FlashObject turns 1

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I just realized that it’s been over a year (a year and four days to be exact) since I first posted the FlashObject script.

Since then it has been used on countless websites, ranging from tiny sites to entertainment sites to huge mega-corporation sites. It has also been distributed with Adobe Photoshop, and included in a Javascript library (I heard there were plans to include a version of it with MochiKit, but I think Bob was side-tracked).

It has support for all the latest Flash goodies like ExpressInstall, ExternalInterface, and has been tested for accessibility and passed with flying colors (even though they spelled my name wrong).

It has also been packaged up as a Dreamweaver plugin, a WordPress plugin, and a Textpattern plugin.

Normally something like this would have to be accompanied by giving stuff away, but since FlashObject is already free, I guess that idea is shot.

Instead, I’d like to give everyone a chance to show off the sites they have used FlashObject on by including a link to the site in the comments of this post.

34 thoughts on “FlashObject turns 1”

  3. I’ve used FlashObject on a number of sites, and I’ve found it to be most useful at Kitchen & Bath Design.
    Flash allowed me to display the top 4 articles on the homepage in a more visually appealing way than simply using HTML + CSS, and FlashObject allowed me to embed the SWF without sacrificing content. Search Engines and users without Flash are still able to view those articles because they are in the HTML that is replaced by the Flash SWF via FlashObject. Thanks Geoff.

  5. Oops, I actually plan to be using it more and more, updating some old sites and using some new ones. The newest ones I am working on are secured though.

  11. Great solution. One problem. Crashes browser (FireFox, Safari) with Flash 7 plugins
    Suggestion:
    Add an option to automatically urlencode variables.
    Thanks.

  12. Crashes browser (FireFox, Safari) with Flash 7 plugins

    It has alwatys worked fine for me with those browsers/plugins – do you have an example page? Have you tried it on multiple computers?

    As for the url encoding of variables, I had it set up to do that originally, but there are issues with double byte characters and using encode(). I could use encodeURIcomponent() but that isn’t supported in every browser that FlashObject works in, so I would be limiting the usefulness of the script. Anyway, it’s pretty easy to manually encode the strings if they have special characters.

  15. OK

    I noticed something weird when I look at your fo_tester.fla in flash 8 (macintosh version)

    I go to Movie Explorer to have a quick peek at any hidden code and the code on “sunrays_mc” inside “sun” does not show up in Movie Explorer.

    code follows


    onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
    this._rotation+= .2;
    }

    Does Movie Explorer often miss stuff like this? I’ve never noticed it before (but I rarely use it)

    Jim

  16. While I appreciate what you have done with FlashObject, I think it is a bit misleading to say that it is standards compliant.
    Sure, it makes your HTML/XHTML file pass validation, but the markup that the browser ultimately renders is the same object/embed tags as usual.
    People should be informed that this is really just a way to trick validators by hiding the invalid markup behind javascript.

  17. I tend to agree with you, which is why months ago I changed the description from ‘standards compliant’ to ‘can be used in valid HTML and XHTML 1.0 documents.’

  20. 3-day old Flash Newbie here. Cool script, thanks for letting us all coattail on your expertise. Oddly, in my ignorance, I was looking for a javascript that does something this one doesn’t do that I thought was obvious (but this always happens to me). After developing my first little flash movie in flash 8 and tried to show it off to the boyfriend, he couldn’t view it because he only had 7 installed. Thus began a process of redesigning the movie so it publishes all right in both 7 and 8, but I really want a way of putting both on the server and letting the javascript pick the appropriate version. (all the glow and drop shadows are missing in 7) I think I’ll attempt to hack this script to do that. I’m thinking it would be nice to save specific versions for flash 5,6,7,and 8 on the server. No one else has wanted to do this? I can’t find anything on it on a google search. Macromedia’s all or nothing mentality in the built-in html seemed downright force-upgrades microsoftish to me.

  21. It would be pretty easy to build something that checks the version of Flash the user has installed and then gives them a specific Flash movie.

    You could use the version detection code (example of how to use it here) to set some variables depending on the Flash version they have installed, and then use FlashObject to write the proper movie to the page using those variables.

  23. I’m using FlashObject in different sites now…shows up very smooth. The only tiny little thingie I miss, is when the flash isn’t delivered, the tekxt in the element (eg. in the div) is empty…I’ve tested it in Opera (Small view). sIFR has the same kinda replacement, but those text still appear in small view.

  29. It seems a great idea but I cannot get it to work with multiple flash files at the same time. I use flash files to create headings in normal html sites by passing through variables for different instances. I also want to provide a text alternative for printing purposes and also old farts who haven’t got flash installed :) It works fine without your code but when I implement your code it does not always display the content??? Is it javascript, the browser or what. As is I can’t use this solution and therefore is a tradegy as it is quite a nice and neat package. Any ideas. By the way sorry if I have posted this in the wrong area.

    If you want an example url let me know.

    Cheers

  32. I’ve already updated the FlashObject page with details on this, and I have another blog post from December that discusses the IE changes.

    The shirt answer, though, is that FlashObject fixes the issue.

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