SWFObject 2.0 Beta

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Today at Adobe MAX I’ll be giving a presentation with Michael Williams on the next version of SWFObject (previously the SWFFix project). As most of you probably know, I’ve been working on a project with Bobby van der Sluis and Michael Williams (From Adobe) that was going to become the de-facto standard for embedding Flash/Flex content. Well we decided that we didn’t like the new name all that much, so we are adopting the SWFObject name for the project.

The new version is a complete rewrite from SWFObject 1.5, so we’ll need lots of testing before we officially launch it and replace the older SWFObject and UFO scripts, and since we have Adobe involved, they will be including this embed system in the Adobe authoring tools in the future.

The SWFObject project is moving to Google Code, where you can download the source from svn, grab the latest build, or file bugs or read documentation.

I’ve also created a new Google Group for SWFObject support questions and discussion.

If you are at MAX today, our presentation is at 2:45pm in room W-196c and it’s called “Flash Detection and Embedding: An open source solution”.

If you can’t make it today, we’ll be doing it again tomorrw (Wednesday) at 11am in room W-185d.

28 thoughts on “SWFObject 2.0 Beta”

  1. Great news, changing the name once was more then enough.
    Looking forward to the next version (everyone is).

    Thanx :)

  3. hmm,
    It’s probably a great version but the first thing I notice is:
    SWFObject 1.5 : 7Ko
    SWFObject 2.0 Beta : 12Ko

  5. I’ve taken a brief glace at the beta for 2.0, but one of the things that I’m curious to know is if any of the swfobject plugins that work with 1.5 such as SWFAddress and SWFmousewheel, will still function or will these need to be rewritten too? Just ask as these have come to be handy little pieces of js/as.

  6. Regarding the file size difference: Yes, we will probably be able to optimize the new library a bit. However do keep in mind that SWFObject 2.0 supports both dynamic and static SWF publishing, while SWFObject 1.5 only supports dynamic publishing, which explains the biggest part of the difference.

  8. I was at this MAX presentation and wanted to say thanks for the T-Shirt and the hard work. I’ll be joining the Google Group.

    Interesting that you are using the [if !IE] method. I suggested this method almost 3 years ago as an alternative to the Satay method. Check it out!

  9. Yep, the IE conditional approach has been around for a while, and is unfortunately the only way you can get IE to play nice with the object tag + the flash plugin.

  10. I was at this MAX presentation too. Congratulations. I have some questions and concerns:
    - why don’t you split the script in 2 or more types and deliver it like mootools? could be simple (withou detection and express install) and complete.
    - are you thinking about mobiles and iphones? don’t forget them.

  11. Great work, I’ve sworn by SWFObject for so long.

    I do have a problem with SWFObject 1.5 that has started to emerge, I’m not sure if you are aware of it or if it exists in the 2.0 beta: users with Flash Player 9 often fail the detection if it set to check for 8, while it seems to work if the detection is set to check for 7. These systems are often, if not always, Mac. Is that a known problem?

  16. I have found that this code does not operate with jquery “Thickbox” well. Thickbox opens an image over-top of the screen. When running this SWFobject code, and you click on a Thickbox item… Sometimes it will work, sometimes it will not. When it does work, the flash dissapears from the site due to lack of transparent in the code. Please consider this, as I have had to move on to find a valid xhtml that will work with my Thickbox that I like so much. – SmoothElectric.com

  19. I’ve taken a brief glace at the beta for 2.0, but one of the things that I’m curious to know is if any of the swfobject plugins that work with 1.5 such as SWFAddress and SWFmousewheel, will still function or will these need to be rewritten too? Just ask as these have come to be handy little pieces of js/as.

  21. Somebody let me know, is this danm BUG fixed in latest versions???
    If I try to type some text in flash input text field, letters like äöü etc became as aou.
    I think it’s very important bug… Really dont have time to try it in new versions.
    sorry for bad english.

  22. Looks like serious progress has been made. Just getting the bug fixes would cause for celebration. Thanks so much for the detailed information. This really is the only place to get it.

  25. I’ve been using 1.5 (so I don’t know if this problem’s been fixed in 2.0) but if anyone is having problems with IE onunlod javaScript erros (I know I have) this really seems to take care of the problem for good:

    Replacing the Flash Object HTML with ” in its container seems to work well.

    In my case I use mootools so this is the line of code I used:
    $(‘file-browser’).setHTML(“”);

    More details below:

    if (!window.opera && document.all && this.installedVer.major > 7) {
    // only add the onunload cleanup if the Flash Player version supports External Interface and we are in IE
    deconcept.SWFObject.doPrepUnload = true;
    if (!deconcept.unloadSet) {
    deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.prepUnload = function() {
    __flash_unloadHandler = function(){};
    __flash_savedUnloadHandler = function(){};
    window.onunload = function(){
    //IE onunload
    $(‘file-browser’).setHTML(“”);
    }
    //window.attachEvent(“onunload”, deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.cleanupSWFs);
    }
    window.attachEvent(“onbeforeunload”, deconcept.SWFObjectUtil.prepUnload);
    deconcept.unloadSet = true;
    }

  26. Anyone else having issues with pop-up blockers in IE. Only occurs when using SWFObject 1.5 & 2.0

    - The Saj

  27. Where does SWFObject 2.0 leave QTObject, feature-wise? Any plans to update QTObject to keep its development paralel to SFWObject?