Important Information for HTML Developers

Macromedia Flash Detection Kit is an ActionScript based version detector for the Macromedia Flash Player. It detects whether the user's web browser has the Macromedia Flash plug-in or ActiveX control installed, and if so, which version. The web developer can configure the version detector to take the appropriate action based on its findings: either load a document containing Macromedia Flash content, load alternate content, or oversee the updating or installation of the player.

HTML Example Description
This file demonstrates the behavior and user choices of the Macromedia Flash Detection Kit. This file is an example of how to edit the HTML in the Macromedia Flash Detection Kit to control the behavior of the detection scheme.

The example file contains 2 main elements:

  1. An object and embed tag containing variables for the Flash movie "flash_detection.swf".
  2. A Meta Tag that contains a path to a file if the detection scheme can not find an installed Flash player.

Object and Embed tags
In this example, we pass settings to the Flash movie via the object embed tag on a query string.
The query settings take the form of something like this:

"flash_detection.swf?flashContentURL=flash_content/flash_content.html&altContent=upgrade_flash/upgrade_flash.html"
where flashContentURL is set to "flash_content/flash_content.html". Note that the file name must end with a "?" and each setting is seperated by a "&"
.

The settings for the Flash movie are as follows:

altContentURL the URL that the visitor should be sent to if they do not have the required version of Flash. This can be alternate non-Flash content or an upgrade page as in this example.
example: altContentURL=upgrade_flash/upgrade_flash.html

flashContentURL the URL that the visitor should be sent to if they have the required version of Flash.
example: flashContentURL=flash_content/flash_content.html

contentVersion The required player version necessary to view the content.
example: contentVersion=7

contentMajorRevision The major revision number of the player necessary to view the content.
example: contentMajorRevision=0

contentMinorRevision The "dot" release version of the player necessary to view the content.
example: contentMinorRevision=19

allowFlashAutoInstall: A flag to auto-install the player on Internet Explorer Windows. This basically skips the test and goes right to the Flash content to allow Internet Explorer Windows to auto-update. Important - this should only be set on the Object tag and NOT the Embed tag.
example: allowFlashAutoInstall = false

Meta Tag Re-Direct
The Meta Tag re-direct is used when all fails, such as when a user does not have Flash installed or has a pre-Flash 4 version of Flash. The URL setting in this tag is usually set to the same file as altContentURL. For instance:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" content="3;URL=upgrade_flash/upgrade_flash.html">

Installation Instructions
The example file and Flash movie can be edited as needed.
The following files should be uploaded to your server:

  1. flash_detection.swf - this name should not be changed.
  2. html_example.html - this name of this can be changed as desired.
  3. any HTML file specified in altContentURL
  4. any HTML file specified in flashContentURL

Important Note for Users of Flash Player 6.0r47:
There is a known issue about testing this file locally with Flash Player 6.0r47: Query string variables cannot be passed to local Flash SWF files in Macromedia Flash Player 6.0r47. This file does work properly once pushed to an http server.

If you are using Macromedia Flash Player 6.0r47 to test this file locally, we recommend updating your player or adding the FlashVars property with the same variables sent on the object and embed tag. See Macromedia Tech Note #16417 . Since this issue only occurs when testing locally, and only with this version of the player, we decided to avoid replicating the FlashVars and query example in this sample page. This avoids having to walk though hand-editing four rather long sections in the HTML code. Please note that the Dreamweaver Behavior included in this kit uses both query and FlashVars methods to pass variables so this issue will not occur when using the Dreamweaver behavior.