FLASH Question..

[jklondon]

When loading a site that contains FLASH animation is it possible to detect (through coding) if the user has FLASH installed and only display the FLASH object if this is the case, if not then display a static image? Is the answer different for FireFox (or any other Mozilla browser) versus I.E?

Txs in advance!

 

[mattk]

You can use javaScript to do browser detection, but if a user doesn't have Flash enabled then it's likely they won't have JavaScript enabled too.

I use this code, which works OK for me in both IE and Firefox, doesn't need JavaScript and complies to XHTML Strict.

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="flash.swf" width="829" height="100">
	
		<param name="quality" value="high" />
		[img]flash.gif[/img]
</object>

 

[confused]

PLUGINSPAGE - Identifies the location of the Flash Player plug-in so that the user can download it if it is not already installed. EMBED only. (See example code in TechNote tn_4150 for the correct value.)

From here

http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_12701

 

[jklondon]

great - thanks guys.

 

[mattk]

Embed isn't an XHTML compliant tag though.

 

[confused]

I woulsnt know about that lol just going off what macromedia say...

 

[crus]

Hi,

we used to user, multi layered flash redirects, 1px bty 1px movie, frame 1 does flash x redirect, frame 2 does flash y redirect.

That was back in the stone ages, but meant no js to redirect.

D

 

[komandin]

yes, you must detect - if the user has FLASH installed

 

[EastCoastInteractive]

Best practice is to use swfobject, and to populate it's attendant alternative content div with a non-flash alternative (e.g a static image, or some text)

You can use it in dynamic or static mode (dynamic mode avoids 'click to activate in IE/Opera, while static mode doesn't avoid 'click to activate' but is fully standards compliant)

There is an automated code generator for it on swfobject's google code page that make's it easier to use, and the swfobject javascript file can be loaded from an external google hosted library url.