CentOS 6
Firefox Browser
Extended Support Release
78.3.0esr (32-bit)

Two of my Web sites have several pages each that play a song. It has worked perfectly for a number of years. I few days ago, I was checking a song page in each of the two Web sites. I decided no changes were needed. But for some reason none of the song pages in either Web site now work.

What should happen is this: the page opens, and there is some text related to the song on that page and also a black square where the song will occur. Inside the black square displays a line "Run Adobe Flash." Clicking it brings up two options. The one to play the music can be clicked, and the music starts with a colored background.

Now when the page is opened, the black square is there with the "Run Adobe Flash" as usual, but clicking it removes the entire square completely! Everything else on the page remains, but no music can play. Once this happens on one page, none of the other musical pages in that Web site even start out with the black square.

You'll need the two Web sites to investigate this sudden problem. Here are the two Web sites with one of the musical pages in each as an example:

https://messiahstudies.org/Hatikvah.html

https://southern-partisan.org/Dixie.html

Here is the specific code that should run the song for each of these two pages:

Hatikvah.html:

<div id="container" style="width: 510px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">Get the Flash Player</a> to see this player.</div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
var s1 = new SWFObject("player-viral.swf","ply","510","400","9","#FFFFFF");
s1.addParam("allowfullscreen","true");
s1.addParam("allownetworking","all");
s1.addParam("allowscriptaccess","always");
s1.addParam("flashvars", "icons=false&file=Hatikva.flv&image=IsraeliFlag2.jpg");
s1.write("container");
//]]>
</script>


Dixie.html:

<div id="container"><a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">Get the Flash Player</a> to see this player.</div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
var s1 = new SWFObject("player-viral.swf","ply","436","342","9","#FFFFFF");
s1.addParam("allowfullscreen","false");
s1.addParam("allownetworking","all");
s1.addParam("allowscriptaccess","always");
s1.addParam("flashvars", "icons=false&file=Dixie.flv&image=ConfederateFlags.jpg");
s1.write("container");
//]]>
</script>


But since you have the two Web sites themselves, you can look at the entire page for each. It used to work!

Thanks so much. I hope you can give me the solution! smile.gif

Your problem really is that flash is dead. I's been replaced by html 5.

I tried your links in Firefox. Firefox takes the flash plugin like a personal insult, and automatically disables it. In the mozilla/plugins, it has the actual files

So I tried palemoon, which has symlinks to mozilla's plugin files, and that starts if I make it, but no sound is forthcoming.
No video either.

Can I suggest you update to html5? Compatibility problems will end.

2 members found this post helpful.

As above, there is now a specific HTML tag for playing audio files: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/.../Element/audio

At the bottom of that page you will see compatibility is basically every browser released in the past decade, with a fallback direct link for every browser released before then.

You can use a tool such as ffmpeg to extract the audio from flv (Flash Video) files and save it as mp3/ogg/whatever.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks, business_kid!

I understand your interest in html5, but all my Web sites are based on XHTML. Changing over to html5 would be a herculean job on my twelve Web sites! Also, flash-plugin.i386 is still updating with yum.

For example, one of my other Web sites also has several musical pages, and they still work. Here's one of the pages:

https://rediscoveringthebible.com/Creation.html

The code is only slightly different. Here's the specific code that runs the song -- and it works:

<div id="container">
<a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">Get the Flash Player</a> to see this player.
</div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jwplayer.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
jwplayer("container").setup
(
{
autostart: false,
icons: false,
controlbar: "bottom",
file: "Creation.flv",
image: "deckedout.jpg",
flashplayer: "player.swf",
width: 480,
height: 376
}
);
</script>

You'll notice that "Creation.flv" is also used in this code. An ".flv" is also used in the code in each of the two pages in my first post that are not working.

Can you help me get --

https://messiahstudies.org/Hatikvah.html

and

https://southern-partisan.org/Dixie.html

working again?

Thanks so much.

I have no particular interest in html 5, it's simply what folks are using. I do have an interest in the Scriptures, but if everything on the site is in flash, and flash is dying/dead, you should be changing it. Contract it out if you're not bothered yourself.

I'm using slackware64-Current. The Red Hat stable uses ancient versions from the get-go with back ported patches. It's not really a guide to what's current. Adobe never got flash secure in 64 bit. You have 32bit. It's been insecure for 10+ years.

