[Resolved] [Resolved] [Resolved] [Resolved] Free download: The best Plugin detection system

[Richard Shea]

Hi Everyone,

A common request on this board is how to detect if the user has the Flash plugin on their system, quite important to show your Swish SWF's you'll agree, but if the user does not have the plugin you can at least break it gently to them that they need to download it.

For years now (yes, I've been making sites that long) I've always tried to find the perfect detection system, I tried JavaScript, Java Applets & VBScript ... all of which can never be perfect on different platforms, and I keep seeing people posting their own ideas.

The best option by far, and it seems 100%, is what I call SWF Redirection, in which the SWF itself does the detection ... how?, well if it loaded on the users system : they must have the plugin !!!

So, I've re-written the SWF redirection thing in Swish rather than Flash, this way you all can use it.

The demo can be found at: http://findfile.co.uk

This index has a small SWF which if run, redirects to the flash site i.e. flash.html
If the SWF does NOT load (missing plugin etc), then a META tag after 10 seconds will direct the user to noflash.html
As far as I've found out, Meta tags work on all browsers and cannot be switched off (unlike JavaScript at al)

Please all help yourself to the source HTML (a credit left in the code would be nice )
And the source SWI for the redirecting SWF written in Swish is at http://findfile.co.uk/redirect.swi

Essential files:
----------------
index.html = contains the redirection if the SWF does not load.
NOTE: you will find a line which reads:
<param name="base" value="http://findfile.co.uk/">
This needs to be changed to reflect your own web address (i.e. http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~shea/ )

redirect.swf = redirects to flash.html when run.
You can of course have a 18x18 sized invisible SWF which redirects after 1 second ... no need to tell the user what's going on, mine is 400x60 with text and a delay.

flash.html = the flash doorway to your web site
(i.e. http://findfile.co.uk/flash.html )

noflash.html = the non-flash doorway to your site
(i.e. http://findfile.co.uk/noflash.html )

Hope this helps everyone ... there is nothing worse than a user calling you to say they saw nothing on the site because you have no detection!

regards,
Richard Shea.

[dennism220]

Great info! Much apprecitated!!!!

Den

[grumpy_doug]

The link " http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~shea/ " is dead... is it possible to get the file from this site...

Thanks [email protected]

[schallow]

Nice info...thanks fellow SWiSHer!

[grumpy_doug]

Also a dead link... http://www.fitrec.com

[Light It Up]

Thanks!
Glad to finally find (not that i was looking) a reliable redirect if the guy doesn't have the plugin.

-Light It Up

[dbd]

Thank you Richard. This is great.
Dawn

[ADC2001]

Thanks rich,
This will come in handy.

[Thalamus]

Could also use Macromedias Flash Deployment kit. Its very nice.

[almark]

Thanks Richard. This is just what I was looking for. I treied the FDK one and got myself all confused. I then tried moock's but ended up mucking it up too!

Hopefully this simply brilliant approach will work for me! (My brian is just working too well these days.)

[swyedydd]

Works perfectly,



___________________-
"arigato" -self
-swyedydd

[Craig99]

Originally posted by grumpy_doug
Also a dead link... http://www.fitrec.com

read the above thread.. See our awesome site launch on Oct. 1st

[Steelsun]

I did the same for one of my client sites, with subtle differences.

They wanted a 'splash' page for the site with a fairly simple swish/flash mini-movie. I made a small one for them (but am revising it) and placed it on their site. After the splash plays it goes to the main page of the site.

As I checked their web log, I noticed that quite a few of their clients are government and corporate institutions, many of which don't have plug-ins on their computers.

So I made a "pre-splash" page that basically said "One Moment Please..." and loaded a short (10 frame) swish file with no real substance that had a goto URL in frame 10. This swish took a second to load and play. If the swish played it directed the browser to the Splash page with the full animation. The page also has a html redirect set for 6 seconds that goes right to the main page if the swish didn't play.

Same concept as the one above, slight changes.

Steelsun

[MacPhisto]

How ironic, I was looking for something simple and easy that wasn't using Java or intense scripting

Thanks!
Adrian

[jdbar]

Very usefull. But lets suppose a user does not have the plugin, so he is redirected to the non-flash url, is it possible for the user to download the plugin while he is surfing my site? I mean, automatically(without having to "click" anything), so the next time he comes to visit he already has the plugin.

Thanks

Originally posted by Richard Shea
Hi Everyone,

A common request on this board is how to detect if the user has the Flash plugin on their system, quite important to show your Swish SWF's you'll agree, but if the user does not have the plugin you can at least break it gently to them that they need to download it.

