I have programmed highly interactive science lab simulations. The simulations are Animate/Flash swf files played through a web browser and are available through the company I work for’s web site. More and more of our current and potential customers use Chromebooks that cannot play our sims because there is no Flash player plug-in. So now we have a few people creating Javascript versions where much of the code is rewritten from scratch.
All my code is Actionscript 3 which seems to be largely if not totally mirrored in OpenFL. I use a Mac and Adobe Flash Builder to write the code and Adobe Animate to import an store graphical elements from Photoshop and sometimes to create simple graphics and animations.
Will migrating to OpenFL allow me to create HTML 5 versions of my sims without rewriting much of my present code?
Is there a guide somewhere that describes what is needed and the pitfalls likely to be encountered when migrating Adobe Animate CC based projects to OpenFL based projects?
Any recommendations would be most welcome.
Thanks in advance!
Hello!
ActionScript 3 and Haxe are very similar. You might be interested in reading the “Short History” section here, explaining relationship between ActionScript and Haxe: http://books.openfl.org/as3-conversion-guide/history.html
The first thing that’s available through OpenFL is a large body of the Flash API, available not only for Flash Player and Adobe AIR, but also for HTML5 or even native platforms. This has been stable for years, particularly if you use bitmap assets from Photoshop.
We also support, however, SWF assets, from Adobe Animate. Many, many aspects of SWFs (with exceptions such as frame script, sound, morph shapes and “modern” tweens) should translate properly, and I hope to see these tools continue to improve.
Titles in the OpenFL showcase such as “Pick’M Stick’M” or “What in the World?” pull all their assets from Adobe Animate. Other titles (such as “Mino Monsters 2”) use Adobe Animate for all of the UI work, and add additional artwork for character animation.
Try some of the OpenFL samples, and please ask with any questions you have. Try something small before looking at porting, as it may help you get the hang of things 
Happy to help 
Thanks for the info but I’m still not sure if I can accomplish my main goal: create HTML 5 versions of my sims without rewriting much of my present AS3 code. When I opened Pick’M Stick’M, I was asked to allow the Flash plug-in or not. I want to break any dependency on the Flash player/plug-in.
When I build an AS3 based project for HTML5, is the result completely independent from the Flash player/plug-in?
Is the result of any build for HTML5 completely self-contained, i.e. there is nothing else that needs to be separately installed on the user’s system like a plug-in?
How does one pull assets from Adobe Animate?
Thanks
Hmm, I’m not sure what requested the Flash plugin, but no, I can confirm the HTML5 port of “Pick’M Stick’M” has no reliance on Flash Player at all
Two of the current OpenFL samples, “NyanCat” and “SimpleSWFLayout”, use SWFs, as well as the “Using SWF Assets” tutorial here: http://www.openfl.org/learn/tutorials/using-swf-assets/
