SWFObject 1.4.4 released

There was a new bug intruduced in the 1.4.3 release of SWFObject, so if you are using 1.4.3, you should upgrade to 1.4.4 immidiately.

The issue is that onbeforeunload is being triggered even when a user clicks a link that contains a javascript link, which causes the cleanup routine to trigger, which makes all your swfs on the page dissapear in IE.

This has now been fixed, and 1.4.4 includes all of the ‘fixes’ that are needed to date, including the streaming media fix, and the Flash Player 9 ‘out of memory’ errors.

Download Now

* One new issue that can arise with the addition of the cleanup routines, is if you are including the swfobject.js script in your pages more than once, you will cause more ‘out of memory’ errors. If this happens, make sure you only insert the swfobject.js file in your page only one time.

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 August 3rd, 2006 and is tagged as flash, javascript, swfobject.
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Murat 08/04/2006

hello. thanks for SWFObject. very good script. Big thanks author’s.
But I’m using 1.4.4 and I crate swf macromedia 8 pro. not player swf. firefox clickt to Javascript link
“n has no properties” line 86 error. and now showing. Pls help me. thanks.
Murat 08/04/2006

My test.htm code:
<code>< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd”>
<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” lang=”tr”>
<head>
<meta content=”text/html; charset=ISO-8859-9″
http-equiv=”content-type” />
<title>Test</title>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”swfobject.js”></script>
</meta></head>
<body>”text-align: center;”>TEST<br />

<script type=”text/javascript”>
// < ![CDATA[

var so = new SWFObject("test1.swf", "test1", "250", "15", "8", "#FF6600");
so.addVariable("flashVarText", "TEST"); // this line is optional, but this example uses the variable and displays this text inside the flash movie
so.write("flashcontent");

// ]]>
</></script>
</body>
</html></></code>
Geoff 08/04/2006

It looks like you forgot to put a div with an id of “flashcontent” on your page.
Murat 08/04/2006

thanks geoff.
AP 08/04/2006

I’m using the rewrites in apache and it seems to break the display of the flashcontent.

Right now you can direct link to sub-pages in my flash site like this http://earlyworks.com/?p=events and you’ll go to the events page rather the regular home page. I wanted to use cleaner url’s so I put this into my .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule /index/(.*)/ /index.php?p=$1
RewriteRule /index/(.*) /index.php?p=$1

When I try to go to http://earlyworks.com/index/events I just see the div for those without flash or javascript enabled. Any clue what I can do to resolve this? I had my php echo the variables so I know the .htaccess rules are working.

Thanks
Geoff 08/04/2006

You have to remember that mod_rewrite will affect *all* requests made to the server, so when the browser loads your html page, it will also make a request for the swf file, which would be this:

http://www.earlyworks.com/index/main.swf

So then the rewrite engine kicks in and rewrites that request to the html pagea instead, which breaks your swf files.

Easy fix: move the swf files into a new folder, or make the request for you flash files as /main.swf, or put an exception for .swf (and probably images and js and whatever else) into your rewrite rules.
AP 08/05/2006

thanks for the direction I modified my .htaccess like this:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule index/(.*)/ index.php?p=$1
RewriteRule index/(.*) index.php?p=$1

I think this should exclude real files and directories from the rewriting (I’m still shaky on mod_rewrite), but I still can’t get my main.swf to show up when I use a url that calls for rewrites. I tried adding the /main.swf too, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. Any clue?
Chris 08/08/2006

I just got the swfobject patch today. Worked great for a little while. Then it stopped working. The tag works for FF, Opera, and Netscape for me, but not IE5
This is my test page___________________

<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”>
<head>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=iso-8859-1″ />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”swfobject.js”></script>
</meta></head>

<body>>
<p><div id=”home”>
<div align=”right”>Home
</div>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var so = new SWFObject(“flash_homebutton.swf”, “clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″, “64″, “21″, “6″, “#000000″);
so.write(“home”);
</script>;</div></p>
</body>

Hellllp me plz</html>
Geoff 08/09/2006

You don’t need to (and probably shouldn’t) put the clsid as an id of the movie. Can you be more specific when you say it doesn’t work? What doesn’t work?
Geoff 08/09/2006

ak,

I made a test page that uses Google analytics, and mine works ok – you shouldn’t be seeing any cleanup issues anymore with 1.4.4.
Michael 08/09/2006

I was doing some multi-language testing on a machine with Windows (Italian) installed and the plugin detection fails in IE only (Firefox is OK). On an identically configured test machine (with US Windows) the plugin detection works correctly (I do not get the “upgrade flash message”).

Version of IE: 6.0.29 (identical version & serice packs & flash version to my other test machine, with US windows installed).

I used the example URLs on this site for testing (not my own versions).
Geoff 08/09/2006

That’s interesting… I don’t have access to any non-us versions of Windows, so I’ll follow up with you via e-mail with some more questions.
Stranger 08/09/2006

After release of version 1.5.0 you should implement swfobject to deconcept.com
ben 08/12/2006

Lovely, thank you, Geoff.
Mike Underwood 08/12/2006

When I unzipped the download all the files were empty, perhaps I should try using ie6 instead of 7.
Ivan 08/13/2006

Hi!
I am a newcomer here. And I have some questions. I could nod find it in FAQ.

1. How to make a plugin installation page to be opend in new window? I mean that user must not leave my page. Plugins page should be opend in new window.

2. Where should I change the text that flash detector put in documents to alert user?

Best regrds,
Ivan
Torben 08/14/2006

I struggled for a long time trying to get the ExpressInstall to work. I finally realized by looking at the source code from the example page that you had a TRUE statement at the end of first line:
var so = new SWFObject(“so_tester.swf”, “sotester”, “300″, “300″, “8.0.23″, “#FF6600″, true);

I was missing that…but I haven’t seen it before on any of your other examples. What does it do ?
Doug 08/14/2006

Hi! Obviously…thank you so much for the script, great work! Not sure if this was posted before so I apologize if it was. I’m using IE 7 and the script doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve embedded everything perfectly(I think anyway). It works in IE 6, FF, Netscape, opera etc…but not IE 7. Is there a fix on the way?

Thanks!
Geoff 08/14/2006

Torben: The ‘true’ on the end tells SWFObject that your swf is ‘Express Install aware’ so if the user has v. 6.0.65 or higher, it will send the swf the data it needs to start the update. You should only use this if your swf is capable of doing an Express Install.
Geoff 08/14/2006

The script should be working in IE7 – It’s been tested for months now and hasn’t had any issues. If you are having IE7 problems, you can do the following:

1) Check my test pages from the swfobject page and see if they work. If they do, then there may be something wrong with your code.

