Removed Adobe Flash dependencies in 2020 (Alerts)

Merative ™ Social Program Management has removed Adobe Flash dependencies in 2020

Flashes (Alerts)

Abstract

You can now remove all Flash dependencies for charts, widgets, and editors for all Merative Social Program Management 7.0 versions. Download and install two software assets, one for charts and widgets, the other for editors. Charts and widgets have been replaced with new modern interfaces, and editors have been replaced with new stand-alone versions. This technote describes the background to the changes, and provides a full description of each asset and how to download and install each asset.

Content

Customers that are on an earlier release of Social Program Management can contact Merative Customer Support by raising a support case through the Merative Support Portal.

Background

In July 2017 Adobe announced their intention to end-of-life Flash. In a statement Adobe said:

"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."

Since that announcement, browser vendors have made it increasingly difficult for users to use Flash and some have announced that they will not support the Flash player after the end of 2020.

Now in 2020, the Social Program Management product has no dependency on Adobe Flash:

Some of the Flash dependent charts and widgets were replaced with equivalents that use an alternative technology.
Widgets and editors, that are not now used, were deprecated with the intention of removing them from the product in the future.
Some of the charts and widgets that were no longer used have previously been deprecated or replaced, and will now be removed.
Two new assets were released to remove Flash dependencies for charts, assets, and editors.

Installing the assets

Download and install the following assets from Fix Central and follow the instructions in the download or in Product documentation and PDFs.

Editor Applications asset

Use this asset to enable standalone versions of the following editors:

The Cúram Express Rules (CER) editor
The Data Mapping editor
The Data Store editor
The Intelligent Evidence Gathering (IEG) editor
The Decision Matrix editor
The Dynamic Evidence editor

After the asset is installed, to ensure that you have the appropriate server updates, you must reinstall the asset if you upgrade to Social Program Management 7.0.0 or later through one of the following upgrades:

Modification Releases
Refresh Packs
Fix Packs
Interim Fixes

Charts and Widgets asset

Use this asset to replace chart and widgets based on Adobe Flex with responsive versions based on modern React JavaScript components for all versions of Merative Social Program Management 7.0.

The current functionality of the charts and widgets is maintained for existing customers, with enhanced accessibility where appropriate. A new color scheme from the Merative Carbon Design System provides an accessible and enhanced user experience. Colors on certain charts were updated to meet the contrast ratio (3:1) defined by 1.4.11 Non-Text Contrast (AA) in WCAG 2.1.

After the asset is installed, you must reinstall the asset if you upgrade to any Social Program Management 7.0 version through one of the following upgrades:

Modification Releases
Refresh Packs
Fix Packs
Interim Fixes

Flash-dependent editors whose usage has changed

Use of the following editors now requires the installation of the asset.

Flash-dependent editors
Name	Usage	Filename
Dynamic evidence editor	The dynamic evidence editor is a graphical editing environment for dynamic evidence type version metadata. Administrators can use the dynamic evidence editor to define the storage, behavioral, and visual characteristics of dynamic evidence type versions.	DynamicEvidenceEditor.swf
Decision matrix editor	The decision matrix editor is used to define the logic (rules) to be used in determining an assessment outcome. The decision matrix editor provides a user-friendly environment and interface for the users to create, edit, and validate a decision matrix.	DecisionMatrixEditor.swf
IEG editor and data store editor	Decision Assist integrates with Cúram Intelligent Evidence Gathering (IEG). The integration enables the creation of and maintenance of Decision Assist questionnaires by using the IEG editor. The process includes creating new questionnaire sections, pages, clusters, questions, and question aliases. The required data store entities and attributes, and the data types of the attributes are configured by using the data store editor. The data store entities and their attributes can then be used for the question pages and questions in the IEG editor.	IEG2Editor.swf, DatastoreEditor.swf
CER editor	The Cúram Express Rules (CER) editor provides a user-friendly environment and interface for both technical and business users to create, edit, and validate a rule set and its rule classes.	CERTEditor.swf
Cúram Data Mapping editor (CDME)	Data mapping is the process by which data from the Cúram Datastore is mapped into Cúram evidence entities. Data is mapped by the Cúram Data Mapping Engine by using mappings that are configured in the Cúram Data Mapping editor. Mappings are created for a program on an intake application.	CDMEEditor.swf

Flash dependent charts and widgets that can now be replaced

For those SPM charts and widgets that are widely used and currently depend on Flash requirements, SPM provides a replacement that:

Provides the same user functionality
Makes minor changes to the users experience

The following table lists the charts and widgets:

