SWFObject 1.5 released

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I’m pleased to announce the next semi-major release of SWFObject (Direct download link). This version has been in development for quite a while, but only because I haven’t been able to find time to update the documentation.

There’s really only one large change to the code, and a few bug fixes I’ll outline here:

  1. Express Install functionality has changed. You no longer need to add any Actionscript to your fla or otherwise modify your project’s files. The new syntax and functionality is outlined on the SWFObject page in the Using Express Install section.
  2. Fixed a bug that was causing IE6 to crash intermittently if users had a certain version of Flash Player 6 installed and the page was refreshed a few times
  3. Added support for IE Mobile devices that have Flash Player installed (more details here)
  4. Added support for style tags on the object/embed tags outputted from SWFObject. This allows it to be used with swfIR without having to include the SWFObject code multiple times.

This also may be the last major release of SWFObject. If you haven’t already heard, the SWFFix project will be attempting to replace SWFObject as the de-facto Flash embedding standard. The project is still in the alpha stage, but is looking quite promising. So until then, enjoy!

258 thoughts on “SWFObject 1.5 released”

  3. How to use the “SetVariable” javascript method (if you need to pass real time variables to flash)

    1º – this step does not change…

    2º – You need to change this parts of SWFObject.js code

    a. id=”"+this.getAttribute(“id”)+”"
    b.

    TO

    a. id=""+this.getAttribute("id")+"z"
    b.

    Ps.: You just add a "z" (or any other char) after the ID parameter.
    If do you want to get the flash object reference with document.getElementById
    so the OBJECT tag does not may have the same ID than the DIV tag (IE bug)

    3º - HOW TO USE

    2º – You need to change this parts of SWFObject.js code (in two lines)

    this.getAttribute(“id”)+”"

    TO

    this.getAttribute(“id”)+”z”

    Ps.: You just add a “z” (or any other char) after the ID parameter.
    If do you want to get the flash object reference with document.getElementById
    so the OBJECT tag does not may have the same ID than the DIV tag (IE bug)

    3º – HOW TO USE

  5. Dear Geoff,

    Joining the thankful community i also thank you for the great job you’ve done.

    Regards,

    Attila S.

  6. I am trying to add a variable using addVariable which works fine. However when I pass it a string with the percent sign % or % it doesn’t print the % sign. I have set up a simple test with a textfield and passing it a string.

    swfobject
    so.addVariable(“textinfo”, “

    Hello

    “);

    Flash output:
    Hello

    swfobject
    so.addVariable(“textinfo”, “

    Hello 100%

    “);

    Flash output:
    Hello 100/h3>

    swfobject
    so.addVariable(“textinfo”, “

    Hello 100%

    “);

    Flash output:
    Hello 100/h3>

    Is anyone else experiencing this?

  7. Dear Sir/Madam
    I Have Publish swf with 100%,when 100% swf Is called in HTML(I Have Use Java Script with height=0 & width =0)html page is working with fullscreen,but on mouserollover the menu is not working……But when 100% swf Is called in HTML(I Have Use Java Script with height=100% & width =100%)code is working.
    .I want you to help me when height & width is 0.

    I want swf to work in html with fullscreen & in html page on rollover the menu should work

    Regards
    Seema

  8. Hello…rogation so landslide for engendering such a heavy and useful tool. We primo started using SWFObject to get rid of the extra-click in IE for a job for Microsoft, and we’ve been using it continually since…so paean a bunch.

    I’m onwards one unyoke that I’m aghast if anybody has encountered…it seems modestly innocent compared to some of the more skilled work outs that people are overlay. Basically, in IE 6/7 only, the alternative favorably disposed in the diffuse lightcomposed div is being displayed a tint buff in the front the out-and-out Flash melodramatic loads. It’s a pertinently equidistant sized swf that we’re not running any contradistinguish of preload on (lazy, I the whole story) but there’s no weigh on FF or Safari…anybody on and on had this happen?

    It has all the discriminatingness of seeing the ALT introduction for an counterpart by choice it loads in. The client has noticed and has asked us to turn over a look into it. Before we go and attain majority more Flash animal pleasure, I requisite to explore the thrash here and see if there was a workaround or some other transmissionn fix.

    Thanks as new for the code…it’s a great help and a blessing to the Internet at excessive.

    ————————————————————————–
    proxy siteanonymous proxy

  11. guys? can you help me? i’m having a problem on my swf files… my boss’s says that the website that i made was very slow… i dont know what to do… my head is aching so much… please help me…. this is the website… http://www.patdyphotography.com he says that my flash movies are so slow. can you give me some tips on how to make it load fast? like in this website http://www.mist.com

  12. says that the website that i made was very slow… i dont know what to do… my head is aching so much… please help me…. this is the website…

  15. Great tool, I’m using it to switch between full HTML and flash versions of a site and have found that the HTML site and all its images are downloaded even though they are quickly replaced by the flash site. Is there any way to avoid this? It means that if you have flash, the page load is massive because there are lots of images loading that it doesn’t need!
    So, I need to stop loading the HTML content if the user has flash, is it possible?
    Thanks,
    Mat

  16. Great tool, I’m using it to switch between full HTML and flash versions of a site and have found that the HTML site and all its images are downloaded even though they are quickly replaced by the flash site. Is there any way to avoid this? It means that if you have flash, the page load is massive because there are lots of images loading that it doesn’t need!
    So, I need to stop loading the HTML content if the user has flash, is it possible?
    Thanks,
    Mat

  19. Concerning so.write() SPAN tags and the IE bug…heres a work around…

    Don’t use so.write(‘myid’). Forget the SPAN, DIV tag to replace and just use this line

    document.write(‘‘ + so.getSWFHTML() + ‘‘);

    Why include the SPAN at all? If not, the browsers (firefox at least) will consider it a block level element. I ran into this issue because I had the player inside an block which was being animated open and close with mootools… When it was a block element the animation stopped at the flash player, hence the need for the span.

