Hi all and happy Easter or Passover to anyone who celebrates either.
I've just finished working on an alternative solution to this issue, which
_uses_ JavaScript, but doesn't actually _require_ it...
It goes like this. I noticed that some of the solutions out there involve
replacing the outerHTML of the div that contains the script to generate the
flash ActiveX. So I thought - what would happen if you started off with an
<objet> tag, and then replaced the outerHTML with itself??? Well, it turned
out to be slightly more complicated than that, but not by much. The
outerHTML value omits the param tags, which are pretty much essential. But
with a few lines of code you can reconstruct the object and replace the
outerHTML with pretty much the same outer HTML. Sounds crazy? I didn't even
think it would work, but it was worth a try! You can see it at work on my
website - www.neo-archaic.net on the home page and the gallery page.
I think it still has a few short comings and could also do with some browser
and flash detection. Also, it does a little jump from the original to the
flash version, which I need to have a think on (hmm... Start with the object
invisible and show it after it's been replaced?).
In any case, I'm very interested in what you think about it, and any ideas
on how to improve this.
-----------------
Here's the code:
//Replace all flash objects on the page with the same flash object,
//by rewriting the outerHTML values
//This bypasses the new IE ActiveX object activation issue
replaceFlash = function(){
//Get a list of all ActiveX objects
var objects = document.getElementsByTagName('object');
for (var i=0; i<objects.length; i++){
var d = objects[i]
//This is only tested with flash, so ignore all
other types
//The object must therefore have the attribute
type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
if (d.type != "application/x-shockwave-flash"){
continue;
}
//Get the tag and attributes part of the outer html
of the object
var tag = d.outerHTML.split(">")[0] + ">"
//The outer html omits the param tags, so we must
retrieve and insert these seperately
var lst = d.getElementsByTagName('param')
var params = ""
for (var j = 0; j<=lst.length; j++) {
if (lst[j] != null){
params += lst[j].outerHTML
}
}
//Add up the various bits that comprise the object:
//The tag with the attributes, the params and it's
inner html
var newObject = tag + params + d.innerHTML + "
</OBJECT>"
//And rewrite the outer html of the tag
d.outerHTML = newObject
}
}
------------------
Here's an example object:
<object data="flash/home.swf"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
codebase="http://www.neo-archaic.net/index_old.html";
width="620"
height="350">
<param name="movie" value="flash/home.swf" />
<param name="wmode" value="transparent" />
<param name="quality" value="best" />
<p> Alternative text </p>
</object>
-------------------
Note that I'm using an alternative object tag, that doesn't have the
classid, codebase etc. This is a standards compliant way of handling this,
doesn't require an embed tag to work on Mozilla etc., shows the alternative
text if flash is not enabled, and is incredibly ligthweight.
So... What do you guys think?
Karina
Karina Steffens | Neo-Archaic
creative & technical new media design
www.neo-archaic.net
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