FlashObject 1.3 Released

I have just released version 1.3 of FlashObject. Changes are as follows:

[Changed] When calling FlashObject.write() you can now pass an HTMLElement reference. Previously you needed to pass a string (the Id of the element to write the Flash content to)
[Changed] Made changes to the plugin detection routine that would cause a crash in browsers running certain versions of the Flash plugin. Read a comprehensive description of the issue and the fix.
[New] You may now specify a specific URL to redirect the user to after they complete an ExpressInstall process. Previously the script would always redirect them to the page the Flash movie was embedded in, but when using a popup window this is not always the best solution. See the ExpressInstall section of the FlashObject page for more information.
[New] FlashObject now integrates seamlessly with the Javascript Integration Kit. More information on this is forthcoming in a new blog post.
[New] I’ve used Dojo Shrinksafe to strip out the extra space in the flashobject.js file. FlashObject now weighs in at just a hair over 6kb. Super tiny! The FlashObject ‘source code’ (un-shunken Javascript) is included in the FlashObject zip file in the ‘source’ folder. I also made a number of small syntax changes to reduce the size even more.

I’ve updated the FlashObject page to reflect these changes. I recommend that everyone should upgrade if you are using any older version of FlashObject. If you are upgrading from v. 1.2, you can simply replace your flashobject.js file and you should be ready to go. Versions earlier than 1.2, you may need to make minor adjustments to your embed code (see the changes to v. 1.2 for help with that)

UPDATE (1-25-2006): Found a small bug in this latest version that caused the Flash movie to not load on IE 5.01 on PC. The bug has been fixed and the zip/source has been updated. Please update to the latest version if you are using 1.3 and have a lot of users using IE 5.01 (does anyone have a high number of those anymore?). The new version number is 1.3b.

About this page

blog.deconcept.com is a blog about nerdy internet stuff edited by Geoff Stearns since late 2004.

This entry was published on January 17th, 2006 and is tagged as flash, flashobject, javascript, xhtml.
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Brooks 01/18/2006

Looks like the ExpressInstall in IE no longer works with your latest update.
Geoff 01/18/2006

I just double checked in IE6 and it worked fine (had 7 installed and visited my example page here.) Are you sure you have it all set up properly?
Brooks 01/18/2006

I was testing with 6.0.79 of the player installed–everything, as you say, works fine with FP 7 installed. Does FlashObject only support FP7 or greater–why not support the minor revisions of the player that support express install? If I’m asking questions that are answered somewhere else, my apologies–just point me in the right direction.
Geoff 01/18/2006

Ah, you are right. I found the issue and fixed it – it will only affect people who have Player version 6 installed – it’s all fixed up now, grab the zip again and give it a try. (new ver. is 1.3a)
Son Nguyen 01/18/2006

Don’t know if anyone else got the JS warnings in Firefox about the undefined array indices. Here is the correction I have changed to flashobject.js (around line 148)

148 com.deconcept.PlayerVersion = function(arrVersion){ 149 this.major = (typeof(arrVersion[0])!='undefined' && parseInt(arrVersion[0])) || 0; 150 this.minor = (typeof(arrVersion[1])!='undefined' && parseInt(arrVersion[1])) || 0; 151 this.rev = (typeof(arrVersion[2])!='undefined' && parseInt(arrVersion[2])) || 0; 152 }
Geoff 01/18/2006

Those arne’t actual Javascript errors, just warnings that Firefox will throw if you have strict mode turned on. In this case, i’d rather leave it how it is to reduce the file size since the code is perfectly valid.
TEa 01/19/2006

Hey Geoff, thanks very much for being so kind to share your stuff with all of us…

just a little Q.. is it just me (could be) or doesnt the ExpressInstall work on firefox? I tried on IE6 and Netscape7 and it seems to work fine. but on firefox it just displays the alternate content but no expressInstall prompt
Brooks 01/19/2006

One other question, it looks to me like you’ve backed away from using a class for the express install. This in theory means that FlashObject can be used as is by those of us who export our classes on a frame later than frame 1. Is this assertion correct?
Geoff 01/19/2006

It should work in every browser that supports FlashObject (which is almost all of them).

You might try grabbing the zip again, I updated it yesterday to v. 1.3a because of a problem with the ExpressInstall version detection.
Geoff 01/19/2006

Yes, I changed the ExpressInstall stuff to an include instead of a class because of the preloading issues some people had.
TEa 01/19/2006

@Geoff RE express install..

I installed Flash player 6 on my firefox 1.5 and Netscape 7.1 .. and visited this

http://blog.deconcept.com/flashobject/expressinstall.html

it shows me alternate content only and not the express isntall… my java is on.. what else could be wrong?
TEa 01/19/2006

ok.. im stupeeeed.. i missed that part where expressinstall minimum requirement is Flash player 7 (or 6.0.65) …. i had 6.0.21 for test. (then again it worked on IE, lol)..

have another question if you dont mind.. how much OVER HEAD does this script add a webpage? I plan to include this on all my webpages (incase visitor lands on subpages, not main).. does it have any significant impact of sorts?

also, is there a way to use a cookie or something to REMEMBER if the user has the required flash player version? so instead of running the whole Player Version Checking routine everytime a page is loaded, it only checks ONCE and remembers the result of the check.. coz i dont think it’s necessary the script to keep checking all the time..at least ONCE on a user’s browser…

I did this for my site, but using PHP coz i dont know java. would be great if flashObject could do this by itself.
Geoff 01/19/2006

It’s really no overhead at all… I’ve never run any time tests on the IE checking, but in Firefox or other plugin browsers, you are only checking values in an array and then doing some basic regex stuff, which is so fast you’d have to have thousands of Flash movies embedded before you notice it.

The script itself is only about 6kb, and since it’s an external file, that will be cached once your users view it once so the overhead there is next to nothing.

The script only does things as the page loads, so once the page is loaded it’s basically not there, and the performance should be identical to a ‘normal’ Flash embed. If you really wanted to get anal about things, you could delete the FlashObject reference after you call write(), but in 99.99% of the time this won’t be neccesary.
TEa 01/19/2006

ahh great! deleting my php cookie check routine.. hehehe

But i have noticed something i’d like to get you, and others confirm on..

my flash movie runs at 30fps and has na animation starting from frame 3 to 10.. animation is a logo coming in from the left and stopping at the right corner.. on IE i dont see this animation anymore..when the flash appears it shows the logo at the right side already.. in firefox it’s normal.

Im sure it’s not IE only as i have 2 html pages, one is normal embed, and the other is using FlashObject.. everything else on the page is the same.

My thinking is that it seems flashObject has loaded the swf internally already (hence started playing the animation) and when it is finally shown, it’s passed frame 10 already..

to prove my theory i moved the animated logo down 15 frames (animation starting at frame 18)… and sure enough as soon as it’s shown on IE the animation plays..

BUT.. now back in firefox.. it’s got quite a delay before the logo animation came in due to animation starting in the later frames

What are your thoughts?
farmazone 01/23/2006

I got used to put my noscale swf files into a table with params width=100% height=100%. But normally there are no scrollbars. So I put gifs- it goes like this:
<table width=100% height=100%><tr><td>here flash.swf</td><td width=1><img src="bl.gif" width="1" height="580" ></td></tr><tr><td height="1"><img src="bl.gif" width="760" height="1"></td> <td height="1" width="1"></td></tr></table>

Now if user has too small resolution flash doesn’t scale but scrollbars appear and everything is OK. How can I do this with FO ? This is the only reason I don’t use it in all my projects – I’d like to.
farmazone 01/23/2006

ups. there is no example I wanted to post. sorry. but you can look at the source of http://www.lightstudio.pl . there is what I’m talking about as you know for sure..
Geoff 01/23/2006

Well you can still use FlashObject with tables like that if you wanted to. Just set up the page like you used to, but instead of the object/embed tag, you place a div in the td and the FlashObject code after that.