2) Run the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller and then reinstall your Flash player clean. Sometimes the Flash Player install in IE can get messed up and you need to uninstall it and reinstall.
Tony 08/14/2006

Thanks for this. Hey what’s going on in the picture on your T-shirt here Geoff? http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/swfobject.html
Tony 08/14/2006

Sort of looks like a couple of unicorns going at it.
Geoff 08/14/2006

That’s exactly what it is.
Ash 08/15/2006

I absolutely love SWFObject but have quite a big problem with it at the moment.

I am using it to display a flash header banner on a website which is all good. I am also using Dyn JustsoPicture window to open up photos in a new window. When I open a new window the flash header disappears – but only in Internet Explorer. I have tried a couple of javascripts that open a new window and they all do the same thing. I think it must be something to do with the javascripts conflicting with each other. The following link shows what i mean in IE if you click on one of the thumbnail images.

http://d250837.nt79.net-tecs.co.uk/index.asp

Does anyone know what causes this problem or is it possible to recall the swfobject when the user closes the popup photo?
Geoff 08/15/2006

Ash: This was a bug in the last version of SWFObject, you just need to upgrade to 1.4.4.
Ash 08/15/2006

Sweetness – that was an even better answer than i was expecting. I did actually download 1.4.4 but for some reason I uploaded the older version by mistake. Cheers Geoff for a seriously cool piece of code. You Rock!
Steve 08/16/2006

There seems to be something causing a problem with Express Install in Firefox. I’m guessing its not really related to SWF Object but I thought I would post here just in case. If I go to the page http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/expressinstall.html and try the express install, I get a dialog box that says that the files that need updated are in use and then I am forced to abort the install. I have tried this on two different PC’s with the same result. One pc was using the latest version of firefox, the other an old version (0.8). Both were using Flash player version 6.0.79. If anyone has some insight into how to fix this please let me know.
Geoff 08/16/2006

Steve: Is it possible you had another browser open that was using the Flash Player? Or maybe another app that was using the plugin?
Aaron Franco 08/19/2006

im trying to use the SWFObject with a dynamically generated website using PHP. Wondering if this can be done and if someone has done it. Or are there any resource you know of that i can look through for examples or help. Thanks.
Stephen Wightman 08/21/2006

I’m trying to make a change to a Flash movie (mp3player.swf) using setVariable. At the moment, I have only the first three selections enabled but, as you can see on the website, there is no change to the playlist. Any suggestions or corrections will be appreciated.
i.e.:
if (x == 0) {
window.document.movie.setVariable( “flashVars”, “file=dir1/playlist.xml”);
}
else if (x == 1) {
window.document.movie.setVariable( “flashVars”, “file=dir2/playlist.xml”);
}
Steve 08/21/2006

Geoff, I tried it again just now with nothing open except Firefox and no additional browser tabs or windows. Same result. Maybe there is something strange going on with the archived Flash Player installers? I used flash 6 player available here…
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_14266
Steve 08/21/2006

Oh, and dialog box says that Firefox is the application that is using the files that need to be updated.
Geoff 08/21/2006

If you are just trying to set the variable when the movie loads, you can do it when you write it out, by using:

so.addVariable(“file”, “dir2/playlist.xml”);

Check out the SWFObject page for more examples of doing this.
Michel Stomp 08/21/2006

Hi Geoff,
First of all thanks for this great solution. I’ve been using it for several months now. It’s a great help in convincing clients to go for a flash site when they want their content to be found on bodyIndexing too!
I’ve got a little issue now; I’ve created a site with quite a lot of HTML content ni the div. A great deal of it is a long list of stores with address details and more. I put a little php script in the div that reads and prints the list from an external file, so that the index file isn’t too large. however, the php script reads and prints the file prior to the flash object being loaded. This results in the page showing the HTML content in the div seconds before the flash object is loaded. At first I wanted to use the fo.altTxt option, but I noticed you dropped that a while ago. Do you have any suggestions to solve this problem? an example is here: http://www.repeat.ch/index_test.php
Geoff 08/21/2006

Well you bring up a good question: If you have so much content to display on your page, why are you using Flash to display it? It sounds like something like that might work better as plain HTML (I could see people wanting to do a text search on a long list if things).

But if you really insist on putting all that content ‘under’ your Flash movie, maybe try hiding parts of is with CSS? That way the browser won’t try to render all of it, but Google will still see it.
Aaron Franco 08/21/2006

Im using SWFObject now. I just realized that it doesnt work in Safari or Explorer for Mac. It doesnt write the alternate content. I checked it on my PC and it works fine, but it doesnt work on macintosh. This is a problem.
Aaron Franco 08/21/2006

did a bit more testing, it seems that it only writes the alternate content if javascript is turned off. So even if i uninstall flash, i still cant see my alternate content unless javascript is turned off. Mind you, this doesnt happen on Windows, just mac. But still a problem. Any advice or help would be great. Thanks.
Geoff 08/21/2006

Are you uninstalling the plugin, or just disabling it in settings?

When you disable Flash in Safari, but still have the plugin installed, safari will incorreclty identify that it has the Flash Player enabled when you check with JS. I assure you, SWFObject has been tested and retested on Safari for years and works just fine.

If you are still having issues, try running the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller, and then checking your files.
Aaron Franco 08/22/2006

yup, sorry for the confusion. Not sure what happened, must have been the cache. I did an uninstall but the content still wouldnt write, its writing now. Thanks.
Michel Stomp 08/22/2006

Hi Geoff,
My client wants all content displyed in HTML for two reasons. The first is google etc. The second is giving visitors without the right Flashplayer the opportunity to read all content in plain HTML (… don’t ask why). Hiding content using CSS is a good idea though. Unfortunately it will not solve my problem. Thanks for the tip anyway.
Geoff 08/22/2006

Then another option would be to put some of the content on another page, and then make links to those pages.

on the other pages, you can put some javascript that redirects the user back to your Flash movie, so google will read it, but browsers with JS will be redirected to the Flash version.
Tom Kirk 08/22/2006

Dear Geoff,
Love SWFObject–great tool for convincing web marketing people that SEO and Flash can co-exist. Anyway, I am not a javascript expert, and I’m trying to figure out my best option for the user who decides to click “no” to an express install. I end up with a blank page basically. Thanks.
Geoff 08/22/2006

You can do anything you want when they click ‘no’ – unfortunately, the way SWFObject works is that it writes the swf to the page if they are elligible for the upgrade – whether they want it or not.

