Challenge Overview

Our client has a few applications for which the frontend is built on Adobe Flash and Flex.  They are looking to support these applications past December 2020 when Adobe Flash and Flex will no longer be supported by the upcoming versions of the browsers.

 

We’re starting from scratch - goal of ideation to find the best possible approach to continue the support for Adobe Flash and Flex UI for target applications

 

Background

Adobe Flash and Flex were once very popular choices for building application frontends - at a time when Web technologies were not fully developed as they are today. 

 

Browsers offer a plugin interface and flash plugin was one of the most used ones. Sadly (or fortunately ) this is no longer the case - all major browser vendors are planning to remove it around December 2020 (This includes Chrome, Firefox, Edge), which means the existing Flash/Flex apps will no longer work.

 

Task Detail

The goal of this challenge is to research the possible options for ensuring these apps work past the Flash EOL date (December 2020). 

Here are some options that you can research further:

• Tools/technologies that will convert/parse the Adobe Flash/Flex UI to any other dependable Web UI framework

• Running Flash in browser(s) after the cutoff date (is this an option?)

• Running those same flash applications outside of browser window (but still triggered/downloaded via the browser)

You are not limited to those ideas and you’re free to propose a completely different approach.

You should submit a proposal document (min 2 pages) that describes your approach, and a small POC code that demonstrates your idea. It doesn’t need to be perfect or production ready - we’re really looking at basics here.

Make sure to discuss any drawbacks and limitations of your approach.

You can use any 3rd party Flash & Flex apps to demonstrate the features of your idea.

  

Checkpoint submission
Checkpoint submission deadline on Feb 11th 9 AM EST. Checkpoint submissions will be reviewed by the client and you will receive the review feedback. Submitting for the checkpoint deadline is optional, and you can still submit the final submission without it.

Judging Criteria

You will be judged on the quality of your ideas, the quality of your description of the ideas, and how it enables supporting Flash/Flex apps in the future. The winner will be chosen by the most logical and convincing reasoning as to how and why the idea presented will meet the objective. Note that, this contest will be judged subjectively by the client and Topcoder. 

Final Submission Guidelines

Submit a document explaining the reasoning behind your idea and a POC demonstration.