I think what you really want to know is how to have a minimum height and width without using tables or using web standards. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to set up, but you could try using the css min-width property (doens’t work in IE, though). I’m not sure i’ve seen a good clean way of doing this without tables.
GJHead 01/23/2006

Just used the new FlashObject (1.3) in a site currently in development. When checking in some old browsers, I ran across a problem where *neither* the flash nor the alternative content would show up in IE 5.01. The entire page would load, however the areas for flash would be blank and the page would still appear as if it was not finished loading. Again the Browser was IE 5.01 w/ Flash 8 Plug-In.

I fixed it by reverting back to FlashObject 1.23 js (the most curerent previous release I had available.)

I’m not sure how much a priority IE 5.01 is, but I figured I would let you know.
farmazone 01/24/2006

Just set up the page like you used to, but instead of the object/embed tag, you place a div in the td and the FlashObject code after that.

Yes. I was trying to do so but it failed. At last I cut out “DOCTYPE” tag and it works!
Bas 01/24/2006

Hey.. Is it possible that using this technique causes errors when I want to use ExternalInterface to call a Javascript function?

It works fine in Firefox but in IE I get errors.. When I use the Macromedia detection method it works fine..
Did I do something wrong?

If you need more details let me know..
Geoff 01/24/2006

It should be fine – FlashObject has always been very ExternalInterface friendly. You can view an example here, and I have a blog post about it here.
Chris Anderson 01/24/2006

I am also having some problems with fo and externalInterface. At first FF was working great and IE wasn’t able to use externalInterface calls, but now I am having problems in both. Also when I pass a parameter to my swf with fo it is picked up fine in FF but doesn’t go through on IE6. Just to let you know. By the way I really love flashObject. Thanks for your efforts and contribution.
JB 01/25/2006

Hi, I wonder if someone can help me out regarding the flashobjects Express Install mechanism. I’m launching my flash8-swf in a new browser window with a javascript window.open command to set it 800×600 and with toolbar=no resizable=no etc. And when pointing my browser to the url with flashplayer6.0.65 or later installed, it autoupdates to flash8 just like I want to, but then when the update is finished, the 800×600 window is killed and the new browser window is opened in a fullscreen mode which I don’t want to!. Do somebody know a way to control this new browser window to also be 800×600 and noresizable etc?
Geoff 01/25/2006

I added a new feature in FlashObject that will help your exact problem.

When you embed your movie, add this to the embed:

... fo.setAttribute("xiRedirectUrl", "http://www.example.com/yourlaunchpage.html"); ...

where ‘yourlaunchpage.html’ is the page that opens the 800×600 window. This way all your users will always see the site how you want them to see it. Just make sure that the url is the absolute URL to your page (the full address).
JB 01/25/2006

Thanks! That solved my problem :) Just a remark…It should be fo.setAttribute
Francis 01/25/2006

I do think it would be great to create a mailinglist about your new release of FlashObject, and by the way, I discover it last month… What a great piece of work!!! I have implent it to all my site :).
Geoff 01/25/2006

JB: Thanks, fixed the comment!

I have considered a mailing list, maybe I’ll set one up over at OSFlash.org
Geoff 01/25/2006

GJHead,

Thanks, there was an issue – when I updated the script I left out the closing object tag and while IE6 was ok with that and still displayed the Flash movie, IE 5.01 was not so forgiving and would display a blank Flash movie. It has been fixed now, so grab the latest copy (v. 1.3b) and try it out.
Thomas Piart 01/27/2006

Mise � jour de FlashObject : version 1.3 Released
deconcept %u203A FlashObject 1.3 Released

FlashObject a �t� mis � jour.

Voir Ce billet pour plus d’info…
Jason 01/27/2006

Where do we get the version 1.3a I see 1.3 but no 1.3a zip. I’m having detection errors with version 6.0.65 not detectinga te all, just putting the .swf right in regardless of version
Geoff 01/27/2006

I just updated the js files inside the zip. Download it again and you’ll have the latest version.
Lawrence Meckan 01/30/2006

Got this same bug in IE6 (unsure which version code). Seems to work beautifully on Firefox 1.5, spits out glorious nothing on IE.. I’ll download 1.3b and see what changes
Bas 01/30/2006

Hey Geoff. I checked the page you gave me, but the example doesn’t send data from the Flash file to the html page.

I have 2 issues with my page.
http://www.byontik.com/hvk/index.asp (uses your flashobject)
http://www.byontik.com/hvk/index.html (uses macromedia method)

Flashobject results in a javascript error in Internet Explorer.
If I change the flash file (categorie.swf) and leave the following rule out.

ExternalInterface.call(“setCat”,cat_muziek,cat_theater,cat_dans,cat_kunst,cat_av,cat_literatuur,cat_musea,cat_streektaal,cat_monumenten,cat_festival,cat_educatie);

It doesn’t result in an error. With the Macromedia method: no errors..

Any Idea why this happens?

The other issue is weird and I don’t even know what causes it.. Again in Internet Explorer after clicking on any flash file when you close the browser I get a memory error.. (it seems to happen on random basis, so not every time).
Geoff 01/30/2006

Ah,

The issue is that you are usign the same Id for the div your Flash is in, and the Flash movie ‘categorie’. If you give your Flash a unique Id (the second argument in the FlashObject call) it should start working.
Bas 01/30/2006

thx again.. :)
3stripe 01/31/2006

“fo.setAttribute(“xiRedirectUrl”, “http://www.example.com/yourlaunchpage.html”);

About redirecting to launch pages…is it possible to set FlashObject to direct users with 800×600 or smaller screens to a toolbar-free popup that is as big as possible, but still use the usual inline method for other users? Would there be any issues with validation by doing this using screen_size.width/screen_size.height?

Cheers :D
Weon 01/31/2006

I just wanted to say thanks for this. I was about to use Satay but this is a far better solution. Thank you!
Geoff 01/31/2006

3stripe: sure, you can detect resolution and direct them wherever you wait… that would be completely independant from FlashObject.
3stripe 01/31/2006

Hey thanks Geoff – it wasn’t working because I’d missed a ‘ somwhere – fixed :-D
SixSide 01/31/2006

Thanks for this great work Geoff. I was looking at the Flash Satay method and then found your solution. I was wondering if there is a reason you chose not to combine the Satay method into your solution?

For example, it looks like you are still using the embed tag which is not part of the XHTML specification.

I’d love to hear your reasoning behind this.
SixSide 01/31/2006

Also, in the second bullet point in this post it says “Read a comprehensive description of the issue and the fix.”

Is that supposed to link somewhere that contains the description?
Geoff 01/31/2006

SixSide: The short answer is that using only object tags is buggy in many browsers. Opera has certain issues, and Safari has other issues, and it makes it very tough to just use a single way to embed plugins in every browser.

There are also other issues with Flash Satay (that are covered on the FlashObject page) like preloading/streaming of swf files and accessibility.

And yes, that was supposed to be a link – I fixed it (thanks!)
3stripe 02/01/2006

I’m getting a strange error message when compiling after adding the express install code:

“**Error** /Users/james/Library/Application Support/Macromedia/Flash 8/en/Configuration/Include/expressinstall.as: Line 21: Classes may only be defined in external ActionScript 2.0 class scripts.
class ExpressInstall {”

Can’t work out why though?
Valters 02/01/2006

i tried the download (which says “..1-3.zip”), the readme reads 1.3a version. it didnt work for ie users, you cannot see the flash content!!! so i relloed back tu 1.23 version js, but still cannot fix it, IE users dont see my page, and thats 50% traffic!!! where is 1.3b download??? already for months i loose 50% of my traffic :(
Geoff 02/01/2006

3stripe: you are trying to use the old ExpressInstall.as file – make sure you have the latest one from the 1.3 zip file.

