Flash and validation of code plus useage

[mryang]

Hi,

A little help please on a couple of questions -

Firstly I would like to add a flash banner to my site - basically as it is alot smaller than the same animated gif would be ... but when I do so using dreamweaver it adds the following line which I presume the second part of it is the "if you haven't got flash then you need to download it" and the quality + the size ...

<embed src="/home/dvdcom/public_html/animation/dvd1.swf" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" height="60">

When adding the above code to my page it no longer validates?? Is there a way round that as I don't want any invalid code on my site (just good housekeeping before I get a rant about not needing to have valid code)....

Also am I doing this right - I have steered away from flash for ages as I didnt believe I wanted anyone to have to stop when they came to my site and download flash.. however am I right in saying that 99% of people have it now and this shouldn't be a problem in adding a flash banner to my site??

All help much appreciated.

[Web-Design-Guy]

I use swfobject.js.

[sharonjackson]

This is what I use

<object classid="clsid27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0" width="309" height="100">
<param name="movie" value="../flash/wringer2.swf">
<param name="quality" value="high">
<embed src="../flash/wringer2.swf" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="309" height="100"></embed>
</object>

It works on all browsers that I now of.

Dreamweaver keeps asking me if I want to use their code and I always say NO.

Yes 99.9% of people (I just made that up) have flash on their computers. People that don't are probably not my demographic, so I don't care.

What I am careful to do, though, is to make my flash small...only part of a banner...see mine at
www.jacksononthemoon.com on the right hand side. Wringer Washers in Space...my signature cartoon!

Remember that while some browsers are apparently able to read actual text in flash, no browser can read the graphics, so be sure not to put anything important in the flash that search engines could not read.

[flhu]

Last I saw, the official claim was 98.6%

[fizzlesquirt]

I'm very conscience of valid markup as well. I came across this issue on our website when I was moving from tables to valid strict HTML 4.01. I came across an article that recommended using an external javascript so that is what I did. This also gets around the issue with Internet Explorer issue that required you to click on a flash movie to give it permission to run.

Create an external javascript (ex. initflash.js). In the initflash.js use the following:
-----
//intflash.js

document.write('<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="yourflash.swf" width="110" height="301">');
document.write('<param name="movie" value="yourflash.swf" />');
document.write('<a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" target="_blank">');
document.write('This section requires the Macromedia Flash Player to view</a></object>');
-----

Then call the external javascript where you want it to appear in your html

<script src="initflash.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

This works great for me.

[texxs]

First off Ms. sharonjackson embedding Flash in this way will cause the "Flash bug in IE 5.5 and 6 9at least). There was a big hoopla, I can't believe you missed it. Microsoft got sued because they allegedly stole someone else work in developing the Flash activeX component. They had to have something new, and what they came up with was something to discourage web developers from using flash. It made a outline appear around the flash object and then you had to click this box over the object before the flash would run.

Perhaps you're not seeing it because your not testing with IE5.5 or IE6? I'm not even sure if this has been fixed in IE7. Hang on a sec I'll experiment:

Yup, IE 7 has this fixed. But there's still alot of users out there w/ IE 5.5 and IE6.0 isn't there? (I'm not checking this one, it's someone elses turn).


The fix is to use script to document.write the flash object to the page. That's what the Dreamweaver code does. Or you can use soemone elses javascript or you could write your own javascript.

[mtheory]

Originally Posted by Web-Design-Guy

I use swfobject.js.

Right on.

swobject is also the search friendly way to deploy Flash

[MarkGatESS]

Originally Posted by texxs

...

Perhaps you're not seeing it because your not testing with IE5.5 or IE6? I'm not even sure if this has been fixed in IE7. Hang on a sec I'll experiment:

Yup, IE 7 has this fixed. But there's still alot of users out there w/ IE 5.5 and IE6.0 isn't there? (I'm not checking this one, it's someone elses turn).


The fix is to use script to document.write the flash object to the page. That's what the Dreamweaver code does. Or you can use soemone elses javascript or you could write your own javascript.

So what you're saying is that to get around the IE 5x-6x "bug" so that it doesn't pop-up with the "Internet Explorer has blocked a potential malicious ActiveX control.. [blah-blah-blah/whatever it said]" is to run the code through an external JavaScript using the "document.write"?

Anyway of getting around FireFox's plugin "NoScript" to let users know your site is safe?