define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); SwfHTML – Page 2 – unFocus Projects – Kevin Newman and Ken Newman

Category: SwfHTML

A problem with Flash Player 10 version number and javascript detection

As you may have heard, Adobe recently released the first beta of Flash Player 10. It looks like unFocus.FlashPlayerInfo has been checking for single version digits, rather than multiple:
[cc lang=’javascript’ ]
_versionRaw.match(/Shockwave Flash (\d)\.(\d)/);
[/cc]
The fix is easy enough (I could swear I actually fixed this at one point too):
[cc lang=’javascript’ ]
_versionRaw.match(/Shockwave Flash (\d+)\.(\d+)/);
[/cc]
This problem doesn’t seem to be limited to just the unFocus Flash Detection script. I’ve seen other claims of failed Flash detection in other corners as well. I’d bet most of the problems are with the plugin detection scripts (Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc.) and not with the ActiveX detection scripts (Internet Explorer), since most of the plugin detection scripts out there are using string parsing techniques, and have probably not tested with multiple digit Flash versions (since there haven’t been any until now).

I’ll see about getting a release out soon. If anyone needs any help updating anything, feel free to leave a comment, or email me.

unFocus.History Keeper 2.0 (and SwfHTML) Beta 2 – Out Now!

unFocus.History Keeper 2.0 Beta 2 is now available for download.

Feel free to download, test and use the new beta. Here’s what’s new and fixed:

  • History.js – There was an odd error, from a mixed up function, keeping History Keeper from working at all in the last release. It was the first issue reported by someone other than myself (thanks shacky7!) and it’s been fixed.
  • FlashPlayerInfo.js – was throwing an error if there was no flash player installed at all in IE. It’s fixed.
  • FlashPlayerInfo.js – added more robust Flash Player 6 detection. It is impossible to check for some minor revision versions in Flash Player 6, because they crash IE if you do. It’s now possible, though, to check for 6.0r65, which is the first version to support Express Install.
  • FlashPlayerInfo.js – deprecated “.getPluginType()”, and replaced it with “.getPlayerType()” and made it actually work. To practice discipline, I left “.getPluginType()” since it’s improper to change the API after a beta release (it didn’t work before, so I’m sure no one is using it).
  • FlashPlayerInfo.js – Fixed beta and MinorRevision errors in ActiveX path.
  • SwfHTML.js – was producing a security warning in IE if used over https. It’s fixed.
  • Added a bunch of test files for each object, to help make sure stuff doesn’t break (that’s annoying), and more thoroughly test the various methods and features. It is almost, sorta like unit testing, if you kinda look at it sideways, in a mirror. 🙂
  • Added Object Patent Magic to the package.
  • Added SwfShim to the source (under javascript folder), but it’s not ready for prime time yet, and is not in the packed js file.
  • Added some example pages – but these are really just there to test to the packed files, at the moment. HistoryKeeper.html is a good place to start if you want to learn how to use History Keeper. I’ll update soon with some Flash examples.

Check out the updated project page for more info, or just skip straight to the download. 🙂

SwfHTML and FlashPlayerInfo, the extra stuff in History Keeper

Well I guess it’s not really hidden, as much as it’s a tag along to unFocus.History Keeper. I’ve had an interesting (to me anyway) battle in my own head about whether to even continue maintaining SwfHTML and it’s companions SwfCommunicator, and FlashPlayerInfo, since there are many solutions to the problems they address out there already (including ExternalInterface for SwfCommunicator, which is actually built right into Flash Player 8 and up). I even decided a while ago to just stop, and start using SwfObject, UFO, or the new SwfFix (just found that yesterday, looks good!), yet, they are still here and I’m still working on them.

SwfObject, and now SwfFix, are just too integrated for my taste, too monolithic. That is not meant to disparage the work that has gone into those projects, those projects are quite mature, well documented, and widely distributed. It’s just tha tI like my code certain way, and have bent over backwards to keep interdependency down in my scripts, in the name of modularity. This was done originally so that the history portion could be used in combination with other SwfEmbed techniques (like SwfObject) and used with other plugins (Ajax came later, but it works for that too!). Examples of that modularity – History Keeper doesn’t rely on SwfHTML, and SwfCommunicator doesn’t rely on SwfHTML, SwfHTML doesn’t rely on FlashPlayerInfo, which as well as Patent Magic don’t rely on anything. A few of the above rely on unFocus.EventManager, but that’s because the subscriber pattern is just so darn useful.

History Keeper would work nicely right along side SwfFix as well. Wouldn’t complain one bit. 🙂

Anyway, I just wanted to make a quick (re)introduction to these infrequently mentioned tools, even if they are in a bit of rough shape. For simplicity, I’ll lump them all under the category title SwfHTML (even though SwfCommunicator, or FlashPlayerInfo could all be used without the SwfHTML object pretty easily).

Check it out.