How to avoid automatic download of Flash player

[vladanik]

Hi,

As you all know, when you insert the code for
a flash movie, IE automatically downloads
Flash player if the visitor doesn't have it installed,
or if he has a version earlier than the one written
in the codebase atribute.

How can I avoid automatic downloading of the flash player?
Is it enough to delete the OBJECT tag, that is, instead
of:

<object classid="clsid27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" width="550" height="400" id="myMovieName">
<param name="movie" value="myFlashMovie.swf">
<param name="quality" value="high">
<param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF">
<embed src="myFlashMovie.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" width="550" height="400" name="myMovieName" align="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">
</embed>
</object>
to just use:

<embed src="myFlashMovie.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" width="550" height="400" name="myMovieName" align="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">
</embed>

I tried it on a few computers and it worked just fine.
What is your experience? Is this enough or is there
some other approach for avoiding automatic download?

[GKoonce]

flash doesnt automatically install unless a previous version is installed, you can avoid this by uninstalling the activex control (flash)

[GKoonce]

Flash plugin doesnt install a newer version unless a previous version is already installed, to avoid this:
-uninstall the activex control (flash)
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash\Flash.ocx
and when prompted to install, dont do it and dont tick the trust mac button

[vladanik]

when prompted to install, dont do it and dont tick the trust mac button

This isn't the solution to my problem. I don't want the automatic download to even start and I need to stop it from the developers point of view. I need a way, using HTML, Javascript, or something else, to stop automatic downloading of flash player in IE.

[Chas]

Try this thread:

http://www.sitepointforums.com/showt...threadid=95504

[webQS]

Hi

Try http://www.alistapart.com/stories/flashsatay/

For an interesting discussion on removing the embed tag altogether for some XHTML compliant code to deploy Flash content.
Embed is a relic from the old Netscape 4 days. Object is the tag the w3c recommend for showing graphical content.
When XHTML 2.0 turns up we may find that Object will also replace IMG to am extent.

Not sure about the auto-download issues. Why do you want to stop the user from upgrading to the latest Player?

Cheers
James

[Chas]

Unfortunatly the Flash satay method has a corrupt Flash ActiveX control bug that's only fixable by uninstalling the IE Flash plugin and reinstalling.

Getting the same problem on your home page James as i do with Drew McLellan's original example.

[webQS]

And I thought activex was supposed to make our lives easier!
Of all the things it could have put there a textarea is probably the worst.
A blank screen would have been better... :>
So even if those IE5.5 users upgrade to the latest control they stil get the textarea? Wonder if a bit of CSS would make some unwanted things transparent here?

Thanks for the headsup, I'll have a look into it when I'm less busy...

Cheers
James

[vladanik]

Why do you want to stop the user from upgrading to the latest Player?

Because I don't want to force the user to download 400KB (Flash 6).

I want to acomplish this: if the user has flash player, he will see my movie, if he doesn't, he won't see it and he won't be forced to download 400 KB of something. I want to do this with HTML.

[webQS]

I want to do this with HTML.

No problems, the following pieces of HTML will do the trick...

If you want your site viewable to people with older Flash Player versions, auto download only actioned by IE/win32 users with FP2 or no FP:

<object....
codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=3,0,0,0"
..>
<a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">You need Flash Player 3 or greater to use this site (Seen only by those with FP2 or no FP)</a>
</object>

And the reverse - if you want IE/Win32 users to see a link to the latest Flash Player, and auto download it if they don't have it.

<object....
codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,79,0"
..>
<a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">you need the latest Flash Player (Seen by FP 6,0,65,0 users and less)</a>
</object>

Bear in mind that if you have Flash Player 5 actionscript in your movie, users with FP2,3 or 4 will not be able to run it. This is because FP 5 changed to dot syntax rather than the older target paths of yesteryore.

Similarly some FP6 actionscript will only run in FP6. FP5 and less will ignore it.

If you want backwards compatibility, Flash player 5 is the one to target. http://www.macromedia.com/software/p...netration.html


HTH
james