Hi Folks, SWFobject is the way to go, the only problem is it is a bit over my head as far as placement of code. I really want this SWFobject to addresses Flash detection in general,and also tests for specific Flash Player versions and solve the IE-specific "click to activate annoyance, but also like the idea of using the SWFobject with the Express install for an automatic return to the site. Geoff says that you need flash version 6 at least for this to work? Is this right?
My first problem is that I'm having a hard time figuring out where to place the SWFobject file..into the HTML that I published from flash or the HTML page I created with the SWF included. And how to incorperate the Express install with that code. SO I'm not sure how to place that code and what it exactly looks like. I knoe there are examples but its overwhelming me at this point... This may sound silly..but I have been looking all over the web for more info on this and it's taken many hours of try this-try that... If someone could steer me in the right direction that would be awesome!!! Have a great Holiday and I really hope to hear from you. Thanks, Todd
It is tricky Todd I must admit. I have been a fan of teaching myself flash for a couple of years now and I'm still paranoid that I haven't installed this correctly. I'm grateful for all of Geoff's skill, ability and assistance with Swfobject.
It would be great to have a brief 5 minute video screen recording (like at gotoandlearn.com) of the complete installation. Eg. Opening the download files, comparing the included files with your own files and adding or pasting the appropriate code or data in the appropriate areas. Then what to do with the .as file when publishing the fla etc. Which files you will need to upload or replace with your own etc. In just a brief five minutes - you could have an easy to see example of the different type of setups and the exactly required minimums to get this baby up and running - paranoia free. I think the language is a problem sometimes too. Some people are familiar with words like contructor - when other laymen wonder if that means swf, fla, a guy who works on a building site or a factory production line assembler.
Hang in there... It's all good. Just keep reading from the top and testing.
The screen recording software is here: I'd even buy a copy for Geoff if he could check over my install or make it easier to understand with this app. (It could surely save on forum posts and questions too probably)
I agree it's a bit of a mystery on what to do with the files in the swfobject_1-4.zip. The only bit of installation info I could see was the statement, "Simply include the swfobject.js Javascript file, then..." Does this mean include the swfobject.js in the same folder as the Web page? Or do you create a special folder for this file and all the other files in the ZIP? Do I need all the files if I'm just using the minimum required code to embed an SWF. Any info on how to proceed would be appreciated. Thanks, Clive
I got my SWF image to work using SWFobject 1.4. I included the swfobject.js file in my flimages folder along with my csws3.swf flash image. I used the minimum amount of code. I thought I'd add it here in case it might help someone who is struggling like I did:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<div id="flashcontent"> You need Flash Player installed to view this Flash image. </div>
<script type="text/javascript"> var so = new SWFObject("flimages/csws3.swf", "mycsws3", "256", "46", "7", "#336699"); so.write("flashcontent"); </script>