You can, however, modifiy the code in the expressinstall.as file to do just about anything you want if they click no or if the download fails. I currently have it pop up a Javascript alert, but you could change this to anything, including replacing the Flash content with the original HTML content if you wanted to (this would take a little bit of JS work, but it’s possible).
Maksys 08/23/2006

Dear Geoff i fixed only string in your code.
if(c){this.addParam(“bgcolor”,c);}else{this.addParam(‘wmode’, “transparent”);}
Its need for on Transparent wmode :D
Geoff 08/23/2006

You don’t need to edit the js file to add that in: you can add any parameter you want by using so.addParam()

So if you wanted a transparent background, you could do:

so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");

There are examples of this on the main SWFObject page.
Michel Stomp 08/23/2006

Thanks again for the input Geoff; I’ll go for that last one!
Danko 08/25/2006

It would be nice SWFObject working on Mozilla, with DOCTYPE tags of the page on.
No Flash is shown with DOCTYPE tags included (PUBLIC or TRANSITIONAL).
RKAlexander1 08/25/2006

My SWF object is not showing up in Firefox. The URL is http://www.rkalexander.com/portfolio.php

Here is my code:

<div id=”portSWF”>WEB Portfolio
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var so = new SWFObject(“SWF/PORTFOLIO_nv.swf”, “mymovie”, “687″, “167″, “7″, “#FFFFFF”);
so.addVariable(“variable”, “varvalue”);
so.write(“portSWF”);
</script>
<div id=”hr_bottom”></div>
Rick Zaki 08/25/2006

Just a suggestion, but how about modifying the wirte funtion so that it does not require a parameter or some kind of container to write to. It simply does a document.write. Here’s the modification I made somewhere around line 104.

if ((typeof elementId == ‘undefined’)||(elementId==”")) {
document.write(this.getSWFHTML());
} else {
var n = (typeof elementId == ‘string’) ? document.getElementById(elementId) : elementId;
n.innerHTML = this.getSWFHTML();
}
return true;
Geoff 08/25/2006

RKAlexander1, it looks fine to me, if you aren’t seeing the swf, you probably need to upgrade or install the Flash plugin for Firefox.

Rick, SWFObject used to work like that – just using document.write, but I changed it because the ability to replace content is such a good thing for your search engine / fallback content, etc. etc. that I really want to encourage people to use it that way instead of just a plain document.write() call.
Del Olds 08/26/2006

I was unable to get any Flash content updated in IE AND FireFox, and I was using ASP.NET … until I made this discovery. I had put the flash detection code into a control (it also detects what the page name is and loads the appropriate flash header or static image). Well. when you use that control, it appends the ID name onto the DIV, so instead of
fo.write(“flashcontent”);
I had to make it
fo.write(“mainmenu1_flashcontent”);

Just a heads up for any .net developers out there.
Pieter Bos 08/27/2006

Hi There Love Your SwfObject.
Abobe has a alternative they call it “Active Content Update”.
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flash/updates/8/activecontent/flash8_ac_update_en.zip
It adds a publish template to the publish settings pannel. I wanted the same thing for swfobject so I made one. Looking very mush like the adobe one ;-)
You can download it from http://www.flashaction.nl/download/swfobject.mxp as an Macromedia Extenstion.
Rags 08/28/2006

I am using swfObject Express install. In IE it is getting updated fine. In Firefox it is stoped in the first frame itself. I have installed flash 7 player in forefox.
Mark 08/28/2006

We’ve installed swfObject on our web portal server.
When the page is rendered, the flash movie is white except for some moving text.
Have any ideas why this is happening?
Mark 08/28/2006

…you can see the problem at http://fsgtest.webwave.biz
Geoff 08/29/2006

Mark: The fact that the SWF is there on the page means that SWFObject is working. Maybe there is some other data that needs to be passed into the SWF when it loads?
Raj 08/29/2006

I have an HTML site with lots of smaller Flash elements. Instead of pasting multiple swfobject.js files in various folders, I have one swfobject.js in the root directory, and then I link to that (ie. http://www.url.com/swfobject.js). It works fine in IE, but not in Firefox. In Firefox, it will always show the Flash even if the correct Flash player version is not installed. Can anyone confirm?
Will 08/31/2006

Using IE5.01 and 5.5, the disappearing bug still occurs when clicking on a javascript link within a SWF. One the link is clicked and the next page is loaded all subsequent page loads contain no SWF.

http://browsers.evolt.org/?ie/32bit/standalone
Marek 09/01/2006

Is it a bug or I am doing something wrong?
Example:
CSS:
#aa {
background: red;
/* not defined height */
}
<div id=”aa”>some alternative text</div> Here goes SWFObject.
Without defined height we got background color (red) visible in the bottom of flash.
What should I do to workaround this problem?
Geoff 09/01/2006

Marek,

It sounds like a CSS issue – make sure there are no margins or padding on the elements, and make sure they are set to display: block and not inline.
PeteGeller 09/01/2006

Hi maybe i´ve found a new bug, i use swfobject all the time and it worked great for me. I did a project on my own server and everything works great but on the client server the screensize (100%) doesn´t fit anymore and whats more important the basic movie can´t load a new movie like before.
The Problem only appears in Firefox 1.5.0.6 but in IE everything ist fine.
Don´t know why this happens!
Marek 09/02/2006

Geoff.
Here is modified css style from expressinstall.html provided with SWFObject.
#flashcontent {
border: solid 1px #000;
width: 300px;
/* height: 300px; */
float: left;
margin: 15px 20px;
background: yellow;
}
In FF (1.5.0.6) and Opera (9.01) both for windows we can see few pixels of yellow background. In IE 6 is OK. I didn’t check how it works in linux.
jakob 09/04/2006

I was wondering if the bug with flash 6 version checking was reintroduced in newer versions of SWFObject somehow. I’m using the 1.4.4 release and started getting reports of users whose browser just shut down while surfing the site. I couldn’t recreate the bug myself until I tried uninstalling flash player 9 and installing 6.0.21 from Adobes site. I don’t get the error described in this post though: http://blog.deconcept.com/2006/01/11/getvariable-setvariable-crash-internet-explorer-flash-6/, instead the browser just “disappears”, the current browser window closes down without an error message. A friend of mine had the same error on his site and solved it by downgrading to 1.3c, my workaround was changing the version checker parameter from “6″ to “7″, but since these flashmovies should work in flash 6 it would be nice to be able to show them.

Oh, and by the way, I think it’s a great thing what you’re doing with SWFObject.
Jesse Cravens 09/04/2006

swfobject is great, but I am unable to get it to work with wimpy player’s wimpy.js – Have you heard of anyone sucessfully using both js together? I have yet to find any discussion anywhere on this topic.
I use slideshowPro – and am able to embed with swfobject – but when it comes to my wimpy player on the same page – i have to reosort to the old way with
Will 09/05/2006

Hi, if anyone could help I would be most appreciative. I’m having the problem that is reported to have been a bug affecting the last version of SWFobject. If I load my page in IE5 or 5.5, the movie loads fine with all the right variables. However if I click on a javascript link within the movie, it disappears and won’t come back even on reload.

