Comments on: Why don’t you use FlashObject?

By: Geoff

Geoff — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 12:29:17 +0000

Thanks for the feedback. I’ll just take this change to hype the SWFObject mailing list one more time :). It’s full of people who use SWFObject every day, and know it very well, and can probably answer your questions faster than I will on here or by my direct e-mail address.

The more centralized documentation/FAQ is something else I’d like to work on as well. Thanks for the feedback.

By: Derek Munson

Derek Munson — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 08:08:46 +0000

TREMENDOUS! That was the only issue I had, and honestly, I thought I looked over every document in the books to find the answer to that question. If you are looking for ideas for improvement, it would be to more tightly document and centralize all the Q & A sessions on FlashObject. With IE and this new change, I’m sure more and more people will be flocking here each day with the same questions. A very clear place to e-mail/iteract/ask questions to you would be great, too…I went to many a thread that said “comments closed” and didn’t answer the above question.

Anyways, thanks again for the great solution. I wish I’d only known about it sooner! ; )

By: Geoff

Geoff — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:20:26 +0000

Change your code to this:


 var fo = new FlashObject("images/carwindow.swf", "mymovie", "430", "280", "8", "#FFFFFF");
fo.addParam("quality", "high");
fo.addParam("wmode", "transparent");
fo.write("carwindow");

By: Derek Munson

Derek Munson — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 00:19:36 +0000

Can you please write that in the context of the code so I know what you’re referencing? Does it go in the script I included above, or in the .js file, or where? Thanks again for the help.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:18:57 +0000

You just need to call .write() after everything else.

By: Derek Munson

Derek Munson — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:11:44 +0000

Geoff, I am loving this whole new world of Flash compliancy you've got going here! I really dig it. I am replacing all the Flash objects in all my companies websites with this new script and code. Thanks again. On to the issue I have: when I use masking in a Flash movie to set the border of the movie to specific shape (say, a circle or a rounded rectangle) and then layer it over a image background that matches the shape of the mask, I can't seem to get the transparency to work properly. I have the fo.addParam("wmode", “transparent"); code added in the correct spot, but the masking seems to not work. It leaves the background color mentioned in the earlier part of the code hanging out around the edges instead of just making the Flash movie appear in the shape I dictated within the movie itself. Below is a copy of the code: Now, the issue is with the first line after the size parameters. In the quotes bracket where you have to define a color (in this case, "#FFFFFF"), that color appears in a perfect square around my movie's edges, despite the masking effect used. Make sense? What I'm wondering is, is there a color parameter that can replace the typical hex code in that first line, or do I need to omit the color tags altogether, or what? This is very important to a current project I'm working on, so a prompt response would be appreciated. Thanks again for the tremendous code.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 20:44:53 +0000

As far as FlashObject goes, it does, but in general using wmode=transparent can have issues in some.

Depending on the Flash Player version and browser version/type you can get diffrent results.

By: Don

Don — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 20:35:20 +0000

Does the fo.addParam(“wmode”, “transparent”); work for all browswers?

By: Mat

Mat — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 23:02:41 +0000

How about a dreamweaver extension, for 1.3, that allows drag & drop… ?

By: Geoff

Geoff — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 21:30:43 +0000

The black border is probably from some CSS on the page somewhere. Just take it out of the CSS.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 21:19:25 +0000

I'm sure this has been covered somewhere, but I'm unable to find it. I've setup the script and it works wonderfully. the only issue I'm running into is that all my flash objects now have black borders around them. Normally I wouldn't mind, but where I'm using fo.addParam("wmode", "transparent"); in the script, the border breaks up the continuity of the page. I checked the macromedia site but didnt see any options referencing borders.

By: Art Clark

Art Clark — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 13:00:26 +0000

I’m about to integrate this javascript class, and a few other javascript classes(to replace activex controls) in all of my sites.

Thank you for providing this excellent resource.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 16:24:32 +0000

As of right now, it’s not really possible in all those browsers. There are tricks you can do like swapping out your Flash content for a static image, but that might not look too great.

layering Flash works the same way… it will be tricky to keep one on top of the other, but it would depend on the circumstances. You might be able to get it working.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 15:37:17 +0000

So am I correct in understanding that there’s really no way to put DHTML content on top of Flash that works across IE, Firefox, and Safari?

And a follow-up question: Is there a way to put one Flash object on top of another that is cross-browser friendly?

By: Geoff

Geoff — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 22:11:54 +0000

Safari has issues with wmode transparent – first you must have Flash player 7 or higher installed for it to even start to work, then you have other issues where placing content over the Flash movie will not work, and the Flash movie will snap to the top when it shouldn’t.

As far as I know there is no way to fix these issues.

By: Nate Morris

Nate Morris — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 19:17:30 +0000

I love your script, it works very well!

I’m having a problem with puttin layers on top of my flash movie with CSS. I set the wmode to “transparent”, but Safri still doesn’t recognize it correctly. so, when I hover over links I’ve placed in the layer above the flash file, all the content above the movie flashes, Check it out: http://www.banyantreepartners.com Any ideas? Thanks!

-Nate Morris

By: scott reston

scott reston — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 00:21:44 +0000

and my test user is using flash 7,0,19,0 on IE 6.0.2900.
(sorry for all the posts!)

By: scott reston

scott reston — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 00:18:19 +0000

i should point out, i’m using FO v1.2.2

By: scott reston

scott reston — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 00:14:21 +0000

i find that i have several visitors (at least 3 among friends and fam) that need to bypass the flash version detection (using FO with Dominey’s SlideShowProw) in FO. i’m hesitant to use it on a client site for that reason. SSP requires flash 7 and bypassing the detection makes it work just fine for the users that FO isn’t working for. one test user reports IE6+ and a fresh version of flash, but they still get stopped.

By: Ben Harrison

Ben Harrison — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 15:12:10 +0000

Oops–my bad. The new 1.2.1 works like a peach. I just got an older version mixed in there somehow. Thanks!