I tried your link.

You should remove the 'best viewed with firefox'. Standard 64bit Firefox won't consider Flash, it seems.

Palemoon played the video as a security exception, but I heard no sound. I didn't bookmark your site, which says it has html-1.0 & css. From listening to my programmer son sound off, there's html5, javascript, json, css, maybe php, and a rake of software suites (e.g. ruby on rails) in the average website these days. It's a specialized business, and contracting it out is cheaper than you think (Unless you're Donald Trump). It may work for you, but that's honest feedback.

Why is it a herculean job to change the first line of a few files to "<!doctype html />" ?

Not that you actually need to do that - go ahead and put the audio tag in your existing page and it will just work. (Once you have converted the audio to mp3/etc.)


Are the songs for you, or for your website visitors?

You might have Flash installed, but Apple devices no longer have it, and plenty of other browsers have it disabled.


Then - if you really want to keep using Flash - simply use the same code used for the working one!


Nope, it's completely different code.

One uses jwplayer.js to play the flv file, the other uses swfobject.js to create a SWFObject that calls player-viral.swf which plays the file.

Problem remains: Flash is dead (thank dog).
I'm pretty sure there's solutions for this particular problem that do not require rewriting "all your 12 web sites".
Like simply replacing the flash-demanding javascript with some clean, beautiful and democratic <audio> tags.

Thanks everyone!

I'll study your points and suggestions and get back to you tomorrow or Saturday. (I'm U.S.A., Eastern time.) Unfortunately, many things pull me away from the computer!

Bill

P.S.: Those of you who looked around on the three Wed sites know that "Bill" is not me real name!

Just my 2 cents, like others have said. If I load a web page and it requires flash, it's a non starter. I won't even look any farther. You should have moved from flash 6 or 8 years ago. I don't even have javascript turned on in my browsers.

I do have python scripts that will parse a web page, running the scripts on the page.

That first link
https://messiahstudies.org/Hatikvah.html

Has this content.
And that's it. Not very useful at all to me. If you wanted me as a customer you would need to do something different.

The second page
3rd
It's 30MB. I'll re-encode 30 seconds of it into x264/mp3, if you need a push.

Thanks guys, and sorry for the delay.

Since the Web site "https://rediscoveringthebible.com" works with the later JW Player as shown above, I removed the previous SWFObject and put JW Player in each of the music pages of "https://messiahstudies.org". Now that Web site works like "https://rediscoveringthebible.com."

The JW Player I have was downloaded by me in the year 2012 and used in "https://rediscoveringthebible.com". It worked fine for a number of years. When a page with a song opened, the colored sheet that I chose for that song appeared in the square where the song would play. Clicking it played the song. However, eventually the newer versions of Firefox made the "black" fill that square. But it had a line "Run Abode Flash" in that black square that could be clicked to get my colored sheet back. The song could then be played as before.

So I now put that same 2012 JW Player in all the music pages of "https://messiahstudies.org". It works the same way "https://rediscoveringthebible.com" does. I'll soon also put JW Player in "https://southern-partisan.org".

Yes, I know the Web sites will still remain "OLD," but it was easy, and it still works. However, I'm still open to suggestions--maybe something to replace JW Player that is relatively just as easy!!

Thanks again.

I hold no candle for people who sell software. But you do realise that's a proprietary product, don't you? It's available now - at a price. Your 2012 copy must, I gather, have been acquired in a 'non kosher' fashion, something the license holder might not be amused at, or object to. I'm sure the good book would have something to say about that.

Thanks Ondoho. I brought up the page you recommended --

"https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_video.asp"

but this is what greeted me:

<video width="320" height="240" controls>
<source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4">
<source src="movie.ogg" type="video/ogg">
Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>

"Your browser does not support the video tag"????? What's wrong? As I mentioned in my first post, my Firefox is the most recent release using yum: 78.3.0esr (32-bit).

And as others have mentioned:

• Flash is dead
• Your browser is VERY old
• CentOS 6 is similarly old and is end-of-life November (3 days from now)
• CentOS 6 isn't getting updates, so your browser WILL NOT get updated via yum.

Update your system to a current OS and browser. Doesn't get simpler than that.