I’m using the standalone versions of IE to test with, could it possibly be an issue with these and not SWFobject, has anybody tested the new version on an actual installed version of IE 5/5.5?
Geoff 09/05/2006

Are you sure you have the latest version? 1.4.4 fixed that bug – I have a test page set up here that you can try – when I click the links using IE5 or IE5.5 the Flash movie does not go away, and works fine.
Benny 09/05/2006

Hi Geoff,

There seems to be a problem with the detection function in the 1.4.4. script. Although I have (latest) Flash 9 installed on WinXP/MSIE 6 SP2, deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.getPlayerVersion function returns 0 for the major property, if I change:

var axo = new ActiveXObject(“ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.7″);

to

var axo = new ActiveXObject(“ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.9″);

then it does detect the correct player and retruns 9 for the major property.

Maybe you want to have a look at that ;-)
Geoff 09/05/2006

Hi Benny,
The detection functions are set up that way for very specific reasons, and have been working fine for a few months now. Can you do some more testing? Try running the Adobe uninstaller and then resinstalling Flash Player 9 fresh and going to my test page?
Will 09/06/2006

Hi Geoff, thanks for that. Your example link doesn’t seem to be a link though.

I’ve been trying to install win95 on vmware to check if it is an issue with the standalone versions. It also may have something to do with the fact I have the swf as a menu in the top frame of a frameset and then when I click my navigation link it reloads the frameset.

will let you know if I figure anything out.
Will 09/06/2006

Ok. All fixed, I figured it out, embarrassingly it was some bizarre CSS error, never work on someone elses CSS. It took installing win 2k on vmware to catch it though, I’m not sure if those standalone versions on evolt are entirely accurate.

Your excellent script was not to blame, bet you knew that already though. ;)
Benny 09/06/2006

Hi Geoff, yes I could do that but then you might loose an opportunity to test a fix for this.
You say that the detection functions have been working fine now for months. But I can’t imaging that I am the only one that bumped into sites that tell me I need Flash 9 to visit, while I already have it installed (even reinstalled it, but I didn’t use the uninstaller yet). On the other hand, what I can imagine is that I am the first one that bothers to tell you about a possible detection glitch, don’t you think so too?
Geoff 09/06/2006

Benny,

It’s very easy to corrupt the Flash Player installation on IE. As a developer you are probably uninstalling and reinstalling and downgrading and testing multiple versions at once, and because of that it’s very easy to break the registry entries that SWFObject relies on to detect the plugin.

Therefore whenver you find a ‘bug’ in the script, it’s important to test it on a clean install of the Flash player. In order to do this, you need to first uninstall it using the Adobe uninstaller (to clear out the registry entries) and then reinstall it fresh so it will be the same thing that a normal user would have.

Just because your Flash Player installation is broken doesn’t mean that all of your users will have a broken installation as well.
Benny 09/06/2006

Geoff,

You are probably right and I guess it’s anyway a good thing to always give a visitor the opportunity to bypass detection (in case if fails). Unfortunately most sites which required Flash 9 didn’t give me the opportunity to bypass the detection.

So I uninstalled with Adobe uninstaller and reinstalled flash player and indeed detection works indeed fine now.
PeterV 09/08/2006

I need to put the .js content inline, in the header of the document that calls the swf. The swf works great except for the activex workaround! Oh, the irony is killing me.

Does anyone know why this is, and if it can be fixed? Unfortunately I *must* have the .js content inline for this particular project.
Geoff 09/08/2006

Unfortunately, the js has to be in an external file in order for the ActiveX ‘fix’ to work.
Thomas 09/09/2006

The script doesn’t work when using mod-rewrite with the .htaccess.
Here’s what I have:
http://www.mysite.com which hosts the detection on the index.php file,
and I made it so that all request from address such as: http://www.mysite.com/product/shoes/ is redirected to http://www.mysite.com/product.php?cat=shoes
but I constantly get the flashcontent. ie ” This text is replaced by the Flash movie.”
Thomas 09/09/2006

ooh, sorry I searched the page for “mod-rewrite” and couldn’t find anything, when you’ve already answered my question beforehand.
sorry about this, and thanks for this great plug-in
Sandra 09/11/2006

Hi Geoff. I love the script! This has been a lifesaver. However, I have been getting the below error when I publish after inserting the ExpressInstall. This doesn’t happen to all the files I add the ExpressInstall to though. I know it’s something I’m missing, but I can’t seem to figure it out.

**Error** /Volumes/WEB SERVER/Ravella (RAV)/Website/source/flash/expressinstall.as: Line 31: ‘{‘ expected
var ExpressInstall = function():Void {

**Error** /Volumes/WEB SERVER/Ravella (RAV)/Website/source/flash/expressinstall.as: Line 34: Unexpected ‘}’ encountered
}

Total ActionScript Errors: 2 Reported Errors: 2
Geoff 09/11/2006

Usually those errors pop up when you try to publish a swf as AS1 instead of AS2. The Express Install files I include are AS2.
Sandra 09/11/2006

That did it! Thank you! Always those simple things you overlook…
Tim 09/12/2006

Hi,
I need a way to update the wmode attribute via a javascript function on the page short of redrawing the entire object. It is a long story but basically I must ensure that the wmode is set to ‘window’ so JAWS will not ignore the movie while still being able to set it to ‘opaque’ temporarily . I can use this
‘document.getElementById(‘menu_mov’).setAttribute(“wmode”,”opaque”);’
with the Adobe provided RUN_ACL script but I can’t fudge it easily to update an existing parameter for SWFObject code. Any hints, There are many other reasons why I want to use SWFObject instead of RUN_ACL -e.g. I am unable to get movies loaded on levels above the _root to play nicely in the local connection department. Works great with SWFObject, but RUN_ACL requires a reload to work correctly. I have tried ‘defer’ and onload with RUN_ACL already.

Thanks,
Tim
siva 09/19/2006

how to make swfobject expressinstall work in flex 2 applications?
is html template provided by adobe is the way to go or can this be done using swfobject?
thanks
-siva
Geoff 09/19/2006

I’m still testing version 1.5 of SWFObject, which supports AS3 Flash movies (that means Flex 2).

If you want to help test it out, you can get it here:
http://svn.deconcept.com/swfobject/
Adam 10/02/2006

I had an issue, where my background-image CSS attribute was not showing up, or partially showing up when the <div> to contain the swf was palced above the <div> that had the background-image (IE 6)…

In Firefox 1.5, and Safari it worked properly.

