Swiffy updated by Google; Will live on after Labs
With the end of Google Labs, there are many great projects that are coming to an end or relocating to a new home. Luckily, Google Swiffy is one of the survivors.
Earlier this year Google introduced Swiffy, a Google Labs project that could input any Flash animation, and output the corresponding HTML5 animation for it. It makes use of open technologies such as SVG, however it also relies on the fact that the SWF specification has been published.
Swiffy is capable of converting SWF files created by older versions of Flash, best up to Flash 5, and can even convert some ActionScript 2 code.
Recent changes to Swiffy include support for Shape tweening; drop shadows; blur, glow, bevel and adjust colour filters; etc. The online tool now also allows one to upload files up to 1MB rather than just 512kB, and generates a QR code to make it easier to preview the content on mobile. Google now also allows one to download the Swiffy JavaScript library to host on your own site.
Swiffy is not the only project when it comes to a Flash to HTML5 conversion. An open source JavaScript library called Gordon, which came out much earlier, is capable of directly running SWF files using JavaScript. It is essentially a JavaScript runtime for SWF files. While Swiffy converts SWF files to JSON which is then parsed and run in the browser by the Swiffy JavaScript runtime; Gordon can directly play back SWF files, making it a good fallback for those who don’t have Flash installed.
It goes without saying that a modern browser is needed to play back such content since it relies on features provided by newer standards and thus newer browsers.
You can visit Google Swiffy’s new home here or at g.co/swiffy