Valters: I forgot to update the readme file, but the flashobject.js in the current .zip file is 1.3b. The problems in IE were only for IE 5, not IE 6.
Brent 02/01/2006

I’d like to add 2 more parameters so this will pass WCAG Priority 3 guidelines: accesskey and tabindex – before i fool around with the .js file, is there an easy way to add this?
Geoff 02/01/2006

Brent: you’d have to edit the js file to get those in there. Although I’m not sure it would really be neccessary – since you can set tab indexes inside Flash, couldn’t you just index the buttons and items inside the Flash movie and skip the actual object/embed tag?
Nyls 02/03/2006

Do you allready have some info on how we can use the Javascript integration kit with FlashObject ?? If you can give me a little pointer I thionk I can figure it out.. Thanks for all the great work which makes my live easier :> Nyls
3stripe 02/03/2006

So Geoff, why don’t you set up a PayPal donate button for FlashObject?!

I bet plenty of other people in addition to myself would like to make a small donation in recognition of all the good work you’ve done on this!

PS. A forum would be nice as well, and save answering everything on this thread? http://getvanilla.com/ maybe?
Geoff 02/03/2006

3stripe: Actually I just set up a FlashObject mailing list for discussion and help…

Go here to sign up.

As for the donate button, I’m not too worried about it :)
SuPplant3r 02/05/2006

Hi Geoff,

firstly a big thank you for your flashobject, it’s helped me out a great deal so far!

Could you explain why i’m possibly gettign the error “operation aborted” when my flash object loads in explorer? The site loads in the background fine, but you cannot access it because of the above error. This does not happen with Netscape, Mozilla or Opera browsers.

Any pointers???

Thanks in advance! :)
SuPplant3r 02/05/2006

as an update, i’ve seen that you have covered this error for users with flash player 6,0,65. Just to add, I am using the script to detect for flash player 8.
Geoff 02/05/2006

Ah, well if you are not using ExpressInstall there shouldn’t be a crash in IE – when you say ‘operation aborted’ do you mean that the browser crashes? (like with this bug)
JAG 02/07/2006

Geoff,
Many thanks for the tight code.

Is there a way within your solution for detection to happen before the alternate div elements are loaded? If I view source on the page I’m testing, even if my Flash is detected, the alt text and HTML links/image calls still show up.

I’m using a non-Flash, HTML version of the page for those who are detected not to have Flash, with the HTML inside the alternate div. It’s about 170K in HTML and images of alternate content, all told. Is there a way to not have that data called from the webserver if I’m going to write out the Flash movie instead, using your code? I’ve tried using onLoad functions and Apache SSIs to no avail.
Nils Mierzynski 02/07/2006

Hi Geoff and blogger,

please let me know why I always get a JS error if I use a JS-slideshow for the non-flash content.
Is there a way to solve that problem? What I have to do to fix that problem?
Here is the link to a concept page showing the problem:
http://www.njm.de/deconcept/index.htm

Thank You for any help!
All the Best from Berlin, Germany
Nils
Geoff 02/07/2006

It looks like it’s because when FlashObject inserts the Flash content, it overwrites the slideshow content. So when the slideshow js kicks in, it can’t find the objects it is supposed to slide (the images).

So you need to either change the slideshow so that it fails siliently if it doesn’t find the images, or set a variable when the Flash content is embedded that tells the slideshow not to initialize.
Matt Dial 02/08/2006

Geoff,

First, thanks for sharing this with all of us.

I would like to utilize FlashObject, specifically the ExpressInstall function with a Flash 8 FLVPlayer. I’m having trouble getting ExpressInstall to work since I have to export the swf as Flash 8 for the component. If I export as a Flash 7 movie, the ExpressInstall works, but the player doesn’t function properly (because of the Flash 8 dependencies.) If I export Flash 8 movie, the ExpressInstall doesn’t function/show up properly. I’ve used your fo_tester.fla to compare and test — and I get the same result.

Am I correct in this assumption that ExpressInstall won’t work in this case (where Flash 8 is required?)

Thanks — Matt
Geoff 02/08/2006

It should work fine as Flash 8 – My example fla/swf is published as a Flash 8 movie.

You should join the FlashObject mailing list and send your questions there, as more people will watch it and can provide more help.
Jason Asch 02/08/2006

I too have been having problems with a Flash 8 swf file. I can get everything to work with older swf files but when it comes to detecting a flash 8 swf, no dice on the express install. If anybody can figure out why, that would be awesome as I’m exhusted trying to figure out something that should be so simple.

Great script when it works correctly!
Geoff 02/08/2006

You should both post your issues on the FlashObject mailing list.
Jeffery To 02/09/2006

Geoff,

The IE 5.01 bug (missing closing object tag) is fixed in the source file (flashobject_source.js) but not in the Dojo Shrinksafe version (flashobject.js). That line (flashNode += "";) got added to the if block above it (if(pairs.length > 0)).

The line that appends the movie parameter also has an extra double quote at the end, and an extra forward slash (or the other param tags are all missing a slash, either one).

Other than that, great script. Thanks!
Jeff
Jeffery To 02/09/2006

Argh, the close object tag got eaten (from the “”)
Geoff 02/09/2006

Ahh, thank you!

Fixed up all those issues and put up a new version (1.3c)
Ray Bridges 02/09/2006

Geoff,

I found your flashObject about 6 months ago, and have used it on every site I worked on since. It is great. Thank you.

However, is there a bug in AOL for Macintosh where the flash movie is embeded twice? I do not have a macintosh to test this with, but one of the clients I built a site for says, there are two movies embeded.
Thanks again.
SixSide 02/09/2006

Are there any solutions to the problem where the flash.ocx file is locked by another browser window or an app like MSN Messenger?

If I setup FO to require a Flash player greater than what is currently installed and the user has multiple IE windows open (or 1 browser + MSN) after the user upgrades Flash to the latest version they still can’t view the movie until they close out of all apps that use the flash.ocx file. And all Flash detects indicate it’s still the old version — until after the restart.

Help!
Geoff 02/09/2006

I’m not sure, maybe try digging around on the macromedia/adobe site and see if they have a solution?
Todd 02/10/2006

Is it possible to get it to work with wordpress running k2. I have had no luck.
Paul D 02/12/2006

HI! I noticed a possible bug. I used the sample files with the express version and html file as given and they work fine even when republished tageting player 7 in the flash settings. However when I tried to target version 8 of the player when publishing and in the html having it set to “8.0.22″ ( like it is as given in the zip file)it does not detect and no longer works either. All I got was a orange screen in IE 6.0 (latest version and all fixes ).

Can someone else confirm this?

Paul
tambi 02/13/2006

Im having a problem with using flashObject with FlashJS Kit. When i call a function from JS to AS it works, but when i call a function from AS to JS it gives me the error “‘FlashProxy’ is undefined”. Or when i call a fscommand from within my flash it says that “object doesnt support this method or property”. Please help !
ntraju 02/13/2006

I am using the your flash detection script on my site.
Here is what I am using – FlashObject v1.2.3: Flash detection.

Some users are complaining that they are seeing a blank page.
Here is what they have :
flash player 8 installed – on Windows 2000 Pro and IE 6.

Did you ever encounter similar problems with other users.

Any suggestions are welcome.
Geoff 02/13/2006

Paul,

Todd, I’m not sure what k2 is, but theoretically it should work with wordpress. You should take a look at the old WordPress plugin (it’s linked from the bottom of the FlashObject page).

Paul,

Have you tried visiting my ExpressInstall test page? See if that works or if you get the orange screen – it’s the same file that is included in the FlashObject zip file. If you are still having issues, try sending a mail (with example links) to the FlashObject mailing list so we can take a closer look.

ntraju,

v.1.2.3 should not have any issues like that, but you could try upgrading to FlashObject 1.3c and see if they still have the same issue.
CJ 02/14/2006

If anyone is having problems with EnternalInterface, please read my experiences below. I’ve been hammering through this problem for quite a while now and I’ve isolated the issue that I run into. I’m not exactly sure why this happens and it’s not consistent but here is what I notice.