It actually worked out that I placed the flash <div> below the element that had the background-image and it worked fine, everythign displayed properly and I liked the look better. But I thought it was a weird behavior… Anyway here is my markup if it helps or all. Or maybe I was just doing something wrong. (the css is inline because I was testing, so yes, I know better than to do that)

<div id=”flashcontent”></div>
<script type=”text/javascript” language=”javascript”>
var so = new SWFObject(“profile.swf”, “sample”, “740″, “400″, “8″, “#ffffff”);
so.addParam(‘wmode’, ‘transparent’);
so.addParam(‘allowScriptAccess’, ‘always’);
so.write(“flashcontent”);
</script>

With our without the wmode the BG image would not display.
SWF is published in flash 8
SWF uses externalInterface
Header (the container of the background image, has a PNG in it, floated to the right)
uses this code to render the PNG for IE:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bobosola/pnghowto.htm
in the html it’s utilized like this:

<!–[if lt IE 7.]>
<script defer type=”text/javascript” src=”pngfix.js”></script>
< ![endif]–>

the style for the header div (div with the background image) is:
background: url(‘/images/img_header_image.jpg’) no-repeat top left;

The instant I put the <div> and the <script> below the <div> that had the background-image, everything displayed fine in IE 6. If I put it above it.. no dice

If I dropped the flash in using the <object>…</object> method, everythign also worked in IE 6, background images displaed normally even if the flash <div> sat above the <div> with the background-image.

Here was the <object> code I used:

<div style=”height:5px;” id=”flashcontent”>
<object classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″ codebase=”http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0″ width=”740″ height=”400″ id=”sample” align=”middle”>
<param name=”movie” value=”profile.swf” />
<param name=”quality” value=”high” />
<param name=”bgcolor” value=”#ffffff” />
<param nam=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always”>
<embed src=”profile.swf” allowScriptAccess=”always” quality=”high” bgcolor=”#ffffff” width=”740″ height=”400″ name=”sample” align=”middle” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” />
</embed></object>
</div>
Ben Evans 10/03/2006

Hi, I am using the latest version of swfobject (v1.4.4) and in IE 6 (Version 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp.050301-1521) running on Windows XP SP 2, I still encounter the “click here to activate this control” issue.

Here is the code I am using for swfobject to load the flash file…
Ben Evans 10/03/2006

ok… this is annoying… Geoff, when you get to this post, can you kill my two previous screwed up ones?

Anyways, I am using the latest version of swfobject (v1.4.4) and in IE 6 (Version 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp.050301-1521) running on Windows XP SP 2, I still encounter the “click here to activate this control” issue.

Here is the code I am using for swfobject to load the flash file…

<div id=”cc_header_flash” style=”z-index:1;margin:0px;padding:0px;”></div>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
// <![CDATA[
var so = new SWFObject("media/flash/opening_flash.swf", "opening_flash", "732", "255", "7", "#f9b02c");
so.addParam("quality", "autolow");
so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");
so.addParam("allowScriptAccess", "sameDomain");
so.write("cc_header_flash");
// ]]>
</script>
Geoff 10/03/2006

Read through this old post about the Eolas issue – there are a few known issues at the bottom of it you should check.
http://blog.deconcept.com/2005/12/15/internet-explorer-eolas-changes-and-the-flash-plugin/
Adam 10/07/2006

Noticed something else…May be nothing.

If you put your containing

info a

eg:

so.write(“flashcontent”)
will cause an error in IE 6, and nothing will happen.
jildert 10/08/2006

Hi,

I’m having a small problem with the fscommand.. Everything works fine
in FireFox and Opera.. But it’s not working in IExplorer.. The flash
is displaying but it doesn’t react on the FSCommand :-( Hope somebody
knows what I’m doing wrong..

My Code:
function loadflash() {
var so = new SWFObject(“mmplayer.swf”, “myFlash”, “134″, “21″, “8″, “#000000″);
so.addParam(“quality”, “high”);
so.addParam(“wmode”, “window”);
so.addParam(“menu”, “false”);
so.addParam(“loop”, “true”);
so.addParam(“play”, “false”);
so.write(“mmplayer”);
}

var InternetExplorer = navigator.appName.indexOf(“Microsoft”) != -1;
function myFlash_DoFSCommand(command, args) {
var myFlashObj = InternetExplorer ? myFlash : document.myFlash;
alert (args);
}
if (navigator.appName && navigator.appName.indexOf(“Microsoft”) != -1 &&
navigator.userAgent.indexOf(“Windows”) != -1 && navigator.userAgent.indexOf(“Windows 3.1″) == -1) {
document.write(‘ \n’);
}

thx in advanced
Claudio 10/10/2006

I have a problem that I haven’t seen reported as of today.
I have a simple SWF that displays a text (a la sIFR). The textarea in the movie is configured to accept HTML tags.
Via SWFObject, I’m trying to pass my embedded movie a variable such as this:

so.addParam(“text”, “Click here to visit the site“);

With this syntax, SWFObject breaks up. I’ve found that it has problems with the “&” in the variable I’m trying to pass.
Maybe it’s because it reserves this character to pass its own variables?
As a workaround, for now I’m replacing the “&”s in the variable with “|”s and then do a reverse replacement in the SWF itself.

Is there a more elegant solution to this issue?
Jon Pastore 10/10/2006

I’m having a problem with swfobject.js 1.4.4, It appears as though it is no longer working in IE for me. It works fine in firefox.

below is the code used to call the flash object

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="/javascript/swfobject.js"></script>
<div align="center" id="clip_marquee">
Clip preview images loading.
</div>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
var so = new SWFObject("/flash_objects/autoscroller.swf","c_marq","800","120","8","#000000");
so.addVariable("getdatafrom","/cgi-bin/marquee/marquee.cgi&displayimages=4&proportion=1");
so.write("clip_marquee");
</script>
Geoff 10/10/2006

Here’s what you do if it doesn’t work in browser X:

Go to my example pages posted here and see if those pages work.
– If it works, then check your code because something is wrong with it
– If it doesn’t work, then check your Flash player install in Browser X, run the uninstaller from adobe.com, and then resinstall the Flash player.
Geoff 10/10/2006

Claudio,

You need to escape the values in the url. Either use escape() or encodeURIComponent() or change all the & to %26.
Andres 10/10/2006

On having call a function javascript with externalinterface, the IE return a error (syntax error), but the all function javascript is execute. If, I use the swfobject 1.4.4, the IE does not return the error, but not execute the function javascript. Because it can be?
Andres 10/10/2006

In additional to the previous note. The function is a simple alert, and in the version 1.4.2 it is run (but also it shows the same syntax error).
jvcleave 10/11/2006

Still having the issue of IE 6 unloading the swfs on the page when using getURL(“javascript: MM_openBrWindow(theURL,winName,features);”) javascript routine to open some windows.
This routine works with Mac/PC Firefox and Safari fine.
In IE 6 the routine will work the first time but the second time the swfs are removed.

I tried to comment out some of the deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.cleanupSWFs, deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.prepUnload functions which made the disappearing happening less often but it still is happening.

