addressing users' fears about courses published with Flash and HTML

Jan 14, 2021

Hi Storyline Experts,

I want to address concerns of folks using our courses that were published with both Flash and HTML. The danger isn't in their browser rendering our course in Flash when Flash is still enabled, the danger is in having Flash installed at all. It has nothing to do with a Storyline course; the Storyline course poses no danger.

The danger in having Flash enabled is that malicious code can exploit Flash vulnerabilities to do damage. Storyline courses are not using Flash in order to exploit its vulnerabilities to execute malicious code on users’ systems, Storyline courses are using Flash to render content. To use the analogy of a knife, it isn't like Storyine is using a knife to threaten or harm someone, its like Storyline is using a knife to spread butter on toast (one's opinion of the danger of butter and toast aside!)

Is this a good explanation to alleviate fear about having one of our courses, that was published with both Flash and HTML content, implemented in their LMS?

Thanks

8 Replies
Judy Nollet

Hi, David,

To extend your metaphor: They should remove the knife (i.e., turn off Flash in the LMS) so that others cannot harm them. Storyline will just use a spatula (i.e., HTML5) to spread the butter instead. 

I still recommend republishing for HTML5 only when possible, though, especially if it's an old course. The HTML5 standards have evolved, so an older version might not run completely as expected. Also, there are some animations (like the Wipe) that don't run in some browsers.

Or, at the very least, there should be some testing to ensure the course does run correctly as published with Flash turned off.

David Kelling

Thanks Judy! Hoping to hear also from Articulate. I agree it would be better to simply republish them all in SL 360 and we'll do that eventually; it wasn't practical for us to get them all converted to SL360 before the end of 2020. I just want to assure users of courses that were published with both Flash and HTML5--that work just fine when rendered in HTML5--that there is no danger.  

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi, David! 

Thanks for checking in regarding Flash content and what concerns your customers would have! You're right - the concern with Flash shouldn't be within the Storyline course or code itself, but in the fact that your learners would still have Flash installed within their browsers. 

If they disabled Flash entirely, and you also had published with HTML5 included, they should be able to playback your courses normally. Web browsers will simply ignore the Flash content and display the HTML5 version instead. However, HTML5 output from our legacy apps only works in Google Chrome and Safari. It won’t work reliably in other browsers. For more details, check out this article on how the end of Flash impacts Articulate tools. 

Please let us know if you have any other questions - it's a tricky transition so we're here to help! 

David Kelling

Thanks, that's what I thought, I just wanted confirmation from Articulate before advising our users.  Understood about HTML5 output from legacy apps; we're working on it as fast as we can on conversion to Storyline 360-published courses but for the most part we only used legacy Storyline functionality that does work with limited HTML5 support. Thanks again, David