), it's already really hard to activate it, at least in current Firefox releases, and I expect Chrome is also problematic.

I was looking for some system to run Flash content using a safer technology, and one that popped up is CheerpX: https://medium.com/leaningtech/announci … d35483ee35  I wonder if this might be viable... the cost may be too high, but it looks like it could work.

It also looks like Harman is doing licensing, https://services.harman.com/partners/adobe, and that could lead to a "Chumby config" app that would use the Chumby site with Flash content.

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  • Registered: 2017-04-25
  • Posts: 123

Re: What to do about Flash's death?

My line of work (broadcast engineering) has a lot of hardware with Flash-based GUIs which are very slow to convert to HTML5.  One transmitter manufacturer has come up with an Adobe Air wrapper for the Adobe Flash player which works fine.  I suspect we'll see more of this sort of thing, maybe as browser plug-ins.

3 Reply by unwiredben (edited by unwiredben 2020-11-19 13:07:30)

  • From: Austin, TX
  • Registered: 2009-05-07
  • Posts: 471

Re: What to do about Flash's death?

So, it looks like the Flash emulator Ruffles, https://ruffle.rs/, has come a long way.  The Internet Archive has started using a WebAssembly-compiled version of it to show old Flash 1 and 2 content.  See https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_flash and https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/datah … et_Archive has details on how to upload SWF files.

I'm hoping this provides a path to supporting configuration of Chumby widgets via the web.  I think most everything is FlashLite 1 and 2, although I seem to remember ActionScript 3 getting deployed later.

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  • Duane
  • Duane
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  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
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Re: What to do about Flash's death?

I'm pretty sure there aren't any AS3/AVM2 widgets in the catalog.

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  • Duane
  • Duane
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Re: What to do about Flash's death?

Ruffle has been deployed to the main website - it mostly works, but still has some bugs related to XML data loading.

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  • Plank
  • Busy Chum
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Re: What to do about Flash's death?

I use the various image url widgets to view webcams.  How do you copy and paste long urls into the Ruffle translated text boxes?  Instead, it pops up various quality, full screen, volume options.

  • Duane
  • Duane
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Re: What to do about Flash's death?

My understanding is that cut/paste of text on TextFields is an open bug in Ruffle.

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8 Reply by dasmurphy (edited by dasmurphy 2023-12-08 03:15:11)

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2009-12-01
  • Posts: 9

Re: What to do about Flash's death?

Hello,

just want to mentions that the preview of the website where the widgets are added to the channel ist not working. It displays an error where the wasm is not found when loading.

Also moving the widgets in different order is broken too currently and i cannot rearrange the widgets in the channel.

Is there any chance to fix this?

I use Chrome 117 on MacOS. I also tested the rearranging of widgets on Flashbrowser.

Cheers and thanks for a small answer,
Torsten

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  • Duane
  • Duane
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  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
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Re: What to do about Flash's death?

I just tested Safari 17.1.2 on MacOS 14.1.2, and it seems to work fine.

It does look like there's an issue with WASM under Chrome/MacOS (I'm using 119), I'll look into it.

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  • Duane
  • Duane
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Re: What to do about Flash's death?

OK, so it's a CORS problem - it should work if you use "http://www.chumby.com" instead of "http://chumby.com".  Chrome is more finicky about the domain than Safari.

I will see if I can set up a CORS policy file to handle both.

EDIT: The CORS problem should be fixed.

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  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2009-12-01
  • Posts: 9

Re: What to do about Flash's death?

Hey Duane,

thanks for the quick support. I will take a look into it and try it later. I hope my Chumby will be running still in years, even if it looks a little bit stuck in the past smile My kids are loving the Chumby clocks.

Cheers and have a nice Christmas,
Torsten

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