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My strategy, in the past, has been to embed interactive CDF files into my WordPress blog for student's to use (Much like the Wolfram Demonstration Project).

As many know 1) the 'Plug in' architecture of modern web browsers is evolving (see Google Chrome and no CDF support for example), 2) the 'official' WRI CDF plugin no longer works, 3) thankfully, there is Mathematica Toolbox for WP but I continue to have trouble getting it to format correctly and show CDFs properly in Safari / Mac OS (e.g., CDF Failures, More CDF Failures, Mathematica Toolbox) and, finally, 4) WRI is advocating that we move this sort of stuff to the cloud™.

I suppose I'm all for the 'cloud™', but I'm getting really really tired of refactoring my work from various incarnations of webMathematica to embedded CDF and now to wolframcloud.com / WolframAPI. Furthermore, I venture that I have to make sure our college gives even more money to WRI to support this cloud stuff.

Using the WolframAPI for interactive stuff really doesn't seem to cut it (at least in my attempts) because the dynamic content keeps being sent back to be evaluated, etc, so you get crappy response.

Looking through the entirety of WRI's web, SE and the Internets-writ-large, I can't find a good "ok- look- here's how to do nice interactive / dynamic content with WordPress".

So I ask of you all, does anyone have suggestions for us WordPress-bound folk? Or am I thinking of this whole cloud/API thing the wrong way?

NB - @bobthechemist has asked a similar/related question here: How to design CloudObjects with reasonable CloudCredit costs

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    $\begingroup$ +1 for "...but I'm getting really really tired of refactoring my work..." I've got years-worth of chemistry-related CDFs that are now far less effective teaching tools since they are less accessible to students. Asking end-users to download a gigabyte player or deploying in a functionality-sparse cloud are not viable options. $\endgroup$
    – bobthechemist
    Mar 6, 2016 at 14:10
  • $\begingroup$ btw, can you get either of the examples in this answer to work? At present, I cannot. $\endgroup$
    – bobthechemist
    Mar 6, 2016 at 14:32
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    $\begingroup$ Browser plugins are definitely going away ... Chrome doesn't support them and Firefox will drop support soon. Microsoft's new browser was released without any support for them (and won't get it in the future). The simplest way might be to just make the CDF downloadable instead of embedding it. $\endgroup$
    – Szabolcs
    Mar 6, 2016 at 14:56
  • $\begingroup$ I was able to get the API to work, here academics.skidmore.edu/blogs/flip/?p=501 but notice that the 'pretty printing' is messed up / not working. And, of course I could give them the CDFs directly, which is what I do, but that doesn't really solve what I want to do / question I asked. $\endgroup$
    – flip
    Mar 6, 2016 at 18:20
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    $\begingroup$ I know it doesn't solve your problem. To answer more directly: if your goal is to embed content in a webpage, the only current solution is the cloud stuff, with all its disadvantages that you mentioned. Plugins are pretty much guaranteed to be gone by the end of the year, so don't spend time on them. $\endgroup$
    – Szabolcs
    Mar 8, 2016 at 11:41

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