UPDATE: AtoM, Flash, and upcoming release plans

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Dan Gillean

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Dec 21, 2020, 1:03:48 PM12/21/20
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Greetings AtoM community members, 


We wanted to post an update about the end of Flash support, AtoM’s multi-uploader, and our upcoming release plans. 


Background: Flash support ending this month


As you may know, Adobe has announced that support for its Flash player would end in December 2020. 


Since the late 2000’s, increasing discoveries of security vulnerabilities and zero-day exploits in Flash led a growing number of browsers and platforms to disavow Flash support, starting as early as 2010 when Steve Jobs stated that Apple would not allow Flash on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Since then, with increasing security problems being discovered in Flash and the arrival of HTML5 (which supports native video playback), most major browsers have chosen to disable Flash by default. As more vendors distanced themselves from Flash and support for open standards that could replace Flash functionality grew in modern browsers, Adobe finally announced in 2017 that it would be fully discontinuing support for Flash in December of 2020


Since then, most major companies maintaining web browsers have chosen to disableFlash by default, and have announced that support for Flash will be removed from their browsers (including Edge and IE 11, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome) in December of 2020.


AtoM and Flash: current state


AtoM has previously made use of Flash in two places - the original Flowplayer included in previous releases for streaming media such as audio and video, and the multi-uploader used with AtoM’s “Import Digital Objects” functionality available on archival descriptions. 


In Release 2.6, Artefactual replaced the Flash-based Flowplayer with a new HTML5 media player, called MediaElementJs. This removed one of two modules in AtoM relying on Flash. 


However, at this time, a replacement for the Flash-based multi-uploader has not been included in a public release. This highlights one of the challenges of relying on community support (via sponsored development or code contributions) for ongoing major project maintenance tasks - Artefactual was unable to find a development sponsor for the work required to replace the multi-uploader in time to prepare a release in advance of the End-Of-Life date for Flash, and while we are working on a solution internally, it will not be available in time to avoid impacts for our community of users. 


To learn more about how Artefactual currently maintains and develops AtoM, please see: 



Short term consequences for AtoM users


Unfortunately, this means that after December 2020, AtoM users will not be able to use the “Import digital objects” functionality (which allows users to add multiple digital objects as child records of a selected archival description) until a 2.7 release is available. The ability to link a single digital object to a target description or authority record will still work via the user interface, as will command-line bulk options for digital object upload, such as the digital object load task


Replacement plan and upcoming release roadmap


Artefactual is currently working on two releases: 


  • A 2.6.2 bug fix release

  • A 2.7 major release, with new features and enhancements


A summary of the confirmed fixes and features that will be included in each release can be found on the Roadmap page of the AtoM wiki. 


Currently we are aiming for a 2.6.2 release in late January 2021, and the 2.7 release is expected in Q3 of 2021. 


As part of this ongoing work, we are also preparing a non-Flash replacement for the multi-uploader in AtoM. Currently, our team is incorporating the Uppy.io library into AtoM, which should not only replace the lost functionality, but may also position AtoM to be able to undertake development that will support large digital object uploads via the user interface in the future. 


Barring any unexpected  technical issues we encounter while completing this replacement, we intend to include an initial replacement for the Flash multi-uploader in the 2.6.2 release. We’ll post an update in early January on our progress with the release and this work. 


We regret that this work was not available prior to the end of Flash support, and that users will have to wait a month before a suitable replacement solution is available. We thank everyone in advance for your patience and support of the AtoM project as we continue to improve the application.


Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS

Dan Gillean

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Jan 28, 2021, 1:02:11 PM1/28/21
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