For years now (yes, I've been making sites that long) I've always tried to find the perfect detection system, I tried JavaScript, Java Applets & VBScript ... all of which can never be perfect on different platforms, and I keep seeing people posting their own ideas.

The best option by far, and it seems 100%, is what I call SWF Redirection, in which the SWF itself does the detection ... how?, well if it loaded on the users system : they must have the plugin !!!

So, I've re-written the SWF redirection thing in Swish rather than Flash, this way you all can use it.

The demo can be found at: http://findfile.co.uk

This index has a small SWF which if run, redirects to the flash site i.e. flash.html
If the SWF does NOT load (missing plugin etc), then a META tag after 10 seconds will direct the user to noflash.html
As far as I've found out, Meta tags work on all browsers and cannot be switched off (unlike JavaScript at al)

Please all help yourself to the source HTML (a credit left in the code would be nice )
And the source SWI for the redirecting SWF written in Swish is at http://findfile.co.uk/redirect.swi

Essential files:
----------------
index.html = contains the redirection if the SWF does not load.
NOTE: you will find a line which reads:
<param name="base" value="http://findfile.co.uk/">
This needs to be changed to reflect your own web address (i.e. http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~shea/ )

redirect.swf = redirects to flash.html when run.
You can of course have a 18x18 sized invisible SWF which redirects after 1 second ... no need to tell the user what's going on, mine is 400x60 with text and a delay.

flash.html = the flash doorway to your web site
(i.e. http://findfile.co.uk/flash.html )

noflash.html = the non-flash doorway to your site
(i.e. http://findfile.co.uk/noflash.html )

Hope this helps everyone ... there is nothing worse than a user calling you to say they saw nothing on the site because you have no detection!

regards,
Richard Shea.

[bzed]

You can make the flash movie to redirect to macromedia's auto-install instead of noflash.html, that will install the plugin on your client's computer, which enables them to see any future flash sites they visit. After the installation is completed, the user should return to your homepage once again to enjoy the flash design. The link for the plugin autoinstall is http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/...com/flash.html so use that link instead of the noflash.html redirect..

peace.

[smallbizonline]

Like you I beat my brains out trying javascript and noembeded HTML tags but couldn't get it to work on every browser. Your answer is simple and elegant - wish I'd thought of it. I've made a slight variation (I wasn't keen on the meta tag refresh or the 10 second delay). I made the non flash page (with an animated gif in place of the flash) my index page and added a flash movie which only contains a goto url action to the flash version of the index page. My original index page had a download of 10 secs (according to hitbox doctor) whereas the new one has a download of 13 secs. Check it out on http://www.smallbizonline.co.uk
Dave Clark

Originally posted by Richard Shea
Hi Everyone,

A common request on this board is how to detect if the user has the Flash plugin on their system, quite important to show your Swish SWF's you'll agree, but if the user does not have the plugin you can at least break it gently to them that they need to download it.

For years now (yes, I've been making sites that long) I've always tried to find the perfect detection system, I tried JavaScript, Java Applets & VBScript ... all of which can never be perfect on different platforms, and I keep seeing people posting their own ideas.

The best option by far, and it seems 100%, is what I call SWF Redirection, in which the SWF itself does the detection ... how?, well if it loaded on the users system : they must have the plugin !!!

So, I've re-written the SWF redirection thing in Swish rather than Flash, this way you all can use it.

The demo can be found at: http://findfile.co.uk

This index has a small SWF which if run, redirects to the flash site i.e. flash.html
If the SWF does NOT load (missing plugin etc), then a META tag after 10 seconds will direct the user to noflash.html
As far as I've found out, Meta tags work on all browsers and cannot be switched off (unlike JavaScript at al)

Please all help yourself to the source HTML (a credit left in the code would be nice )
And the source SWI for the redirecting SWF written in Swish is at http://findfile.co.uk/redirect.swi

Essential files:
----------------
index.html = contains the redirection if the SWF does not load.
NOTE: you will find a line which reads:
<param name="base" value="http://findfile.co.uk/">
This needs to be changed to reflect your own web address (i.e. http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~shea/ )

redirect.swf = redirects to flash.html when run.
You can of course have a 18x18 sized invisible SWF which redirects after 1 second ... no need to tell the user what's going on, mine is 400x60 with text and a delay.

flash.html = the flash doorway to your web site
(i.e. http://findfile.co.uk/flash.html )

noflash.html = the non-flash doorway to your site
(i.e. http://findfile.co.uk/noflash.html )

Hope this helps everyone ... there is nothing worse than a user calling you to say they saw nothing on the site because you have no detection!

regards,
Richard Shea.