The Inspector Says Goodbye to Flash and Hello to HTML5

Today we are pleased to announce that our "Inspect" tool now uses HTML5 instead of Adobe Flash! The HTML5 version of the Inspector has the following advantages:

• It loads much faster 
• It is more responsive, especially on slower devices
• There is no pause or screen flash while the new Inspector is starting.
• It doesn't require the Adobe Flash plug-in to be installed
• It works fine with ad blocking plug-ins that restricting Flash advertisements
• It works on most mobile devices including iPads and iPhones!

The only downside to this migration is the same downside we've been warning people about for over a year now - HTML5 requires the use of one of the following up-to-date web browsers:

• Internet Explorer version 9 or higher
• The latest version of Mozilla Firefox
• The latest version of Google Chrome
• The latest version of Apple Safari
• The latest version of Opera

If you are still using Windows XP, that means that you cannot use IE anymore because Windows XP still only supports IE8.  We recommend using Firefox or Google Chrome instead.  (You'll be amazed at the speed improvement as well.)

And now for the really big news - because the HTML5 version loads so much quicker than the Flash version, we now preserve the "Inspect" setting on the SharpCharts workbench page.  This is something people have been asking for for quite some time.  The setting is now saved in a Cookie for as long as your browser stays open meaning that if you want to use the Inspector with all your charts, you'll only have to turn it on once per session.

As always, please let us know what you think in the comments area below.  If you find a bug with the new version, please let our support team know.

- Chip

P.S. We had to keep the Flash version of the Inspector super small so that it loaded quickly.  Now that we have the faster HTML5 version working, we will be able to add more features to it over time.  Watch for new features to start appearing in the Inspector soon.