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Internet Software

Convert Flash to HTML with Wallaby

Adobe has finally heard my plea and it’s a dream come true for me. I always wanted a way to convert the Flash (.fla) files to html for universal compatibility, and now I have an app that will help me to convert the .fla file to html5. The main benefit of converting the .fla to html is that we can view the product in any device that does not support flash run-time but supports html (which almost all the devices do). All this is possible with the help of an experimental technology developed by Adobe System called Wallaby currently available as a free download in Adobe labs. The biggest beneficiary of this will be the iOS users, like users of iPhone, iPad and iPod tocuh.

 

Wallaby converts Adobe Flash Professional (.fla) files into html5 format. Once converted into html5 version, this can be edited using any html editor and can be used with any device that supports html5. All standard web browsers now support html5. Just to add here, .fla is the raw file format for any flash application which is then converted (and compressed) to swf and is embedded on a web page. Wallaby does not have the ability to convert the .swf files to html5. So if you are thinking that you can now convert any embedded flash files to html5 and modify it according to your desire, you may be out of luck as there is no direct conversion possible. However you can use a swf decompiler tool to convert .swf to .fla and then use Wallaby to convert .fla to html5. Where wallaby is offered for free by Adobe, you might have to shell out a few buck to own a swf decompiler.

Wallaby offers immense possibility of usage of flash components in non-flash supported devices, as these can now leverage the power of html to have the same effects and functionality as flash. For example the flash based advertisement in mobile devices.

Things we must know before jumping to a conclusion:

1. It is only an early preview version, so offers very basic set of features. Many of the flash features are not supported under html5. The wallaby Release notes give a list of supported and unsupported features.

2. It is currently available as a 32 bit installer for Windows and Mac.

3. Wallaby can not convert .swf file to html5 directly. We need a 2 step process for that, which involves an application like swf decompiler.

4. At this time it uses Wekit css3 tags, so compatible with Webkit based browsers. This means the html5 output is not supported in Firefox or IE 9. As of now only supported browsers are Chrome(8.0 or later)  and Safari(5.0 or later).

If you are satisfied and want to give a try to Wallaby, you can download wallaby for free and see it in action, use it and submit any feature request and bugs.

My verdict is: Wallaby has immense potential to be a revolutionary product in future. Please share your opinion and experience with Wallaby & it’s future potential.