I was getting null reference exceptions in javascript when trying to register an actionscript method for javascript, when i run a debugger (visual studio), I see this error..

__flash__addCallback(flashobj, “callForceSubmit”);

Where flashobj is the ID that im using in the flash object constructor. I’m using an init method on window.onload that sets a variable like this..

var fl = document.getElementById(“flashobj”);

the problem is that the flashobj in __flash__addCallback does not exist. If i change the variable(fl) that holds the instance of the flash embed/object to the name of the id for the FlashObject constructor, it will work.. so it would look like this..

var flashobj = document.getElementById(“flashobj”); and now the __flash__addCallback(flashobj, “callForceSubmit”); method doesnt fail and externalinterface is successful.

Note that this scenario is not consistent. I have some flash files set up with externalinterface calls both ways JS->AS and AS->JS with now problems. It appears that on any of the more elaborate files im working on (1000′s of lines of AS), it is more of a problem so im not able to isolate the issue.

Hope this helps.. i’ve been thrashing with externalinterface issues for a while now and that appears to fix any problems.
-CJ
CJ 02/14/2006

One other comment on this.. This was only an issue on IE! Firefox was not having the same issue.
Geoff 02/15/2006

CJ,

Is it possible you are already using the same Id of your Flash movie in the page? That’s probably the most common cause of that error. Post your FlashObject embed code here or a link to it (or even better yet, join the FlashObject mailing list and send the link there).
Geoff 02/15/2006

Paul,

Re: the ExpressInstall issues: I’ve fixed them – it was related to how Flash 8 publishes Fonts and Outlines/strokes on objects. Basically you have to convert all your fonts to device fonts and make all the outlines hairline (or remove them) and it will start working.

I’ve updated the FlashObject zip file so it all works now as it should. I’ll be updating the FlashObject page soon with the details.
David 02/15/2006

I have a site where I’m using flashobject and modified suckerfish dropdowns on the same page. The problem is when I hover over a navigation item, the sub-nav drops down, but the flashobject is overlapping the menu so that is inaccessible. Does anyone know of a work around for this?
Geoff 02/15/2006

David,

This is always a problem whenever you use Flash on a page – it can be very tricky to get content to show over the top of the Flash movie.

First thing you can try is to add a wmode parameter: fo.addParam(‘wmode’, ‘opaque’);

But this may have issues in some browsers (usually Safari).
Steve 02/15/2006

The FLV Playback component controls do not appear when using flashobject 1.3 Videos are able to load but the playback controls wont come up. The Kimili WordPress plugin has the same issue and users over there have reported the same problem.
Geoff 02/15/2006

There shouldn’t be any difference – are there variables you need to pass into the Flash movie?

Is there an example somewhere I can look at?
Jim 02/15/2006

Hi,
I am happily using your great flash detection method. Many thanks for sharing this with us!
But I need the Flash content displayed full-full page – so it’s essential that I have scroll-bars on the HTML page in case any user is using a small display.
So please: Does anyone have any idea how to have a full-screen flash site using FlashObject – but still have the scrollbars appear in the HTML page when required?
Any ideas or help would be much appreciated!
Thanks.
PS – I have tried a number of variations of “overflow:’ in the CSS.
Jim 02/15/2006

DOH!
Apologies – I see you’ve answered this already further up the page!
Matthew Sweet 02/16/2006

The extra double quote is still in 1.3c, FYI.

Check Line 75 (not in the source file? Is ShrinkSafe adding it?)

_1c+=" "";
should be _1c+=" ";
no?

Fantastic work though Geoff. Much appreciated.
Matthew Sweet 02/16/2006

oops. looks like my pasted code got formatted. Sorry.

Just check line 75 of the flashobject.js file.
Geoff 02/16/2006

Strange… I swear I removed that ;)

I have really removed it now, and am updating the zip file/examples as we speak :)

Thanks.
Jason Browdy 02/19/2006

I am trying to use expressinstall. I am using flash 8 and actionscipt 1. Whenever I go to export my movie to swf, I get the following errors: **Error** /Library/WebServer/Documents/stlsm/images/expressinstall.as: Line 1: ‘{‘ expected
var ExpressInstall = function():Void {

**Error** /Library/WebServer/Documents/stlsm/images/expressinstall.as: Line 4: Unexpected ‘}’ encountered
}

Total ActionScript Errors: 2 Reported Errors: 2
Has anyone else seen this?
Geoff 02/19/2006

I don’t get any errors when I compile it – have you changed the .as file?

Maybe try downloading the zip again and using the file fresh from there?
Mark Howells 02/21/2006

Hi Geoff
Thanks a million for spending so much time and effort in creating and maintaining this highly useful script, and for maintaining the effort in supporting it. I’m unfortunately encountering a problem with IE 6 on Windows, which I’ve traced to line 102 of flashobject.js

for(var i=3;axo!=null;i++){

It’s reporting ‘null’ is Null or not an object. Any ideas?
Mark Howells 02/21/2006

… and in true development style, I find the problem immediately after posting :-/ This error occurs if the target element (to be replaced) isn’t there. D’OH!
Mark Howells 02/21/2006

Just one further question: would it theoretically be useful to create the flash object as a DOM element, and then replace the content of the target DOM element with that, rather than replacing the innerHTML? Re-coding, I know, but are there advantages? I only asked as I was interested in checking the cleanliness of my own page using the DOM inspector in Firefox, and noted that the
Geoff 02/21/2006

Well, in Firefox, you would get an Embed tag in the dom inspector. I have tried (twice now) to create a version of FlashObject that uses DOM methods to create the embed tags, but both times I have run into issues with different browsers that makes it much more complicated to do so. Safari has issues with some aspects of it, Opera has even more issues with it. So it’s just not practical right now because of how they all handle plugins differently. It ended up being a big hack to get all the individual browsers to work correctly.

Also there isn’t a demand right now for DOM scripts because nobody is using XHTML 1.1 in the correct way other than a few *very* nerdy people ;) And those nerdy people usually don’t use nor want Flash content anyway.

In the future it’s definitely the way I’d like to go, but I have no plans at the moment to make it work using the DOM methods.
Andrew 02/21/2006

I am having trouble getting the xpressinstall feature working, I am a complete flash newbie, and I am a little confused on how to “include” the actionscript into my .swf besides just pasting the code into the “actions” window. Part of the problem is when I try to open the included .fla file in Flash MX 2004 I get “unexpected error” and it won’t open. This also happens when I try to open the xpressinstall actionscript file.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Geoff 02/21/2006

You need Flash 8 to open the .fla. ExpressInstall is for upgrading people to Flash 8 (or higher) when new versions come out, so if your content isn’t Flash 8, then there is no reason to use ExpressInstall to upgrade them.
Martin Kool 02/21/2006

Is the Flash version detection broken in this last release or am I missing something?

We’ve had many responses from people with Flash 7 who were served the Flash 8 content even though flashobject was passed “8″ as required version. When I test this with Flash 8 by setting the required version to “10″ it will still just go ahead and embed the Flash content instead of displaying the alternate content. Any input is appreciated.
Geoff 02/21/2006

Are you using it with the ExpressInstall options? Double check to make sure that you don’t have the extra ‘true’ on the end of the constructor.

If that doesn’t fix it, post some links to the FlashObject mailing list.
Andrew 02/21/2006

What if my content is Flash 7, and I want my users browsing with Flash 6 to be upgraded to 8 so they can view my content?
Geoff 02/21/2006

You could do that. In that case I recommend downloading the 30 day Flash 8 trial, or using some other free compiler like MTASC to create your Flash movies.

