Tech Forum

Will the Church be moving towards HTML5 instead of Adobe Flash on new.familysearch.org?

I'm sure that they are probably working on something like that for just about everything that is on the web, not just nFS.

That said, it's likely not Flash on nFS, but another program known as Adobe Flex, that is more commonly seen, you see it when you view the entire tree, not just the four-generation version you get when you see 'Me and My Ancestors'.

Another matter to note, is that I'm seeing the site design teams use something that is very rarely used, although it is seen from time to time on the web, but only a very small percentage of video content is done this way at all, and that is Microsoft Silverlight. Web developers tell me that it is seen but so infrequently most people are not going to want to download it. Best to stick with Flash for video in most web developer's opinions.

Most say that Flash can just about do everything one would desire to do with Silverlight.

JamesAnderson wrote:I'm sure that they are probably working on something like that for just about everything that is on the web, not just nFS.

That said, it's likely not Flash on nFS, but another program known as Adobe Flex, that is more commonly seen, you see it when you view the entire tree, not just the four-generation version you get when you see 'Me and My Ancestors'.

Another matter to note, is that I'm seeing the site design teams use something that is very rarely used, although it is seen from time to time on the web, but only a very small percentage of video content is done this way at all, and that is Microsoft Silverlight. Web developers tell me that it is seen but so infrequently most people are not going to want to download it. Best to stick with Flash for video in most web developer's opinions.

Most say that Flash can just about do everything one would desire to do with Silverlight.

The only reason I ask is that I normally access the site using my laptop using Windows 7 or Ubuntu but the other day, while I was at one of my kids soccer match, I was using my iPad. Not so good because of the "no flash" stance of Apple.

I am also having problems with new.familysearch.org and flash on my iPad 2. I see the problem when I try so see Temple Ordinances as well as with the Family Tree. I hope the Church programmers will help church members with iPads to be able to use new.familysearch.org. Maybe an iPad app could be developed for iPad users.

The continued reliance on Flash keeps mobile users out of the system.

vanleeuwendr wrote:The continued reliance on Flash keeps mobile users out of the system.

Not all mobile users; some mobile platforms do support Flash.

But in any case, the new Family Tree (which will replace New FamilySearch) doesn't rely on Flash. So later this year this problem will go away.

aebrown wrote:Not all mobile users; some mobile platforms do support Flash.

Flash has been discontinued for Android. iPhone never had it. I'm not sure of the status of the other platforms.

RussellHltn wrote:Flash has been discontinued for Android.

True, but that was less than 4 weeks ago. Millions upon millions of Android devices have Flash on them.

Nonetheless, the topic of this thread is New FamilySearch, and as I noted, the replacement for New FamilySearch (Family Tree) will indeed no longer use Flash. So the issue will soon be moot.

Flash was also scuttled and sunk elsewhere on FamilySearch as well.

The other parts of FamilySearch besides Family Tree replacing nFS that also dumped Flash are the historical records collections and FamilySearch Books where there are images. The old image viewer was scratched earlier this year in favor of an XML/HTML5 viewer. Some complained about not being able to crop images, so they are supposedly working on a new XML/HTML5 viewer that will allow for that but I know no other news aside from the possibility of that.