Google Chrome
Even as public concern caused Google to slow its original timeline to remove support for Netscape Plug-In API (NPAPI) technologies like Microsoft’s Silverlight and Adobe’s Flash by the end of 2014, it has pressed forward with its original plan. The latest example of this was the most recent version of Google Chrome that released in April—version 42.
Silverlight Continued Use
A year ago, Eagle Software publicly announced its own intentions to drop Silverlight support and move towards a more progressive and enduring platform in HTML-5 and CSS-3, which you can read about here. Only a few areas of Aeries remain that utilize Silverlight—including the old version of the gradebook, which will continue to be supported until the end of this school year. While Internet Explorer remains a valid option for users that are running into issues with Google Chrome, there is also a workaround that can be found here.
Aeries Transition off of Silverlight
Transitioning from one platform to another is a tricky process due to the underlying differences between any given application framework and another. Microsoft Silverlight is a rich tool that allowed Aeries to accomplish many things and converting to HTML-5/CSS-3 meant that not all features were able to be matched precisely, but functionality was retained and often improved. The most noteworthy advantage to HTML-5 is the fact that it does not require a plugin to be run in a browser and provides the broadest, cross-platform reach, which also allows for support of mobile devices like tablets.
The first area of Aeries that was converted off of Silverlight was the Aeries.net teacher gradebook, which was completed last summer and has been very well-received since, especially with the numerous enhancements that continue to accompany it. After that, the file uploader employed in the parent data confirmation was replaced in December of 2014. Gradebook terms, a new feature for the HTML-5 gradebook, which was released in late February 2015, formally eliminated the ability to use the older Silverlight gradebook. Query results and the Scheduling Master Schedule (SMS) Board in Aeries.net were rebuilt in HTML in late March 2015. The new HTML-5 Aeries Analytics Analysis Dashboards were released in beta recently. The test scanning and scoring elements of Aeries Analytics will not be converted out of Silverlight; Eagle Software recommends that users continue to utilize Internet Explorer for this process.