Flash dependent charts and widgets that can now be replaced in SPM 7.0 versions
Name	Usage	Filename	Replacement technology
Assessment Delivery Results	Feature of Outcome Management. Allows the user to quickly establish the strengths and needs. Provides a bar and spider chart on the Assessment page Home and History tabs.	Graph.swf	HTML5, CSS, JavaScript
Assessment Delivery Details	Feature of Outcome Management. Provides an easy view of the Assessment details which helps with usability. Provides an embedded bar and spider chart when the Assessment list item is expanded from the Assessments & Factors tab of the Outcome Plan.	BarAndSpiderChart.swf	HTML5, CSS, JavaScript
Assessment Tracking, Income Support	Assessment Tracking used in Income Support similar to the Assessment Delivery Details and Results listed above.	ParticipationSummary.swf, ATOutcomePlanAssessmentGraph.swf	HTML5, CSS, JavaScript
Enhanced Client Selection	Used to select multiple clients when creating an Outcome Plan.	EnhancedClientSelection.swf	ReactJS, HTML, CSS
Create Social Enterprise Folder	Used to select multiple clients and cases when creating a Social Enterprise Folder.	SEF_create.swf	ReactJS, HTML, CSS
Citizen Context Viewer (CCV)	Reduces amount of navigation required to understand relationships between people and cases.	CitizenContext.swf	ReactJS, HTML, CSS
Factor Activities	Calendar view used on the Activities section of the Factors homepage.	OutcomePlanWorkspace.swf	HTML5, CSS, JavaScript
Factor Ratings	Line chart used on the Ratings section of the Factors homepage.	FactorHistoryLineChart.swf	HTML5, CSS, JavaScript
Horizontal Bar Chart	Used throughout the application. For example, provides supervisors with an easy way of seeing what tasks are due for users in the next week/month.	hchart.swf	HTML5, CSS, JavaScript
Vertical Bar Chart	Used throughout the application. For example, provides supervisors with an easy way of seeing various graphs of functions that they need to monitor such as the 'Case Plan Review Performance'.	vchart.swf	HTML5, CSS, JavaScript

Flash dependent items that were deprecated in 2020

There are a number of Flash dependent widgets that are no longer in use. The widgets were deprecated during 2020 and the code will be removed in a subsequent release.

The following table lists the widgets that were deprecated:

Flash dependent widgets and editors that were deprecated in 2020
Name	Usage	Filename	Rationale
Timeline and Progress Timeline (also known as Outcome Plan Workspace)	The workspace within an outcome plan provides a case worker with the capability to access recommended and recently added objectives and activities. Caseworkers are presented with one of two types of workspace, the activity workspace or the objective workspace depending upon what type of workspace the system has been configured to use.	OutcomePlanWorkspace.swf	Redesigned Dojo version now available and on by default.
Discussion Widget	Used for Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDT) collaboration.	DiscussionWidget.swf	Replaced with UIM pages.
SEC and UA Rich Text Editor	Rich Text Editor in SEC MDTWorkspace and UA. Used for large formatted text entries such as Discussions, Incidents, Meetings and Meeting Minutes.	RichTextEditor.swf	Replaced by CK Editor.
Business Intelligence Charts	Charts integrated into the online application that offer front end business users a view into the aggregated data in the data warehouse, to support them in decisions they make as part of day to day business. Business and Intelligence Reporting Tool (BIRT) charts have been added to some areas of the application to provide a graphical view of data to users. For example, the Employer homepage contains a chart showing the number of permanent and the number of casual workers. Also the chart contained within a Payment Correction case gives a visual indication of the balance; how much is written off, how much is paid and how much is outstanding.	BarChart.swf, BarChartLegendX.swf, HBarChart.swf, HBarChartLegendX.swf, LineChart.swf, LineChartLegendX.swf, PieChartLegendX.swf, PieChartNoLegend.swf (X = Above, Below, Left, Right)	All BIRT charts were changed not to use Flex technology and render as PNG images since SPM 6.0.5.8.
Case Determination Graphical Display	Provided a graphical view of the key decision factors for a determination.	CaseDetermination.swf	Deprecated in V7 as part of the 'Merative Social Program Management Express Rules (CER) Key Decision Factors'.

Flash dependent items that will be removed from the product

The following Flash dependent widget was previously deprecated in SPM and the code will be removed in a subsequent release.

Flash dependent charts and widgets to be removed from the SPM product
Name	Usage	Filename	Rationale
Evidence Flow	Provided a graphical representation of all evidence types for a case as an alternate view of case evidence to users. Evidence types on a case were represented as a series of ordered tiles.	EvidenceFlow.swf	Deprecated in V7 as part of the 'Evidence Flow' feature.