Flash Rollover

[HScott]

I do not know if this is my browser or flash problem, recently I notice about my koolmoves made site, everytime i rollover my cursor in any flash object there are lines appear around the flash object and it has a message "click to activate and use this control" I tried to viewed it on other computer and it do the same so Im sure it is not only on my computer, this was happen since last week. Any idea?

[Bob Hartzell]

It is a new Internet Explorer security thing. The solution seems to involve different html code and 2 extra pages.

http://www.koolmoves.com/activeXcontent.zip

[blanius]

REVOLT!!! GET FIREFOX LOL just when you think MS is finally going to make a WC3 compliant browser.....

[w.brants]

To be precise it's not security related but a modification related to the Eolas patent issue.

From the zip file Bob posted only the AC_RunActiveContent.js file is required for a swf file. Besides that you need to update the html page that loads the swf file.

The solution basicly comes down to including an external javascript file that writes the code to the document to load the swf file. This means if you are already using an external javascript to load different swf files based upon a flash player version check you don't have a problem.

[HScott]

Thanks for info. Are you saying I need to upload the js files on my server and update all html pages with swf files? if I have 10 html pages with swf do I need to update all of this? or just the index.html only :rolleyes:

[w.brants]

Thanks for info. Are you saying I need to upload the js files on my server and update all html pages with swf files?
Unfortunately if you don't want users to get the notification to click the swf before interaction can take place the answer is yes, you have to change all html pages.

If your .js file is in the same folder as the html files these are the changes you have to make.

1. insert the following line in the head
<script src="AC_RunActiveContent.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

2. insert the following code before the <object ...> tag and update the values<script type="text/javascript">
AC_FL_RunContent( 'codebase','http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0','width','730','height ','430','src','index','quality','high','pluginspag e','http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer','movie','index' ); //end AC code
</script><noscript>3. insert </noscript> after the </object> tag.

That's all. (of course you have to do it 10x ;) )

Edit:
For some reason the forum places extra spaces in the code at point 2. Be aware of that and remove them.

[blanius]

thought this Eloas issue had gone away..... It's really stupid as all we are doing now is using javascript and "loading" the HTML tags for embedding the object into the page. So Basically MS has us working around the issue of the suit. They had threatened to do this a year or two ago and we had prepared to rework All the sites we;ve built as this affects anything that is emedded into a pages like QT, SWF, just about anything and frankly the suit is a joke the Eloas guys claim to have patented the "IDEA" of embedding an object into the page. Grrrrr Watch Firefox get a big bump out of this one. Or at least don't update your IE

[HScott]

Thank you wilbert,
I am paying 20 bucks for every page of update, I guess I will do it by myself I can save about $200. I will just try to do it I hope it wont mess up. lol
THANKS!

[HScott]

I cant make it work :confused:
can you please post a working html file. THANKS

[blanius]

did you put the .js files from the zip he provided onto the server?

[w.brants]

I cant make it work :confused:
can you please post a working html file. THANKS
If you wish you can view the html source of the index page of my website
http://www.waterlijn.info/km/index.html
It's a KoolMoves generated html file with the modifications I mentioned before.

[Stephan P.]

Hi Wilbert,

there seems to be a typo in the boxed code portion you posted, which might be the reason why cutting and pasting that section doesn't work for some people: there are extra spaces in your 'pluginspage' parameter: 'pluginspag e'.

All the best,

Stephan

[Stephan P.]

Hi again,

there seem to be more problems, I'm no JS expert though, so I can't be sure...

What happens is that if, for 'src' and 'movie', you pass the name of your swf file plus parameters, the code chokes. For instance, the following doesn't work for me:

..., 'movie','./flash/mymovie_v2.swf?path=./&lang=d', ...

Any ideas?

All the best,

Stephan

[Stephan P.]

Hum, wonderful :), turns out that AC_FL_RunContent expects the reference to the swf file without the .swf extension, even if you add parameters.

Of course, the 'movie' parameters in <embed> and <object> do expect the full name of the flash file, including the .swf extension.

