Click Here Labs Prompts Adobe to Modify Its Product

Nearly two years ago, in an effort to help our clients move to HTML5 for online advertising, Click Here Labs began using the create.js export out of Adobe Flash as one of our solutions for producing standard ad units. This allowed us to maintain our streamlined workflow, keep consistent creative quality and deliver units that would work across all device platforms. Finally, we started making real progress in moving clients away from Flash and onto the new technology, which allowed our clients’ work to display as intended on mobile platforms, particularly the iOS platform, where Flash had been all but sidelined by Steve Jobs in 2007.

Adobe logo

That momentum, however, came to a halt this summer when many publishers reacted to last spring’s Heartbleed security breach by requiring SSL-certified assets with all content, including online ad units.

That requirement stopped our HTML5 initiative in its tracks.

You see, to make HTML5 as “light” as possible, Click Here Labs had developed a workflow using the hosted CDN libraries for create.js, and that CDN was not on a secure server. We started getting kickback from some of the bigger ad networks (AOL, Yahoo!, Amazon, Google, etc.) because we were linking to a non-SSL certified CDN (http://code.createjs.com/easeljs-0.6.0.min.js), which is the published default for Flash CS6 and Flash Professional CC.

Several potential solutions were discussed, including building our own SSL-certified CDN to host. However, all internal solutions were dismissed because handling that kind of web traffic was cost-prohibitive. Instead, we reached out to Adobe to help us with this problem. And…it worked.

After an initial email to the agency’s Adobe contact got the ball rolling, members of the Click Here Labs development team joined a conference call on September 19, 2014, with Adobe’s development teams to discuss the issue. Adobe itself was unaware of the failing in its software. After a 30-minute conversation, the Adobe engineers agreed to “solve” the problem by making a “fix” in its software by agreeing to host the create.js libraries on a secure CDN.

Proactive efforts by the Click Here Labs development team resulted in a fundamental change in the way Adobe engineers its software, and it allowed us to continue to push the envelope in the ever-changing world of digital advertising.

JavaScript Here, There and Everywhere