Also keep in mind that most users will already have the Flash 7 plugin, so the percentage of Flash 6 users who have the version required for ExpressInstall will probably be very small and may not be worth the trouble.
Andrew 02/21/2006

Thanks for the help Geoff. Great script by the way, I am using it for its basic function and it is working well. Is there any way to find the percentages of people still using Flash 6. How old is Flash 6?

Just trying to decide if it is worth it to cater to people using Flash 6.
Geoff 02/21/2006

Here’s Macromedia’s Flash player penetration statistics (from December 2005, but I think the data was collected back in November)

Note that 93.5% of users have Flash 7, compared to 97.1% that have 6, so it’s a pretty small percentage difference – and that gap will only get smaller as time goes on.
Andrew 02/21/2006

Well I probably won’t bother then. Thanks for finding those stats for me. I guess my only other worry is people that are browsing without Javscript enabled but do have Flash 7+ and they get sent to my alternate content. I guess that is me just being paranoid.

Thanks again for helping me out, I appreciate it, and keep up the good work.
Geoff 02/21/2006

For that case, you can use <noscript> tags to show custom content for people without Javascript (i.e. “You must enable Javascript to view this content”)
Andrew 02/22/2006

Thanks Geoff!
Martin Kool 02/22/2006

> Geoff said:
> Are you using it with the ExpressInstall options? Double check to
> make sure that you don’t have the extra ‘true’ on the end of the constructor.

That did it, I can’t believe I didn’t see that. Thanks a lot, FlashObject is truly a gem ;)
Chad 02/22/2006

I am new to FlashObject. The line of code below from an earlier comment…..Where exactly does this code go?? Thanks in advance.

I added a new feature in FlashObject that will help your exact problem.

When you embed your movie, add this to the embed:

…
fo.setAttribute(“xiRedirectUrl”, “http://www.example.com/yourlaunchpage.html”);
…

where ‘yourlaunchpage.html’ is the page that opens the 800×600 window. This way all your users will always see the site how you want them to see it. Just make sure that the url is the absolute URL to your page (the full address).
Geoff 02/22/2006

It goes after the new FlashObject(... line, and before the fo.write("flashcontent"); line.
Chad 02/22/2006

Ok, I found out where to put that line of code……..guess I should try to read a little closer……:)

But, After the install it is not redirecting to the page that I put in the fo.setAttribute…..

Any suggestions?? Thanks.
Geoff 02/22/2006

Try posting your question (with links to your page(s) that are having problems) to the FlashObject mailing list.
Fede 02/24/2006

Geoff, excelent script. Check out fasthost.co.uk, they are using it and it works great ;)
Aaron Franco 02/24/2006

Im using flash player, but when i output and check the bandwidth profiler on testing my movie, all the content is being loaded and the classes exported on Frame one of my movie, which means the my Preloader, which starts one frame after the express install check, doesnt really work. all the content is being loaded on frame one, which means that the site loads while the player checks for express install and the preloader takes like 2 seconds, which is fine for anyone on a high speed connection, but those that are not must see a black screen forever. Is this accurate? Or am i missing somethign in the way im using the flash object? any help would be appreciated.
Geoff 02/24/2006

This is just how Flash works – if you want your content to load on a frame other than frame 1, you need to specify what frame.

In your publish settings you can tell Flash to load your classes on any frame you want, and if you are using attachMovie() you can uncheck the ‘export on frame one’ checkbox, and then place your movieclips on the stage on the frame where you want them to load.

A usual practice would be to place all your exported movieclips on frame 5, and export your classes on frame 5, and then place a preloader on frame 1 that then skips your movie to frame 6 to start playing.
Aaron Franco 02/25/2006

Geoff,
thanks for the reply, yes i looked into that, but if im using the Express Install function of the flash object, and i export my classes to frame 5, then i cant run the express install on frame one. Is that accurate?
Geoff 02/25/2006

Yes, but in the latest version of FlashObject, the ExpressInstall code is no longer an AS2 class, it’s just an include file. So you can just include it on frame 1.
joe 02/27/2006

re: the comment from gjhead earlier – I had a problem with v1.3c with a IE6 that didn’t have flash installed getting exactly the same problem gjhead had described…the alternative gif wasn’t working either.

Version:6.0.2900.218.xpsp.050622 – 1524 Update Versions:; SP2;

reverting to 1.2.3 fixed the issue.
Geoff 02/27/2006

Joe: The issues he was having were fixed in version 1.3c (the closing object tag was missing) but even so, it always worked in IE 6. The issue only showed up in older versions of IE on PC. So there should not be any more issues with the code.

If you are still having issues with v. 1.3c, then please post an example link on the FlashObject mailing list or you can send it directly to me if you like.
Brandon Mathis 02/27/2006

Thanks a lot for all your efforts!
I’m having trouble in safari 2.0.3 (no flash plugin installed) when I click the bypass detection link I get this browser error

The page “FlashObject embed by Geoff Stearns (express install) @ deconcept” has content of MIME type “application/x-shockwave-flash”. Because you don’t have a plug-in installed for this MIME type, this content can’t be displayed.”

Shouldn’t I get a redirection to macromedia or a prompt to download the plugin? I’m simply opening the expressInstall.html included in your package.
Geoff 02/27/2006

Nope, it’s behaving as it should.

The bypass link just tells FlashObject to skip the plugin detection part of the script and try to embed the Flash movie normally. So you are seeing the page as you would if there was no Flash plugin detection.
Chad 02/28/2006

Hello, I am using FlashObject with a pop-up specific sized window and it was working great. I have not touched any code and tested it again today and now after the flash player installation it is not automatically closing the browser windows (in IE) and redirecting back to that sized window like it has been for the past week…….Any ideas as to why the browser windows are not closing after the install??? Thanks in advance…..
Geoff 02/28/2006

I’m not sure why that would happen. FlashObject doesn’t close the browser windows – the Flash installer does that part, so maybe there is some issue with the installation? Are you using Macromedia’s uninstaller and then installing an older version using their installers?
chad 02/28/2006

Thanks for the quick response….

Yes, I am using Marcomedia’s uninstaller and then installing version 7 using their installers…I have been testing this for the past week with beautiful results until today…..I wish I could send you the code, but this is a project that has not been released yet….I am using the ExpressInstall also….This is very frustrating, I know I am obviously missing something I just can’t figure out what……:(:(
chad 02/28/2006

What files should I have in the directory??

These are the ones I have:

flashobject.js
ExpressInstall.as

Do I need:
playerProductInstall.as
playerProductInstall.swf
or any of the other files from the Flash installation kit???

Thanks much for your help….
Geoff 02/28/2006

No, you don’t need anything other than the FlashObject script and the expressinstall.as file.

The way the installer finds the window to close it is by searching the title of the open browser windows. It will look for the one that has ” – Flash Player Installation” appended to the end of it.

But as I said, once the installation starts, the Flash player installer takes over and the FlashObject script doesn’t do anything else.
Volker 03/01/2006

I’ve got some problems concerning expressinstall.html. It works fine using IE, but in Firefox (1.5.0.1 – OS: WinXP) it doesnt close and open the Browser window automatically after installation. I have to close Firefox manually. After closing, it opens automatically but directs to the Macromedia Website.

As it seems that nobody had this problem before, I guess it might be a special problem with my configuration (Firefox) or a problem as i cannot perform a clean uninstall of the Flash plugins (as the provided uninstall_setup.exes from Macromedia get stuck – thats why i just delete the concerning plugin-files). However – its not really important – I just like to know if it works for Firefox (1.5) in general.

Thanx in advance.
Geoff 03/01/2006

If it works in IE, then you know that the script is doing it’s job correctly…

I would give the uninstaller some extra time to finish (it’s always slow on my system to at the end) or see if you can find manual uninstall instructions somewhere on macromedia’s site.