Brilliant, why make life easy :)

All the best,

Stephan

[HScott]

If you wish you can view the html source of the index page of my website
http://www.waterlijn.info/km/index.html
It's a KoolMoves generated html file with the modifications I mentioned before.

Thank you once again wilbert, I made it works I copied your html code but I have another problem my swf objects are in transparent background and now it has white background do I need to add some code on it? Thank you for your help! :thumbsup:

[w.brants]

You have to add ,'wmode','transparent' to the list of parameters for the AC_FL_RunContent function to make the background of the movie transparent.

[HScott]

You have to add ,'wmode','transparent' to the list of parameters for the AC_FL_RunContent function to make the background of the movie transparent.
Finally I did the 1st page perfectly, now i will the rest THANK YOU so much Wilbert! You're the man!

[thesween]

Oh my word!!! This is very annoying, I tried it out and it scaled my page down a size.. hmmm... I think Im just gonna leave it :D It doesnt seem to be a huge problem, I just have to click on the page before I can use it is all :) This won't start getting to the stage where it'll block the page in the future will it?

[msloat]

I am having the same problems too, but when I used brants site for an example, it didn't come up. Do I have to redo my swf in some way?

When I run that html, it looks like it is loading by showing the bars below. But it takes a long time and I have yet to see it come up.

[msloat]

Sorry about that guys, I got it working. There were more ref to my swf file than I was expecting.

[msloat]

Ok, I might have a question after all. It is to do with a map flash that I have been using. It of course does the same thing. How would I set this up. The top script part is where I am having my problems. How would I set that up to get it work with the both emb object?

<head>


<script src="AC_RunActiveContent.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Koolmoves">
</head>

<body BGCOLOR="#000000" text="#ffffff" link="#FF0000">
<center>

<script type="text/javascript">
AC_FL_RunContent(

'codebase','http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0','width

','700','height','397','src','us.swf?data_file=imc s.xml','quality','high','pluginspage','http://www.mac

romedia.com/go/getflashplayer','movie','us.swf?data_file=imcs.xml ' ); //end AC code
</script><noscript>

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"

codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,0,0"

width="700" height="397" id="zoom_map" align="top">
<param name="movie" value="us.swf?data_file=imcs.xml"/>
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" />
<embed src="us.swf?data_file=imcs.xml" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" width="700" height="397"

name="Clickable U.S. Map" align="top"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></object></noscript>

</center>
</body>
</html>

[PROF CHAOS]

thought this Eloas issue had gone away..... It's really stupid as all we are doing now is using javascript and "loading" the HTML tags for embedding the object into the page. So Basically MS has us working around the issue of the suit. They had threatened to do this a year or two ago and we had prepared to rework All the sites we;ve built as this affects anything that is emedded into a pages like QT, SWF, just about anything and frankly the suit is a joke the Eloas guys claim to have patented the "IDEA" of embedding an object into the page. Grrrrr Watch Firefox get a big bump out of this one. Or at least don't update your IE

Agreed. Also, Firefox loads links much faster than IE.

[docree]

Now this IS an issue...

I just spent about two weeks trying to get a javascript to communicate with flash.
I had just finished this project the night IE "auto updated".
Now the thing is broken, big time. Back to the drawing board...

Macromedia's online example still works, cause it has allways been loaded by javascript off of a streaming server. Doh!

[PROF CHAOS]

I added the AC code to my website. But after all that, found that it messed up the placement of the flash when viewed in Firefox. I figure since the site looks good in Firefox, without the code, I think I will leave it out. Heck with IE's nonsense.

[Stephan P.]

You have to add ,'wmode','transparent' to the list of parameters for the AC_FL_RunContent function to make the background of the movie transparent.

Hi Wilbert,

Btw., I think the script also doesn't handle the 'loop' property (which I believe KM exports to the html code it generates).

All the best,

Stephan

[Stephan P.]

It is a new Internet Explorer security thing.

Btw., I only seem to see this effect on XP. Strangely enough, my IE on Win2000 doesn't show this effect...

