Hlynur Adolfsson Posted on 6:06 am

Here’s How To Back Up Flash Content For Your Website

Flash is dead – and not just since Adobe stopped delivering updates for the client, numerous websites had already said goodbye to the software. It is not up-to-date and not secure. YouTube, for example, which is what Google is all about, switched from Adobe’s format to HTML5 in 2015. In contrast to Flash and Flash Player, this is an open technique. Browsers can use them natively, you do not need to install a plug-in.

What do you need Flash for? Download Flash content

The loss of Flash hurts after all because there are websites that need to put down their sites because they need Flash to get everything working. Of course, you have the option to update your existing website or create a whole new website. This means you will have to look for another hosting that works well with your demands. But you can always visit this site if you need proper hosting. On the other hand, you can back up flash content to keep things working for your website.

Back up Flash content

As long as a website can be called up, the browser displays a placeholder instead of a Flash animation or a game. Downloading the Flash content is possible with a glance at the website source code and URL copy & paste in the address bar. This is possible using Firefox. There is still the aspect of Flash playback. In the past, SWF files could be played solidly in Internet Explorer, which has been integrated in the browser since Windows 8 (with Windows 10 also in its Edge / Legacy). That should no longer work in the future. What is possible, however, is to use the portable Windows software Ruffle for playback. Ruffle is also available as a browser plug-in for Firefox, for example, but this version cannot be installed due to the lack of digital signature.

1. Go to the Flash website. Visit the web page from which you want to back up Flash content.

2. View the website source code. The procedure is different depending on the browser. With Firefox, right-click on a free space with the Flash game page open and select “Show page source text”. Press Ctrl-F to enable browser search and enter .swf. How to find a Flash file in SWF format embedded in the page. Right-click the SWF link in the source view; then go to “Copy link address” in the context menu.

Use the context menu of your web browser to call up the website source code. Now search for the SWF Flash file and copy its address. This is followed by copying the address of the SWF Flash link to the clipboard.

3. Download the Flash animation or game. Open a new tab with Ctrl-T and paste the URL from the RAM with Ctrl-V. Confirm with the Enter key. A file download begins and Firefox asks for the desired destination path. The file extension is .sfw. Incidentally, the file would not have this extension if you had right-clicked the SWF link in the source text tab and selected “Save target as”. The file sizes would be identical in both cases.

Is the URL to the SWF file in the source text relative (to the domain), i.e. in the form main.swf? This is the case with the family homepage marek.de, which is many years old, is still HTTP (instead of HTTPS) based and now only has Flash content. Anyone who downloads and executes it will see that the page is “currently under processing”. Firefox shows view-source: <Domain / URL> in the source code view in the address bar for websites, and view-source: http: //marek.de/ for marek.de . Delete the view-source: and append it to the address /main.swf : This creates the address http://marek.de/main.swf for downloading. Press Enter to save the SWF file to the disk and confirm with “. And download: with a click you transfer the SWF file to your computer.

4. Play Flash content locally. You have now saved a Flash file, but no browser that will play the whole thing. It is best not to try to defeat the protective measures: If you come across solutions on the web that advertise bringing Flash back to the browser, the alarm bells should start ringing. Playing Flash content with external software such as Ruffle is relatively safe . If you follow our download link , you will receive a ZIP archive. At least extract the ruffle.exe file from it; LICENSE.md and README.md, however, can be dispensed with. Call up the EXE application with a double click. It brings up an open dialog in which you navigate to the SWF file to be played (more respectfully, to be gambled). Double click on it.

The Flash content appears, has sound, and comes from your speakers too. Maximizing ruffle is possible; with its window, the dimensions of the flash game (in our case “PC Breakdown”) scale with it. After calling the portable Ruffle EXE file, specify your loaded SWF file. Calling up SWF content worked in the test with Windows 10 (but not Windows 8.1).

In the test, downloading Flash content with Firefox under Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 (20H2, October 2020 Update) worked, but playing content in Ruffle only worked with Windows 10. In Windows 8.1, the problem arose on two devices that Ruffle closed after selecting a SWF file and did not output any file contents. In addition, the Windows Smartscreen filter activated under Windows 8.1 / 10 . This apparently happened because the EXE file is still quite new. If this is also the case for you, legitimize calling the software with “Further information> Execute anyway”.

 

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