Or if you have access to another computer, test it on a difference system or have a friend test it.
cinegod 03/02/2006

any ideas on how to go about creating a forced silent install of the flash plugin on a clients computer? i know people dont like this but im not concerned with that, its for a client and im not looking for code(if it exists thatd be great) im just looking for what options would exists for such a thing. I have a feeling i can use Javascript and make some changes to the expressinstall class you’ve written and use that to force the install silently.?? any ideas??
Geoff 03/02/2006

It’s not possible.

The default settings in Windows and OS X will always prompt the user to install new software or require some sort of administrative approval.
cinegod 03/03/2006

hmm, well i know with OSX i can use javascript and applescript to run the install as a command line script, which would hide the prompt, it would be a bit tricky to do but im sure it can be done. im just wondering if anything like that is conceivable with windows? like UNIX command line scripting?
Aaron Franco 03/04/2006

is it possible to show some text like “checking for flash”, while the express install checks. I tried putting it in frame one along with the express install class but it didnt work. I get a really long white screen before anything happens. i would like to put content in there so my viewers know whats happening.

Stefan 03/06/2006

I have problems using the script in the open source content management system Joomla.
I include the following code as html content:


<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.xxx.de/flashobject.js"></script>
<div id="flashcontent">
  This text is replaced by the Flash movie.
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
   var fo = new FlashObject("http://www.xxx.de/movie.swf", "mymovie", "200", "100", "7", "#336699");
   fo.write("flashcontent");
</script>

But the only thing what is shown is the text but not the actual flash movie.

What I am doing wrong. Please help.
Thanx.
Stefan

Geoff 03/06/2006

Are you sure you have the correct version of the Flash player installed?

Your code looks fine to me. If you are still having issues, try sendind a mail to the FlashObject mailing list with a link to your page so others can look at it and see what’s wrong.
Chaval 03/06/2006

First of all, thank’s Geoff for your great work with FlashObject, it’s not only improved the flash detection issues but made mi projects cleaner too.
I’m working on a project where I want to use a flash drop down menu over the html code (http://test.graphics.cl/aguasdecima/organizacion.php ). It works fine but I’ve got a problem when I want to click on something below the flash div (the left menu for example). I come to the idea of give the FO a small height when there is no drop down activated and make flash to change the height to show the menu. Think it has not the same solution as the visibility-problem one, cause it’s not a div height but a flash object height problem (maybe i’m wrong). Geoff, could you suggest me a way to control the FO height from inside the flash? Thank’s
dh 03/10/2006

Re CJ’s
comment above about issues with ExternalInterface:

I saw a similar problem. I had

ExternalInterface.addCallback(“play”, this, play);

and got errors like CJ did, in IE, but not Firefox.

Remarkably, just by renaming the interface:

ExternalInterface.addCallback(“xplay”, this, play);

the problem went away. I believe there is some kind of name-scoping issue in IE. There are other things called “play” in my page (a Javascript function, for instance), though whether they are causing the problem, I am not sure. In any case, it might pay to choose unique names for your ExternalInterface names.
Robert Penner 03/15/2006

Does FlashObject allow you to set the base parameter for the SWF?
Geoff 03/15/2006

Of course, you can set any parameter:

fo.addParam("base", "/");
Ernesto 03/20/2006

hi
I’ve just install new player version 8,0,24,0 and flashobject don’t work ???????
the update is recommend by macromedia !!!!
Geoff 03/20/2006

I’ve updated as well and it still works fine for me.

Double check your pages to be sure your code is set up correctly.

You can also check the FlashObject example page and see if the Flash movie there shows up. If it doesn’t, there is probably something wrong with your Flash player install. In which case you should download the Flash Player uninstaller and remove your Flash plugin and then reinstall it.
Will 03/21/2006

Will fo.write() replace everything inside of the specified div?

I’m having issues where my alternate content, which is styled and lives inside of a subdiv of my flash content div, seems to be overwriting the write process, and the flash content never actually shows up on the page.

Here’s my code:

<div id="flashcontent"> <div align="center"> <h1>Client Name</h1> <p><b>This site requires the latest versions of<a target="_blank" href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">Macromedia's Flash Player</a>.<br />Please download it now.</b><br /><br />Or, if you believe you already have the current Flash player installed, <a href="/?detectflash=false">click here.</a></p> </div> </div>

And the FO:
<script type="text/javascript"> // < ![CDATA[ var fo = new FlashObject("base.swf", "base", "100%", "100%", 8, "ECE8E5"); fo.addParam("scale", "noscale"); fo.addParam("menu", "false"); fo.write("flashcontent"); // ]]> </script>
file is included on the page, so all I can assume is that the script doesn’t like subdivs inside of the source it overwrites…?
Geoff 03/21/2006

It should be fine – when the FlashObject script writes the flash content, it replaces whatever is in the div.

I don’t know of anything that would break that, but if you want more help, try posting a link to the FlashObject mailing list for some help.
Will 03/21/2006

Nevermind, it wasn’t working locally, but worked fine once it was live on the server.
iD10t error ;)
Will 03/21/2006

Thanks for the quick response.
The is the first problem I’ve ever had with FlashObject (which is awesome), and it wasn’t even a problem!
jacques 03/24/2006

Hi Geoff,
When trying to open fo.tester.fla under FlashMX 2004 pro : file format unknown
I suppose it must be for version 8… which version of FlashObject has fo.tester openable with MX2004
and where can I download it?
Thanks
Geoff 03/24/2006

I stopped providing it in MX2004 – since you really only need that file to implement ExpressInstall, it made sense to require Flash 8 to edit it (yes, I know you can upgrade from 6.0.65 to 7, but it’s not worth the hassle)

Either download the 30 day trial from Adobe, or have a friend convert it?
paul vallance 03/27/2006

I get a forbidden mesage when I try to access my Expressinstall.html file on the web server, though locally it runs fine. Any ideas ?
Rich 03/27/2006

Hello, I’ve come across an issue in several different instances of using FO where I’m unable to load jpeg files into the movie when the movie is embedded with FO. When I use other methods the movie loads the jpegs as normal, indeed simply loading the swf file into any modern browser also lets the movie load the jpgs normally. Any idea why this isn’t working with FO? Thanks!
Geoff 03/27/2006

Paul: I’m not sure – have you tested ExpressInstall using my test page?

Rich: I’ve never had any issues with that – nearly every Flash site that uses FlashObject probably loads images and other data.

If you can’t figure it out, feel free to join the FlashObject mailing list and post a URL to your pages that are having problems so we can look at them.
Nathan 03/27/2006

Hi – like many others already have done can I just say thanks for what is a fantastic piece of code, I have only just started to use it in my projects and have to say its a god send!

I’m not a javascript wizard but, I just had an idea for something that might be a useful addition to the flash object. I’m currently looking using timelines within flash movies to create context sessitive menu systems and creating the same menus for alternative content in the same space provided by the html div tag that holds the flash movie is proving to be a little impractical. I just thought that a method within the flash object that strips the information out of a div tag when flash is found on the users machine without adding a flash movie might be a useful feature. I could do someting similiar now by adding an empty flash movie, but I thought this other way might be a cleaner way to do it.

What you think?
Geoff 03/27/2006

Normally you just put your alternate content in the same div, but I suppose if you wanted to write your own little code that does whatever you want if the Flash Player is installed, then you could do that by checking for the user’s installed version.

You can use the code on this page to whip something up.

In the future, I think i’ll have fo.write() return true or false depending on whether the Flash content was written or not to make stuff like this a little easier.
jd 03/28/2006

I have the same problem as SuPplant3r above:
I get the error “operation aborted” when my flash object loads in explorer? The site loads in the background fine, but you cannot access it because of the above error. This does not happen with Netscape, Mozilla or Opera browsers.
I am detecting for Flash 7 and it’s only in IE. The browser doesn’t crash it just won’t allow me to see the content after I click the ‘OK’ button in the error prompt.
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Geoff 03/28/2006

The “Operation Aborted” error usually only happens if you are trying to call fo.write() before you close the div that holds your Flash content.

You need to close the div, *then* write the Flash content into it.

