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mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
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Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

Why doesn't my X2 gallery work any more? :sob:

25 Jul 2017, 03:29

Now in 2017, we frequently get asked by users of the old X2 gallery "Why doesn't my X2 work any more?" or "Why does my X2 gallery look different suddenly?". X2 users will often see one of the following:
  • The X2 website looks different and/or ugly.
  • The X2 website simply does not load.
  • The X2 website displays an error.
Unfortunately, X2 is an old website application based on the outdated Flash/SWF plugin. The reason you are seeing any one of the errors above, will be related to one of the following:
  • The Flash/SWF plugin is obsolete, and being phased out since a few years ago. The reason many users are encountering issues recently, is because even the most popular browser (Google Chrome) is now blocking Flash by default (since version 55). To solve the issue, visitors would have to UN-BLOCK the flash player (see previous link). However, this does not solve the issue for most of your users, who simply have the Flash player disabled by default. The result of the unavailable Flash plugin, will force X2 to display the rather ugly "HTML version", which was created just as a "fallback".
  • If you are specifically getting ERROR notices, it is likely you or your host has updated to PHP7. Old X2 supports ALL earlier versions of PHP (for example PHP 5.*). Even if you fix this issue by downgrading PHP on your server, it does not solve the issue of Flash being phased out.
  • For those of you who have embedded the X2 SWF file directly into a website, it simply won't load unless the browser has the Flash plugin installed.
The web has changed drastically since X2 was launched a decade ago. Unfortunately, since the Flash plugin is being phased out, X2 (based on Flash) follows hand in hand.

Your options
  • I am not going to use this post as a sales-tool, but the new X3 website application we have worked on for several years is our perception of the modern successor to X2. X3 is built in HTML5 (non-Flash), optimized for all screens (including mobile devices), with focus on speed, SEO and usability. If you are interested, you can read more on our website, or check the demo and user showcase. *X2 users get a 50% discount when upgrading to X3.
  • Get a new website from another template/application.
  • Do nothing, and just accept that the Flash plugin is being phased out, resulting in a rather unattractive website.
 
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mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

Re: Why doesn't my X2 gallery work any more? :sob:

26 Jul 2017, 03:17

Just by coincidence, emphasizing my post above, Adobe announced yesterday that it will discontinue Flash support and updates at the end of 2020.
https://wptavern.com/adobe-to-discontin ... es-in-2020
Adobe announced today that it will discontinue Flash support and updates at the end of 2020. Flash played an important part in the history of the web, inspiring many of the open standards and formats that the web has moved on to embrace.
Adobe wrote:Given this progress, and in collaboration with several of our technology partners – including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla – Adobe is planning to end-of-life Flash. Specifically, we will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats.
 
User avatar
mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

Re: Why doesn't my X2 gallery work any more? :sob:

21 Sep 2017, 01:22

I originally wrote in this post that "Chrome no longer provides the Flash player in their updates", which is not entirely correct. Instead, the main issue is that Chrome now BLOCKS the Flash plugin by default. Ref.:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... y-default/