I am going to try and switch all of my getURL javascript: calls over to ExternalInterface and see if it helps. Also, right now your example link is just an empty anchor tag
Thomas F 10/11/2006

Geoff-

I wanted to see if you had heard anything about the following:

I’m using SWFObject 1.4.4 with Firefox 1.5.0.7 and the dojo toolkit 0.3. I am loading in a swf like so:

var so = new SWFObject("/../assets/SubNav.swf", "subnav" + iTime, "212", "229", "8", "#FFFFFF"); so.addVariable("lcId", "subnav" + iTime); so.addParam("wmode", "transparent"); so.addParam("menu", "false"); so.addParam("allowScriptAccess", "always"); so.write("subnav");

From there I’m setting up an k in my AS class. The method call from JavaScript to Flash works as it should, but the call from the AS class to JavaScript doesn’t work. When the addCallback method is invoked it returns true signifying the method is attached to the tag in the html. The problem is, once it comes time to call the method attached to the > tag, it shows up as undefined; even though addCallback had returned true. By the way, the whole mechanism works fine in IE 6.0.
Any ideas? Thanks,
Thomas
Geoff 10/11/2006

jvcleave,

If you comment out the cleanUpSWFs() call then I’m not sure what else could be causing it… are you sure it’s my script?

Thomas F,

I created a custom version of the JS Integration kit for use with SWFObject. You can grab it here and try it out… It might fix your problems:
http://blog.deconcept.com/code/intkit/
Kaare Wesnaes 10/11/2006

Hi Geoff,

First off, thanks for your awesome tool – it’s a timesaver indeed!

I do believe though, that there’s a serious problem with the swfobject and Flash Player 9 on PC IE 6, and hope you have time to look into this. The problem has been sketched out by others above as well I believe, the getPlayerVersion returns [0,0,0] for FP 9.0.16 on IE. In Firefox it runs fine.

I have uninstalled/installed several times but to no avail. Seems like the new ActiveXObject(“ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash”); renders an error, with or without revision number.

No matter what, and I’ve tried to debug through a lot, i cannot get the installedVer to render correct. In IE it’s always [0,0,0] but [9.0.16] in FF.

I do hope you have an idea!?

Thanks in advance,

Kaare
Geoff 10/11/2006

As stated above many times, the script works fine when the Flash player is installed properly.

Try these steps and if you are still having problems, post a link to your page that is having issues to the SWFObject mailing list so someone can look at your code and see if something is wrong.
jvcleave 10/11/2006

The switch to ExternalInterface is working with the default 1.4.4 code. The reason I suspected your code was the description is exactly what is happening in IE with the swfs disappearing.

I thought I commented out most of your cleanUpSWFs() code but I didn’t spend too much time with it. If you are interested I can gather up some examples next week once I get this site launched.
Parker 10/12/2006

Does anyone know of a way to test what the site looks like for users who have older versions of flash? It seems once I have the latest flash installed, its not very easy to uninstall it.

Can I download some old browser that isnt bundled with it? Or does someone know how to uninstall the plugin?

thanks,
-parker
Geoff 10/12/2006

I usually just disable Javascript in my browser to test it.
Parker 10/12/2006

I did that, and the default does show, but I want to make sure it actually prompts the right users to install the latest Flash. Oh, maybe I should mention I’m trying to test the ExpressInstall functionality.

For example, I have Flash 8 installed; I adjusted the function to look for version 9; I would expect that I should be prompted to upgrade; but I’m not, the page just loads.

So its really two questions now,
1-how do I test it with older versions of flash when my computer has the latest? (maybe I can set the function to look for a higher, possibly non-existent, version, like “14″ or in my case “9″?)
2-does it sound like something is wrong if I set the function to look for “9″ when I have 8, and it loads the site without an upgrade prompt?
Geoff 10/13/2006

To test Express Install, you should get an older version of the Flash Player (search for ‘archived flash players’) and use the official uninstaller before you install an old version.

Using a version like 14 won’t work, because the update won’t happen if you already have the latest version.

If you have Flash Player 8 installed, and require Flash Player 9, then the update should be triggered, so if you are seeing the movie play normally, you either have Flash Player 9 installed, or the Express Install code in your fla isn’t set up right.
Matt 10/13/2006

Thanks for the swfObject, Geoff- I use it all the time. But I think I’ve run into a bug. It works great for full browser Flash, but when trying to use it in a liquid two column layout where the overwritten div is expandable, it creates a useless vertical scrollbar. Observe:

EXHIBIT A
http://spacefoundry.com/clientview/opa/noswfobj100/
This version has no swf- the red area is the , the grey area is the HTML div, and the yellow is the div that I want to replace with the swf using swfObject. You can see that the styles themselves don’t create a scrollbar.

EXHIBIT B
http://spacefoundry.com/clientview/opa/swfobj100/
Now observe the same markup with the swfObject added- a useless vertical scrollbar appears.

EXHIBIT C
http://spacefoundry.com/clientview/opa/swfobj99/
In an attempt to debug this, I changed the height of the yellow swfObject div from 100% to 99%– this removes the scrollbar in Firefox and Safari, but not in IE, and it has the unfortunate side effect of creating a space at the bottom of the page. I want the swf to extend to the full height of the browser window.
Geoff 10/13/2006

Well that’s interesting… have you tried it without SWFObject to see if it’s something with the Javascript/innerHTML method?

Maybe the object or embed tags are adding a little bit of padding/margin somewhere? (maybe try setting a height/width in the css for the object or embed tags?
Mike 10/19/2006

Thanks for the swfObject, Geoff – I just ran into the externalinterface and swfObject seems to be working.

I found an issue, however, as I am building things in .net. ASP.net puts everything inside a form tag, and i’ve found I get javascript errors when I put my flash in a form tag. The form has an ID of ‘form1′. I’m looking at the .js source, but I’m having no luck. Any ideas?
Matt G 10/20/2006

Hi. Are there any easy instructions for installing this?
http://blog.deconcept.com/code/intkit/
Matt
Weston 10/20/2006

Hello Geoff,
I just stumbled on your site while desperately trying to find a fix that WORKS for the Flash problem in IE. I’ve tried your fix and it stop the “Click to Activate” issue, but I’m still getting very long download times with the xxx item remaining to load message. I suspect it’s not SWFObject, but something else. I’m having this problem on nearly every site that I use Flash. Here is a stripped down sample with just the flash and the script: http://www.avirtuouswomantour.com/swf.php

Hope you can help. Thanks for the solution!
Jesse 10/24/2006

Hey Geoff,

First of all, big thanks for SWFObject… it’s been a huge help on my sites.

But, yes, I’m writing about a bug(?) I’ve encountered. When I try to pass text to my .swf using SWFObject, it doesn’t work. Any other flashvar I pass seems to work ok, and the .swf works ok when I just embed it as an object… but when I assign the value to the flashvar param (or use addVariable) it just doesn’t show up… even though it shows up correctly in the tag and all that.

