Adobe Flash Player

Osbie Feel wrote:

Rather than asking image-specific questions, can you just recommend what plug-in to download and where to get it, and how to install it for my Safari (Apple) browser?

You're going to need to discuss this with the IT folks supporting whatever app or environment or package is involved here, and familiar with whatever version of that app or service is in use on the server.

Flash was used to create apps that provided access to and viewing tools for other document formats, and Flash was entirely central to the storage and retrieval of the data served to users for other server configurations. How Flash was used varied. Sometimes Flash was the user interface or front end for the service, sometimes it provided an embedded view and browser graphics showing server or device or status information or other details, and sometimes Flash was the entire application.

As an example of this Flash usage and migration, starting in 2010 YouTube migrated from Flash as its default video viewer to using HTML5 video viewing. YouTube finished its migration from Flash to HTML5 video in 2015. Some platforms including iPhone and iPad migrated to HTML5 video viewing earlier than others, as those platforms never had Adobe Flash support. Most folks using YouTube probably didn't notice the migration, too—other than noticing that they no longer needed to install Flash to view YouTube, that is.

For your case, you might get further into this web site by enabling the Safari developer menu via Safari > Preferences > Advanced, and switching your browser agent string to an iPad via Safari > Develop > User Agent > Safari iOS 13.1.3 iPad (or whatever iPad-specific User Agent string is offered), and then seeing if the website shows the expected content without trying to launch Flash. Or accessing the site from an actual iPad or iPhone. This if the website was updated to recognize that iPad and iPhone lack Flash, but the web site hasn't (yet?) been updated to properly browser sniff.

But in any case, contact the folks administering whatever app or service this involves, as they should already be familiar with the demise of Flash Player, and may or will have workarounds, or updates, or profile settings suggestions that allow access to the data and documents.

Otherwise, you're headed toward getting an alternative to Flash going in your particular local environment, and then getting that plugged into a web browser. I'm aware of few websites that have tried this approach in very limited contexts, and that mostly due to schedule delays in their already-ongoing service migration away from Flash, or in cases where the Flash-using service is itself also abandoned.