All the best,

Stephan

[w.brants]

I don't see why loop wouldn't work.

The problem should also occur using IE on other operating systems but only of course if IE is patched / updated. FireFox users aren't affected by this problem :)

[Stephan P.]

I don't see why loop wouldn't work.

You're right, it should probably be picked up by the 'default' branch of the switch statement in function AC_GetArgs ...

All the best,

Stephan

[Stephan P.]

I added the AC code to my website. But after all that, found that it messed up the placement of the flash when viewed in Firefox.

Hum, I don't understand why it would do that... Can you post the relevant portions of your html file?

All the best,

Stephan

[Dr_John]

Hi all :-)

I wasn't able to apply what has been suggested here. Could someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong?
The page I'd like to update is http://xylofun.com/software.htm

Thank you!

[w.brants]

Could someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong?
The src and movie parameters of the AC_FL_RunContent function have to be the name of your swf file witthout the .swf extension instead of index.

[Dr_John]

w.brants,
Thank you so much, it works.

YAY

[Stephan P.]

Hi guys,

I'm just wondering: for AC_FL_RunContent there's a parameter pluginspage, whereas the <embed> tag has a parameter called pluginspace. Is this deliberate? A typo? Coincidental?

All the best,

Stephan

[Bob Hartzell]

Blanius sent me this interesting link --

http://www.amarasoftware.com/flash-problem.htm

Can people confirm that this is a good solution. I am starting to get emails about this problem.

I am waiting for the dust to settle before I modify KoolMoves.

[blanius]

Bob, I've used it on my site, If anyone views my site in IE let me know if you see any issues.

PS while your looking at that link, poke around that site and get a good laugh. That guy is selling really simple flash tools for as much as KM is. Make you appreciate KM and it's price point.

[Dr_John]

Bob,
Yes, that works 100%. Besides that it's easy to implement and overall an elegant fix.

Thanks for diggin' that up for us :-)



P.S. I appreciate KM more these days as I'm reading 99 books on AS (per hour ;-) .... and that for one week strait! ha ha ha

[Bob Hartzell]

Can anyone explain why this simple fix works?

[blanius]

Can anyone explain why this simple fix works?

Wish I could. Been studying it and can't seem to understand why this would work but it sure seems to do it.

theObjects = document.getElementsByTagName("object");
for (var i = 0; i < theObjects.length; i++) {
theObjects[i].outerHTML = theObjects[i].outerHTML;
}

The problem I had with the Macromedia fix is that it didn't help with other Active X controls like RealMedia, QT, and Windows Media Player and I have sites out there that use all of them. Searching the Internet for a couple of days looking for fixes for QT and Media player and found none I started to get worried. Found this. I'll be trying out on some QT pages very soon now that I have my main computer back (don't fry your mother board with a bad power supply)

[Dr_John]

Hi - the code author gives a pretty good explanation about what it does ... I assume you saw this? explanation (http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=194&threadid=1125916&enterthread=y#4027232)

[w.brants]

If you read all comments on the page Dr_John mentions you also notice that this method has also a few problems. One of them for example that you have to extend the code to do a Mac check since the short version of this code mentioned above seems to crash Internet Explorer on a Mac.

It might be best to wait some more to see what solutions people come up with and then pick the best. Is a solution that won't work on a Mac a real solution ?

[Chris_Seahorn]

http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/

That is floating around the Boardroom so I figured I'd post it. I haven't had any time myself to try any of the fixes because of work but , like Wilbert says, waiting may be a good thing because this is sure to get squared away fast by some solution. Being a mac user also, boxing out Macs is not an option so let me know if this boardroom solution posted by Flashlorax works.

[Dr_John]

can someone on a Mac using IE please test this page?
www.xylofun.com/index2 (http://xylofun.com/index2.htm)

This page http://xylofun.com/index.htm should crash IE?

Thanks guys :-)

P.S. The first link checks for a Mac and if yes, then the script will not execute and the flash content should display the "frame" with the popup "click ...."

[blanius]

Actually the CLick to Activate will not happen on IE for Mac as its no longer updated.