Code looks something like this:

Am I missing something? Any insight?

Thanks,

-js
Eric 10/26/2006

So I just started using flash object and I am really liking it. However, I just had my wife try and view 1 of my new pages from her work and she is getting the “This text is replaced by the Flash movie.” message instead of the Flash movie. Now I know she has flash player installed because she can view my older sites that don’t use SWFObject just fine. Is she missing a java component or is there some security setting on her browser that may be causing problems? Also, what if she has an older flash player installed and the movie being loaded by SWFObject requires a newer version?

Once again she can see: http://www.beecreekestates.com/siteplan.htm just fine
but has problems with: http://www.robroywest.com/

Once again great product!

Thanks, E
Andrew 10/27/2006

Does swobject 1.4.4 support ExternalInterface.addCallback? If it does, what do I need to do to make it function?
I can embed a .swf on a page and implement the Flash example (see ExternalInterface help) and it all works. But when I change to embeding the .swf via swobject, the Flash to javascript works but the javascript to flash (passing parameters) doesn’t.

Thanks.
Andrew 10/27/2006

A follow-up, it all works fine in Firefox but still doesn’t work in IE.
Ky 10/29/2006

Hi Geoff. Thanks so much for SWFObject. Im having some troubles with using flash in a template which is replicated numerous times (and hence having duplicate divs with duplicate id’s). Is there some way around so I can get the original old “so.write();” to work? As it would solve my problem instantly!
Michiel 11/01/2006

Hi, recently I’ve started using SWFobject and I really like how it both solves the IE activation issue and results in valid and nicely degrading pages. However, the pages I’ve made using SWFobject, crash IE7. Not on initial load, but after a few reloads IE7 crashes every time. Firefox and IE6 behave perfectly.

See this in action (this is a new design I’m working on, so this is a work in progress)

The HTML and CSS validate without flaw. I’ve tried this page without flash and with the classic object/embed method and this works without any crashes.

I don’t have this problem when I test your example pages. Any idea what’s going on here? Is there a problem with my code? Or is this a bug in SWFobject?

(BTW, I’ve only installed IE7 on a virtual machine using VMWare, but that shouldn’t matter, should it?)
Michiel 11/01/2006

I forgot to mention the most likely cause of the IE7 crashes, a bug in IE7. Also, in this example I’ve grouped the SWFobject snippets at the bottom of the HTML, instead of just after the div’s. When I do put them there, the problem persists. Furthermore, I realize flash is really not necessary in this design, so if this problem can’t be solved I’ll just ditch the flash for this site. However, I have the same problem on a site where the client really doesn’t want to lose the flash.
Koori 11/03/2006

Hello.
I’m trying to use SwfObject on my site. I’ve spotted the same problem as Michael (comment from August 9). I’m using polish version of operating system and IE. Everything is OK under Firefox 2.0 but under IE script does not embed swf file. It does not prompt for installation plugin and shows “no file” icon. Have you come up with solution for Michael? Mabe I could use similar one.
Softlion 11/08/2006

[NEW] new addVariables(flashVars) method to add more than one FlashVars in one call.
Sample usage, replace so.addVariable(…) in sample files:
so.addVariables(“file=sample.xml&show=true&repeat=true”);

addVariables: function(nameValueQueryString){ var pairs = nameValueQueryString.split('&'); for (var i=0; i < pairs.length; i++) { var p = pairs[i]; var pos = p.indexOf("="); var name = p.substring(0, pos); var value = p.substring(pos+1); this.variables[name] = value; } },
Geoff 11/08/2006

Soflion,

You can already do that actually… just use so.addParam(“flashvars”, “foo=bar&foo2=bar2″);
Geoff 11/08/2006

Andrew, Yes, it supports ExternalInteface, you would use it no differently than a normal swf you embed. The only difference is SWFObject allows the object + embed tag to have the same Id, so you only need to use 1 line of code to get the reference to your swf: var theswf = document.getElementById(“myswfid”);

Michiel,

The IE crash may be caused if you are using Flash Player 6 – the next version of SWFObject will fix this. If you want to try it out ahead of time, you can grab it from here:
http://svn.deconcept.com/swfobject/

The only major change is how the Express Install stuff works, so check out the example page to see the updates.
Andrew 11/08/2006

Geoff,

Thank you for that, it now works perfectly. You’re doing a great job there. Keep up the good work.
Daniel 11/09/2006

I’m confused. On IE7, I go to install version 9 of the flash player but it says version 7 successfully installed upon completion. Anyone else have this issue with IE7 and flash?
Geoff 11/09/2006

It sounds like your install is corrupt. You need to run the uninstaller first, then install version 9.
SunShine 11/13/2006

Hi,

I use for a short time swfOBject and I have a probleme. With swfObject on IE the fscommand on flash don’t call my myAnime_DoFSCommand function but on FF work great. Anyone have the same problem ?

An example of caode that work on FF and not on IE :

< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=iso-8859-1″ />

dfg
SunShine 11/13/2006

Sorry, my entire code seems not visible in my last post. I repeat the code here, I hope it was visible :

< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=iso-8859-1″ />

dfg
Bart 11/14/2006

Thanks for all your work on this script. I use it on multiple Web sites. Anyway – I’ve found a quirk in IE7 that is easily reproduced. If the flash embed snippets are in a table, then IE7 flakes out and the movie will only play *sometimes*. You can break the sample code in “fullpage.html” from the ZIP package by:

- just after the tag, insert:

- just before the

tag, insert: the flash will not load most of the time. I’m going to uninstall the flash player one more time and try again to be double-sure about this, though.
Bart 11/14/2006

Sorry, my sample html didn’t make it into my post. So here are the steps again:

- just after the opening body tag, insert an opening table, tr, and td tag
- just before the closing body tag, insert a closing td, tr, and table tag
Bart 11/14/2006

Ok, so same thing after an uninstall/reinstall cycle with Flash for IE7.
Shaun 11/14/2006

So, I wanted to take my quicktime movies and convert to flash video. I did that through the automated process in flash. It gives me an swf that calls the (skinofplayer).swf and video.flv. When using the SWFObject solution to embed and show it makes the video file smaller and completely hides the player skin.

http://onemanshortproductions.com/projects.php for an example. Know what’s up?
Geoff 11/15/2006

Shaun,

It looks like you need to change the size of the swf in the SWFObject parameters. You still have it set to my test movie size.
Shaun 11/15/2006

var so = new SWFObject("/trailers/votejoe.swf", "votejoe", "320", "240", "8", "#FF6600");
Change to my correct video size… didn’t fix. I have a feeling it has to do with the swf calling another swf into it. I don’t know much about flash as I just used the automated process. Also whatever size i increase the thing to, it gets bigger and applies huge margins around the flash video and just shows the background color.

should we correspond in email so as to not spam your blog?
Shaun 11/15/2006

Right so I resized the actual canvas size of the flaw and exported the swf, so now it has no blank space. he video part loads when using swf, but it does NOT insert the media player bar under it, where you see the orange background. That seems to be the problem.
chaz 11/16/2006

I have seen a couple of comments about IE seeming to pad the embedded flash object so I thought I’d post my experience and subsequent fix. I’m using swfObject 1.4.4 and IE6 and despite setting the flash object width and height to be 100%, the containing
and
Shaun 11/16/2006

Any ideas Geoff?
harold 11/19/2006

Geoff,

I can also comment on the issues of IE7 and SWFObject. It causes IE7 to crash if the user leaves the page or refreshes it. I wrote a custom control that spits out the raw HTML for IE7, but if the SWFObject script is still included in the page, it will cause the crash.