If this doesn’t fix the problem, post an example url/files to the FlashObject mailing list for more help.
Doug 03/28/2006

Hi, I want to use your ‘flashobject’ however when I used to embed flash the old dreamweaver way, I could be able to edit the properties – ‘wmode / transparent’.
I need to do this for my main meny. How do I achieve the same effect using this code?

Many thanks

Doug
Geoff 03/28/2006

That example is explained on the FlashObject page.

Use fo.addParam('wmode', 'transparent');.
jd 03/28/2006

Regarding the ‘Operation Aborted’ error: I found an error in my html of all things, so to all that see this error I recommend vigorously checking all the code in your file first, as I should have done. everything works now. sorry ’bout that.
FlashObject rules!
jd
doug 03/28/2006

Thanks Geoff! Lifesaver :-)
Brian 03/28/2006

I have a DHTML rollover effect on my webpage that works fine without Flash, but as soon as I put in the FlashObject, it slows to a crawl on IE6. Firefox is fine. Any ideas as to what’s going on?

http://www.basecampadventure.com/index_trial_ver6.html
Mario Noble 03/29/2006

Hi Geoff, thanks a lot for your script (I was at your presentation to LAFO from laflash.org), it works wonderfully! I was wondering how I can modify it so that the script passes the usual fix:

to stop browsers from caching the swf without breaking functionality.

I’ve tried variations on this:
var fo = new FlashObject(“swfs/samplesC2A.swf?” + new Date().getTime()”, “samples”, “225″, “200″, “6″, “#FFFFFF”);

which doesn’t really work

and this:

fo.addParam(“movie”,”? + new Date().getTime()”);

or

fo.addParam(“swf”,”? + new Date().getTime()”);

My javascript isn’t that great, so I was wondering if you had any input on this.

thanks in advance,

mario
Mario Noble 03/29/2006

argh…my example of the usual fix didn’t write to the comment

hopefully one of these works:

//
“ ”

[code] [/code]

[html] [/html]
Mario Noble 03/29/2006

ok, i need to learn to follow directions (by reading the text below the Submit button…)
Mario Noble 03/29/2006

ok, i used the code tags and nothing happened. i give up. it could be it’s failing because i’m trying to pass a PARAM tag. :P

here’s the link to an example that talks about it:

http://www.forum4designers.com/message268048.html
Doug 04/02/2006

Hi Goeff, I am using your ‘flash object’ and all seemed fine, until I got a freind to test my site (www.pixeldesignstudio.co.uk) he gets the ‘please install flash’ .gif I used when flash is not installed, however when he follows the link (http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer/) it says he already has flash installed. The flash Items on my page require flash 8 (for the title) and flash 6 for the menu. Any ideas what the problem might be? Wasnt sure if the ‘flashobject.js file would need editing in order for Flash 8 files? Help please…..
Gary Bond 04/04/2006

Hi Geoff, I beleive I’ve highlighted an issue with FlashObject 1.3 using fo.addParam(“redirectUrl”,”URL”)
In Mozilla, if the client doesn’t have the Flash plugin installed at all and the redirectUrl param is used (not the attribute), the redirect doesn’t take place. The redirect is trying to use the empty attribute value and not the param value.
asgardt 04/04/2006

Hello Geoff,
I tested FlashObject1.3d with NS 4.79 and he told me some errors:

“try” is a reserved identifier and “FlashObject” is not defined

It’s possible to make NS4 supported?
Geoff 04/04/2006

Gary:

You need to use fo.setAttribute() to set the redirect url – addParam is only for Flash player parameters. The redirect is controlled by the FlashObject script.

asgardt:

At this time I’ve abandoned Netscape 4.x support. Too few people use it to make it worth while to support all the quirks in it.
asgardt 04/04/2006

Thank you for your answer. I have no way, i must be a support of NS4, because a lot of children who visit my new project (charitable trust) have not a new computer and have not money for a new pay.
But it’s not a Problem, i found a workaround and the script is runs:-)

Greatings Asgardt
Eric 04/08/2006

Please forgive me a million times over if this is the improper place to post this question, or if this issue has been addressed, and I am too ignorant to have understood it, but I am at a loss and this seems to be the correct site to get the help I need:

I have a Flash website, and it has always worked well up until a couple months ago. What is happening is that the page where the Flash movie is embedded treats the entire Flash movie as a link, therefore, when someone needs to click on what I made to actually be a link, they have to click twice. (the first time there appears a link highlight around the entire Flash movie. Also, there is another page on my website where there is both HTML and the embedded Flash but now the Flash will not appear, but strangely still has the highlight around it when you hover your mouse over it, even though the Flash itself will not appear. Is there anyone who can help me, or direct me to some place where I can get the assistance I need? Thank you so very much, in advance!
Geoff 04/08/2006

Eric: What’s happening is that Microsoft released an update to Internet Explorer so people now have to ‘activate’ your Flash movies by clicking on them first. To fix it, try embedding your Flash movies using FlashObject.

For more info on it, you can read this page.
Gwilym 04/09/2006

I have two XPSP2, IE6, Flash Player 8 computers in my office that are refusing to load movies via FlashObject, but another computer with the same setup except for Flash Player 8.5 works fine (8.5 as a result of testing Flex 2 beta).

I’ve tracked it down to line 131 in flashobject.js (v1.3c)

var axo = new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash");

When I add an alert to the try/catch block wrapping this I see the error message “Automation server can’t create object.”. So, since it’s unable to instance the player object it’s unable to detect the flash version and aborts (I assume).

However, another movie on the same page that is loaded using the usual embed/object tag setup works fine.

I can’t seem to track down any setting in IE / Security Zone stuff that would be causing it. I’m wondering if this points to a problem with a corrupt Flash Player install on those PCs. Any thoughts?
Gwilym 04/09/2006

Fixed it by uninstalling Flash Player on those PCs and reinstalling it via the Macromedia installer page. The only thing was simply using the Windows add/remove programs to uninstall it wouldn’t work, IE would keep hold of it’s own control somehow and never prompt for a re-install.

Had to resort to using the Flash Uninstaller program from here:
http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_14157

Sigh :(
Allan 04/10/2006

Thanks again and again for this work, so glad I found it
Now if I could only get it to work :)
The issue is this – If I set the required version of 6,7, or 8 it works fine in Firefox, Netscape. Mozilla However not in IE. In Fact the only way it works in IE is if I set required version to 0 (other wise it displays the flaschcontent)

When I check my current Flash version (right click, about Flash) its shows 8,0,22,0
I am using IE v6 latest updates
and flashobject 3d (downloaded tonight)

Any suggestions on what to look at? I’m sure it something I did
Allan 04/10/2006

As an update – I tried the example pages at http://blog.deconcept.com/flashobject/ and they said I needed to update as well. Not sure if they were supposed to not
If I click the link to view my flash version, it says I do not have the flash plugin installed or javascript disabled (niether of which is true)
Allan 04/10/2006

Ahh damn, it is me, sorta, I am running JRE 1.6 (Beta) to geta round some other issues with 1.5
I bet thats it!
Geoff 04/10/2006

Allan: Your Java version shouldn’t make a difference. It’s most likely a corrupt install of your Flash player on IE.

Try downloading the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller and run that, then reinstall the Flash player on IE again from their website.

To find the uninstaller, search google for “flash player uninstaller”.
Allan 04/10/2006

Geoff, that was it it – Wonderful!!!
Thanks
Gwilym 04/10/2006

There seems to be quite a few instances of broken Player installations in IE. I’ve had it reported on a number of client sites when we implemented version detection via FO (not putting any blame on FO here). The same people reporting no flash content had the same issues with sites like youtube, etc. Showing debug info would reveal the “can’t create object” error.

Would it be possible to include an option to show the Flash content anyway if the player was not detected at all? Particularly in IE. That is, if the version was detected but was too low, show the alternate content, but if no flash found at all, show the tags and let the browser’s plugin support figure it out.

