Is there any simple option out there for “designers” who are clueless on js and do not have the capacity nor the intrest to leasrn it?

Always run the uninstaller so it cleans out all the extra files and registry entries, then install the version you want afterwards. To test ExpressInstall, you can install any player from 6.0.65 and up.

Thanks

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I have been stuggling to successfully implement Macromedia’s Detection Kit. When I say kit, I am actually referring to the “automated” version that can be published within Flash 8 Professional (same as the kit?). Anyway, after some simple tweeking of the script, I was able to provide alternative content in the event that JavaScript is turned off. However, the alternate contect in the event of an out of date or uninstalled player goes, trouble occurs. Since I know very little JavaScript, I cannot successfully implement an image display (with map) to show up. I have no idea how to write the following HTML code into the generated JavaScript:

be a trivial question, but I have no idea how to get it “working” within the script itself. Any suggestions?

FInally, I just wanted to point out that this JavaScript method (generated by Flash) does NOT work within Safari, Netscape, or IE under OSX Tiger. I uninstalled Flash 8 Player to test the script and was surprised to see an error generated by the browser but no JavaScript in action. At work today, on a PC, the script worked exactly as intended.

Anyone else come across this problem on a Mac? Robert Hoekman, Jr. (see above) suggests this method works “across all browsers.”- I don’t see how though. Robert, even on your own site (linked from your tutorial on Macromedia’s site), the detection method fails for me- within OSX Tiger.

I’ll be putting in some time to come up with a solution, but I’m not sure a good one will pop up. Those player versions have a *very* small install base, so it shouldn’t be much of an issue unless you have a unique user base that has those particular versions installed for some reason. Maybe a large corporate intranet or something like that.

The older versions of FlashObject (pre 1.2) will not cause the crash, but then you lose the ExpressInstall functionality and the minor/revision detection.

When i did that and hit the html page, i got a blue page that said something like FLASH CONTENT GOES HERE – UPDATE THIS SENTENCE SO IT’S LESS UGLY. Then, apparently, there was a blue link in the same colour as the background that said “Get Flash.”

The player did NOT update inside itself, as MM claimed this morning. Detection was NOT just as easy as checking a box, and beyond all that – as i write this, the Flash 8 player isn’t even available for download on the MM site. It seems to keep installing FP7 and happily chirp that i have the F8 player. What gives?

The trick here isn’t making something that works for everyone. Anyone can throw some Javascript together that will work for 99% of your users, and then provide safety nets for when the content needs to degrade. Once you get to that point (and I think all of these scripts provide perfectly acceptable user experiences) then it’s time to start thinking about the rest of the things involved.

What about search engine indexing? My alternate content gets indexed just fine. User experience doens’t stop at your pages – you also need to consider what Google sees. Go search for “detecting flash player” and marvel at all the wasted space that could have been used to help people find your website. If your alternate content is tied up in Javascript (as it is with the Macromedia detection script), Google won’t index it.

I notice that two of your points about why flashObject is better focus on the difficulty of implementing and modfying the Flash 8 detection scripts. I mean no offense whatsoever (seriously), but to this, I can only remind everyone that it is not our job to make our own lives easier; it is our job to make out users’ experiences better. The Flash 8 scripts work very well, so I’m more than happy to spend two extra minutes moving code from one file to another if it means my users will benefit. If flashObject works as well, under all the required circumstances, I’ll be happy to recommend it.

I do plan on working in some sort of compatibility with the Express Install. I’m not quite sure if it will be built into the FlashObject script, or if I will end up just building a generic upgrade page that will handle upgrading the Flash plugin depending on the user’s installed OS/browser/Flash player.

Did you do tests on FlashObject? Also new since you wrote the article is the UFO embed script, which I’m not a fan of because of the way it waits to load the content until the page is loaded, but I guess some people like the illusion of cleanliness it provides.

I have used FlashObject and UFO and found that the detection methods in both work fine in Opera and Firefox and IE (Win and OSX), and Safari too – I haven’t yet discovered a problem with either detection method.