I removed the SWFObject script on IE7 and viola, it works fine. So, I suppose it has something to do with adding an “onunload” event handler to the page causing memory read errors (null pointers in IE, ect) because it is trying to trigger something IE has disposed of. IE7 should handle this gracefully, but well it is IE.
ven 11/21/2006

I wonder if the addVariable is possible to get from anywhere in actionscript 3.0 (using either 1.4.4 or the early 1.5)
Mimi 11/21/2006

I think its better to round up the coordinates where the upgradeMsg is placed, if the express install option is on, that way we eliminate possible anti-aliasing problems with non integer coordinates.

var upgradeMsg = _root.attachMovie(“upgradeMsg_src”, “upgradeMsg”, 1);
upgradeMsg._x = math.round (Stage.width / 2);
upgradeMsg._y = math.round (Stage.height / 2);
Shaun 11/26/2006

Geoff, I tried, even ufo, to see if it would work… it doesn’t. So it’s a problem on my end I’m thinking, was wondering if we could correspond a little via email to fix this?
Shaun 11/26/2006

nevermind, all fixed.
Shaun 11/26/2006

Though, IE7 won’t play the trailers unless you click the link ?detectflash=false
Hald 12/02/2006

Can you add support for border? I don’t really know java… This seems to work… I changed a line in the code as follows:

swfNode = ‘
Hald 12/02/2006

Let’s try again… [NB: Can someone delete prior post?] Can you add support for border? I don’t really know java… This seems to work… I changed a line in the code as follows:

swfNode = '

I also thought it would be best to change getAttribute as well:

function(name){ if(this.attributes[name]) { return this.attributes[name]; } else { return 0; } },
Geoff 12/02/2006

Hald, try setting the border with CSS instead… it’s much cleaner.
Szymon 12/07/2006

I’ve got problem with unloading function deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.cleanupSWFs
It removes swfs starting from the first, so the remaining in this moment move up. It lasts just miliseconds, but my client coudn’t accept that. So I simply modified the order:
for(var i=_2d.length;i>0;i–)
and now it works fine, I hope.
Szymon 12/07/2006

for(var i=_2d.length;i>0;i–-)
of course…
Szymon 12/07/2006

once again:
you can see unaccepted version at
http://www.gmedia.pl/stradom/not/
acd working at http://www.gmedia.pl/stradom/
Winson 12/08/2006

Hi! I’m new to SWFObject and I love it!

I need some help on javascript. I made a function that uses the so.write("flashcontent") to replace the div with multiple SWFs. I have the javascript like this:
function loadFlash(e) { if (e == '1') { var so = new SWFObject("flash1.swf", "flash1", "512", "384", "8", "#FFFFFF"); } else if (e == '2') { var so = new SWFObject("flash2.swf", "flash2", "512", "384", "8", "#FFFFFF"); } else if (e == '3') { var so = new SWFObject("flash3.swf", "flash3", "512", "384", "8", "#FFFFFF"); } so.write("flashcontent"); }

And the markup:

Some text
Flash 1 Flash 2 Flash 3

It works but the problem is that the flash doesn’t show up until it is loaded completely.
Winson 12/08/2006

Uhh… markup:
<div id="flashcontent">Some text</div>
<div> <a href="#flash1" onclick="loadFlash('1')">Flash 1</a> <a href="#flash2" onclick="loadFlash('2')">Flash 2</a> <a href="#flash3" onclick="loadFlash('3')">Flash 3</a> </div>

Hope this shows up correctly now.
DWI777 12/08/2006

I have found all my answers right here. Thank you for taking your time to help. I have your page bookmarked!
Michael Ramirez 12/13/2006

I created a DNN module using SwfObject to embed Flash movies in your DNN portal. Check it out
KH 01/22/2007

I had the same problem as Jakob. Im running a danish version of XP and IE6 using flash 6.088, but i solved it by downgrading to 1.3c
Geoff 01/22/2007

KH,

That issue should be fixed with the latest version of SWFObject in the SVN repository. Grab it here: svn.deconcept.com/swfobject/trunk/
P*ssed off 01/31/2007

Will SOMEBODY PLEASE fix the xxx items remaining problem!! with 50 solutions to the activate problem, no one seems to have a clue how to prevent IE from reloading the object and hanging!! Give me the dotted border on my Flash object over a page that looks like it hasn’t finished loading ANY day.
Geoff 01/31/2007

SWFObject shouldn’t have this issue. If you are seeing something like that, it’s probably something in your specific swf, or on your page.

(You can test this by visiting my swfobject example page, and notice that there is no ‘xxx items remaining…’)
mike 02/02/2007

First of all: I love swfobject.

But I do have a problem with it on windows. The thing is it runs fine on nearly all installations.

These sites dont

http://www.eventagentur.ch
http://www.mobile-cuisine.ch

The page doesn t load on ie 6 on a computer of a friend of mine.

This site http://www.goldenhills.ch on the other hand runs fine on his computer.

Does someone know why? I have been comparing the code for hours, but i can t find the bug.

Id really apreciate some help, this issue is driving me nuts….
mike 02/05/2007

I just noticed, that some IE Browsers don’t display the flash content, when one uses google analytics.

The problem was that I called the google js before I called the swfobject write method. That hat the effect, that some IE Installations did’nt display the SWF.
Matt 02/18/2007

hi ive been making a simple flash navigation bar and i have put it into a frameset which is a top section and nested left…the flash is in the left frame and i am trying to open html pages in the main frame using the buttons in the flash… the code i am using is:

on (release) {
getURL(..\mockwebsite\planning.html, “mainFrame”);
}

this opens the html file in a new window but i uploaded the html file to freewebs.com and so the code was:

on (release) {
getURL(http://www.freewebs.com/turner1119/planning.html, “mainFrame”);
}

this opened up fine in the mainframe but because i am creating an eportfolio i cannot upload it to a website just so it works any help please?????????
Geoff 03/03/2007

Closing comments on this post. Please post SWFObject related comments here, or on the SWFObject support forum.

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