[Bob Hartzell]

It has been several days since the simple solution was announced here and problems with it were uncovered. Has anymore progress been made on finding a simple solution?

[blanius]

here's what I've decided on.

http://activecontent.blogspot.com/

[Dr_John]

thanks for posting that Bret :-)
I just updated all the xylofun pages with that fix too.

Ciao

[dangrace]

Blanius

where do I put the javascript file "ieupdate.js" that I made? In the webroot folder where the .swf files are? I haven't uploaded it to the server yet either, I should be able to see the results when I test it just on my computer, right?

[blanius]

Put where you can find it eh? Webroot is fine just make sure any pages in sub folders you point to the source correctly using proper path.

[dangrace]

I'm still missing something...

I'm trying to follow the fix on http://activecontent.blogspot.com/ but can't seem to do it right.

Here is the site's index page I'm trying to fix: http://www.danceuponnothing.com Could someone view the source and see if anything is wrong? I pasted the line in between the <HEAD> tags and where I thought was before and after my only <object> tag...

I also included the ieupdate.js I made in notepad pasting from the activecontent site. It pasted into notebook as one long line of text, but I figured that was ok?

The ieupdate.js is in the same root folder as all the other files on the server. I didn't see anything about directly linking to it beyond what I followed in the activecontent info...

Thanks for any and all help, this is a pain

[blanius]

your source looks right. Must be the ieUpdate.js try fixing the formatting. I agree one line shouldn't make a difference. But who knows.

Running in IE I get several script errors Looks like most are releated to not ending a line with ;

[blanius]

here's the file zipped try uploading this copy

[dangrace]

It must have been the ieupdate.js I made. Definitely wanted the returns and breaks I didn't get just pasting the code I guess.

It makes me smile to not see "the rectangle"...Thanks so much for your help Bret!

-Dan

[thesween]

Is there any chance that KM will encorporate this fix into the KM program, so when you click 'Export Movie As SWF and HTML page...' it will automatically do it?

[Bob Hartzell]

I am working it now but still am undecided which fix to use; they all have pros and cons.

The only fix that seems to work consistently is the one recommended by Adobe but it has the disadvantage of having the movie properties stated 3 times (in the script, object and embed).

The fix that Blanius recommended did not work for some undetermined reason on the koolmoves web pages so I used the Adobe fix.

[Chris_Seahorn]

Just the fact you will attempt to export the html correctly (when you decide the routine) is cool by me. Adobe is content to leave their users manually editing the html and we at least have an active developer that can export new Koolmoves versions at will compared to the long process before Adobe does the same for flash users.

Whatever you decide...even if we have to apply minor tweaks after the fact...is a massive help to users.

[blanius]

I believe that Adobe does have an update via the Exchange that changes the way Flash 8 exports to handle it.

[indogo]

I wasn't having much luck with the Adobe fix so I was wondering about the feasibility of the simple solution used here as all the script seemed to be doing was to piece together the original code so i cut out the middle man.
http://hand.po.gs/flashfix.htm


flashfix.js consists of

function Generateobj(str)
{
document.write(str);
}

The example uses the flash satay method discussed elswhere but the full coding should still be fine.

[Bob Hartzell]

Did you let KoolMoves generate the html with the Adobe fix for you given a specific swf using File > Export Movie > Add to existing movie? Maybe you have a error in the code you created?

[indogo]

Well I have been using the shortened code so there were probably errors when converting back.
But the point here is that I was examining the javascript from adobe and found it a little on the convoluted side so in search for the simple life have been trying the 'send the original object script to be used 'as-is' to create the object' approach more comprehensible/less prone to mistakes when hand coding.....no problems with getting the format right for the javascript as it is the same as the original(without the hidden line breaks).
You've written the additional software to try and automate a rather head crunching process which is a helpful move but there are other variations....most of my flash is now on php generated pages so I needed to deal with that.
The more I play with it the sillier it seems but c'est la vie.

Has anyone tried the link I posted....I don't have access to IE as it causes a skin allergy :)

regards

mike

[blanius]

works ok