If we could optionally “show flash anyway” if the new ActiveXObject() lines fail it might cater for those broken installs somewhat. Not an ideal solution, but the alternative is to try and explain why your visitors needs to download and run this player uninstaller even though flash movies are playing elsewhere.
Stefan 04/11/2006

I too have observed a problem in IE. I was running Flash Player 8.5 beta and had problems displaying Flash content in IE 6.0.2900.
Firefox with Flash Player 8.5 displayed everything fine. Strangely enough the ‘normal’ way of embedding Flash didn’t work either… I reverted to Player 8 and now both Flash pieces display fine.

There’s obviously a problem with Player 8.5 in IE here…
Geoff 04/11/2006

Gwilym: I’m not really a fan of the plugin finders in most browsers. The one in Firefox is pretty good, but the ActiveX install dialog in IE usually just scares people these days because they think you are trying to install spyware. I much prefer to send people to Adobe to get the plugins or use the ExpressInstall to upgrade them.

I don’t think there are as many ‘corrupt’ installs as you think – and there is always the ‘bypass detection’ link that is built into FlashObject for those users who know they have Flash but there’s something wrong with it.
Mike Jaixen 04/11/2006

Anybody had any issues launching Captivate movies using FlashObject? In this situation, there is a “launch” Flash that loads first with a wrapper, then subsequent Flash animations launch after that. The launch flash will work, but not the subsequent Flash.
Geoff 04/11/2006

Well keep in mind the 8.5 player is still in beta, so one might expect to see a few small issues with it. If you can narrow down exactly what is happening, it might be smart to let Adobe know about it so they can fix it before the final version is released.

Mike: I’ve never used Captivate with FlashObject, and I’m not sure if anyone else has. Try joining the mailing list and posting some links so we can all take a look at it and see if we can figure it out.
Bob 04/12/2006

Maybe I missed it, but the comment by Brandon Mathis seemed to go unanswered and im having the same issue. I uninstalled flash player and now im getting this error message:

Unable to load plug-in.

The page “FlashObject embed by Geoff Stearns (basic) @ deconcept” attemted to load an Internet plug-in named “Shockwave Flash”, but the plug-in failed to load successfully.

I have this problem on Safari. With Firefox, i just get a blank space where the alternate content should be. Should’nt the alternate content be displayed if FO can’t find flash plugin? I hope this is me doing something wrong because this code would make my life a little easier.. =)
Geoff 04/12/2006

If you don’thave the plugin installed, you should see the alternate content. If you are seeing the alternate content, it could be one of these reasons:

1) You didn’t really uninstall the plugin, but just disabled it in Safari preferences. While one would think that this *should* work, Safari still reports that Flash is installed, but it just doesn’t play anything.

2) You are clicking ont he ‘bypass detection’ link on my example page – this will always skip the plugin detection and try to embed the Flash movie.
Gustavo 04/12/2006

Hi Geoff, will the new internet explorer object and embed tags issue affect your script?
Geoff 04/12/2006

FlashObject ‘fixes’ the new IE issues – I’ve already updated the FlashOBject page, and I have another post that has all the details you might want.
Bob 04/13/2006

The problem was indeed that the plug-in was not completely uninstalled. The uninstaller leaves the following file: Flash Player Enabler.Plugin” from the “comp/library/internet plug-ins” folder. After taking that file out, FO works like a charm.

Thanks
Nathan Chase 04/13/2006

Just wanted to share a Flash HTML Template I put together that has worked for me when publishing within Flash directly to the FlashObject format. Saves a lot of time recoding from the Default publishing template.

Take this template and save it to a file called FlashObject.html in your Macromedia Flash 8/First Run/HTML/ folder. Hopefully the formatting will stay intact enough to make sense:

———————————————

$TTFlashObject
$DXFlashObject.html
$DS
Display Macromedia Flash Movie in HTML using FlashObject.
$DF

<!– Flash Content –>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”flashobject.js”></script>
<div id=”$TI”>$TI</div>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var fo = new FlashObject(“$TI.swf”, “$TI”, “$WI”, “$HE”, “$FV,$JR,$NR,0″, “$BG”, true);
fo.write(“$TI”);
</script>
<!– End Flash Content –>

———————————————

Hope it helps!
Geoff 04/13/2006

I think using $MO instead of "$TI.swf" might work better, and for the version, you’ll want to use dots (.) instead of commas (,).

And your example has the ExpressInstall option turned on, so if you aren’t using that, change that last ‘true’ to ‘false’.

Other than that it looks pretty good!
Dave Sansom 04/13/2006

flashobject is such a GREAT tool. Life in Flash-ville is once again lovely!
A quick question… I’m using the CMX Dreamweaver extension that uses flashobject to insert Flash movies now. Can I simply rename the V1.3 flashobject_source.js to flashobject.js and let ‘er rip? Or is there a more elegant way to use the DW extension and still use the latest version of flashobject?
Thanks.
Geoff 04/13/2006

It should just work if you download the latest zip file and replace your flashobject.js with the one in the zip. The source isn’t meant to be used, it’s just there to make reading the code easier.

I use dojo shrinksafe to shrink it down before I distribute it.
Dave Sansom 04/13/2006

I had tried doing just what you suggest, Geoff, and it worked. I appreciate your feedback, though. Now I feel good knowing that it should work in most circumstances and not just in my limited test.
Thanks. Again… what a great tool!
chris 04/15/2006

Hello,

just found out bout the patch ms released for IE. So i quickly found this fix.
i just used the flash object script in a 100+ client page and it works fine in IE and firefox.
now i used flash v7 , so is the default of the script check for player 8 and if so will it display my flash for the users if they just got flash player 7 or does it tell them to update to flash player 8?

also what are all the little updates to FO , must we update each time because to go back and change the code in the html would be a huge hassle.

also will there be a dreamweaver update to fix this new prob with IE?

thanks and great script :)
Rich 04/17/2006

Hello,

Ive been using flashobject to get around the microsoft browser changes and found it works great. The only problem Im having is using it for sites with a number of flash movies all on the same page. In these cases flashobject works exactly as it should, but I really dont want to have a number of alternate content messages on the same page all telling the user to get the plugin as it just looks messy. Is there any way I can get flashobject to redirect the user to a totally different page with an alert message instead?
Geoff 04/17/2006

chris: I updated FlashObject whenever I find a bug in it, which is why there are sometimes small changes after a major release. I don’t change the API very often, and when I do it will be with a major version release (like 1.4 or 2.0 etc.). To update from the minor updates like 1.3c or 1.3d you can just replace the flashobject.js file and it should be fine. As for a dreamweaver update, who knows, but there is a dreamweaver extension you can download from communityMX (it’s linked on the FlashObject page)

Rich: yes, you can redirect users if you like by using the fo.setAttribute('redirect', 'upgradepage.html'); attribute. I believe there is an example of this on the FlashObject page.
Rich 04/17/2006

Thanks geoff,

I misunderstood what the redirect attribute did initially. Working exactly as I wanted now. Fantastic!

–R
Rich 04/17/2006

Seems like I spoke too soon, it looked like it was working BUT …

If I use the ‘redirectUrl’ attribute it now redirects the user to my upgradepage even it they have the plugin installed.

I removed the flash plugin with the macromedia plugin removal tool, and was directed to my upgrade page as I wanted, I went ahead and installed the plugin then went back to the original page and still was directed to the upgrade page. Checked another site with flash content and the plugin definitely installed properly.

Any suggestions would be apreciated.

Thanks.

–R
Geoff 04/17/2006

You should post stuff like this to the FlashObject mailing list – you’ll probably get faster reponses.

In fact, I’m going to close the comments ont his post – if anyone else has comments about this or has questions or needs tech support for FlashObject, please direct them to the FlashObject mailing list. You need to subscribe to the list before sending mail to it.

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