Flash in IE showing alt content

[Jasnick]

I came across this the other day and wondered if it applied to a site I am working on. I have no trouble seeing the slideshow in IE but others cannot. They see the alt content - four images running down the page and obscuring the rest of the content. Test site can be seen http://westwebtest.com/u3am. Does anyone know how I can get this working in IE for those who cannot see it properly? Thanks.


Why don't I see Flash content in Internet Explorer on Windows while I do have the required minimal Flash Player version installed?

When an install gets corrupted (very often caused by corrupt installers) it is impossible to read the Flash Player version number externally using scripting languages. When using dynamic publishing this results in the display of alternative content, with static publishing we let the object element do its job (it decides whether to show Flash content or alternative content based on its built-in MIME type mechanism) which results in the display of Flash content.

You can test the by SWFObject detected Flash Player version here.

The only way to avoid this issue is by uninstalling the Flash Player using the Adobe uninstaller and by reinstalling the plug-in via the Adobe Flash Player installation page.

[Jasnick]

Update - I tried this solution on my husband's computer as he can only see the alt and not the slideshow (IE9, Win 7 64-bit) and there was no change.

[[Paul Ferrie]]

Try setting the urls in the embed code to relative urls instead of absolute urls.
Also change wmode to "window" unless there is a good reason you need to use "transparent"

It runs fine for me under IE9

Hope it helps

[Jasnick]

Thanks Paul - yes it runs fine for me too but not for some people.

Has to be transparent as I have the text image overlaying the slideshow. Doesn't make any difference if I change it either except the text disappears.

Not sure where I change to relative urls. I have a choice of:

Link location

internal page = link to an internal page using Alias depending on your 'url_rewriting' settings.

external page/strong> = Link to an external page like: 'http://www.google.be'

image = link to the original image file


I tried the latter but it made no change on the recalcitrant computer. Its so annoying as I have to go with one static image on the live site instead of the slideshow.

[[Paul Ferrie]]

In the bit of code that handles the swf you have

xml : 'http://westwebtest.com/u3am/modules/Showtime/showtime/getxml.php?showid=1'
Change it to
xml : 'modules/Showtime/showtime/getxml.php?showid=1'

This would be the same for the embedSWF function
swfobject.embedSWF ('http://westwebtest.com/u3am/modules/Showtime/showtime/st16.swf', 'st_1', '960', '200', '10.0.0', 'false', flashvars, params, attributes);
Change to
swfobject.embedSWF ('modules/Showtime/showtime/st16.swf', 'st_1', '960', '200', '10.0.0', 'false', flashvars, params, attributes);

[Jasnick]

Thanks Paul. Finally tracked down the relelvant file and made the two changes you suggested. Result was that nothing changed in the computer showing the images as alt in IE, all images visible as before. In FX and IE on computer that showed slideshow previously, only the overlaying text image showed. So I put it back the way it was.

I just cannot understand why it is fine in IE on my computer but not on others, my husband's included. I even updated his flash today. The computer is only a few weeks old and IE is as default as he uses FX and I use the IE on it for checking sites.

Thanks for the suggestions, anyway.

[EastCoast]

Monitor what's happening via an http monitor to check that all the necessary files actually load, and look out for javascript error indications in the browser.

[Jasnick]

Thanks for reply. Have taken down the test site and gone live with static image. However, this issue needs to be solved. I have the same slideshow on several sites, all of which I can see fine in IE etc, no client has yet complained so I think they must be OK but my husband's computer doesn't show any of the slideshows, just the set of images, nor does my latest client's computer which is why I removed it, hopefully only temporarily.

Will you please explain how to check via a "http monitor" - not sure what that means. Thanks.

[[Paul Ferrie]]

Monitor what's happening via an http monitor to check that all the necessary files actually load, and look out for javascript error indications in the browser.

I did already check what Eastcoast had mentioned. The software to monitor http requests is http://www.charlesproxy.com/

[Jasnick]

Thanks Paul