    Hope this helps someone…

  30. I found what appears to be a bug and someone may benefit from this. If I set these two parameters in this order, the SWF is pushed down and to the right of the window.
    so.addParam(“salign”, “lt”);
    so.addParam(“scale”, “noscale”);

    If I change it to this order, it works fine.
    so.addParam(“scale”, “noscale”);
    so.addParam(“salign”, “lt”);

    I also found this to happen if I used align instead of salign. It’s not clear why there are two versions of an align parameter. The Adobe site documents both but doesn’t state when each is pertinent.

  32. I have been using the SWFobject to build my website. It works perfect in Firefox and The Latest Safari. The problem I am having is in IE7. When I open the site pages in IE7 the background color for my flash objects is now missing. It shows the items and the flash buttons link to where they are suppose to go, however there is now white background color instead of the intended color. Anyone have a clue as to what may be causing this to happen so I can fix this issue. All help would be greatly appreciated. (Firefox and Safari Perfect. Microsoft IE7 NOT)

    http://www.xlr8racing.com

  33. I found a bug in version 1.5 .
    Under IE when the page is onunload the swf-s still running becouse the cleanupSWFs method not running at onunload.
    The solution is that you have to make a function which looks like that

    function trashSwfs()
    {
    //if (deconcept.SWFObject.doPrepUnload) {
    if (!deconcept.unloadSet) {
    deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.prepUnload = function() {
    __flash_unloadHandler = function(){};
    __flash_savedUnloadHandler = function(){};
    window.attachEvent(“onunload”, deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.cleanupSWFs);
    }
    window.attachEvent(“onbeforeunload”, deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.prepUnload);
    deconcept.unloadSet = true;
    }
    //}
    }
    , contain the original code,
    and when create an swfobject instant in IE the swfobject have to call that method, not just

    deconcept.SWFObject.doPrepUnload = true;,

    if my reason is true.

  35. It seems the alternative content gets loaded even when the user has the right Flash version. This is slightly annoying when your alternative content is a 60 KB+ JPEG file…. Any solutions?

  36. Hello All,
    When I upgraded my flash player plug-in on my computer to Flash 9,0,115,0 the flash objects do not show, and the alternative content is shown. The codes were working fine before the upgrade. Has anyone had a similar problem? Any solutions?

  38. Problem fixed :) I guess it was a bad installation. I have uninstalled and reinstalled flash plugin (TWICE) and it works now.

  39. You should probably modify your script to accept wmode as a parameter or to set it to opaque by default. There’s a bug in Flash plugin 9.0.115.0 that causes Firefox 2 to block popups when a user clicks on a button and the on(release) or .onRelease handler launches a new window if wmode is set to window (which is the default). A major fortune 500 client of ours using your script was affected by this Flash bug and we are helping them modify it to get around this Flash plugin bug.

  40. I’ve got the same problem: My Flash Player upgraded automatically to 9.0.115.0 this morning and since then the Flash detection with SWFObject failes on IE7 (WinXP). Reinstalling the Flash Player did not change anything. All Flash pages are dead.

  41. I checked out the Flash upgrade on different PCs: With Vista the detection of the new player is o.k. even if it’s slower than before (I can see the alternate content before it starts the Flash). On a notebook with XP-Home the new version works also. My XP-Pro-PC where the detection failed has also the Adobe CS3 package installed (some guys think this might be a reason). Finally I could solve the problem by uninstalling the Flash Player and a new install. Unfortunately this is not a method that can be recommended for every website visitor. So I would still be glad if somebody could find out what’s wrong with the detection of Flash Player 9.0.105.0

  42. Hello all, I’m having the same problem as everyone, Flash Player version 9.0.115.0 automatically upgraded on IE 7 – and sent all our flash object flash sites to the alternative content!!
    All the solutions I’ve heard of , are uninstalling the player through a file from ADOBE and reinstall the player once again. That is OK, and it works (for us – web developers!). But can we send all clients to uninstall and reinstall the flash player? This is not an accepted solution!! Is there something we can do through the SWFOBJECT that I find to be the most appropriate solution around??
    Gidon
    Koomkoom Multimedia
    http://www.koomkoom.com

  47. FW: It seems the alternative content gets loaded even when the user has the right Flash version. This is slightly annoying when your alternative content is a 60 KB+ JPEG file…. Any alternative?

  49. I added SWFObject but it has disabled my pop-up window actions and nothing happens when clicked on button on all browsers.. Pop-up worked before adding SWFObject any ideas? any help will be appreciated.