> So the question to your marketing guys is: what do you really want to > achieve? Do you want to show content to your web visitors, or do you want > them to be driven away to download something before they can view anything > on your site?
Well, since our site has training videos and audios which are only accessible via our Flash player (that people have paid us to have access to), I think the answer is we want a hard stop that makes it clear that our site will be useless without Flash. And secondly we want it to be as easy as possible for them to know what to do to remedy the situation. i.e. Showing a link that says 'click here to download Flash' is a good start, but actually beginning the Flash download right then and there is the best option. (for us anyway). > Keep in mind that not all browsers can install a plugin seamlessly and users > will have to download a file, close their browser, install the plugin and > restart the browser. Understood, but you have to break an egg to make an omelet. We advertise that Flash is a requirement to use our site. If they are going to have to install it, we might as well make it as easy and automated as possible. > As a possible solution, you could do a little bastardization and put in a > standard object/embed in your alt content <div> (maybe a really small / > invisible swf), which would invoke the browser download prompt... This way > you could still show the user some useful content in the alt div, which > invoking the download prompt as well. Hmm, that's not a bad option. So, I think I have my answer, and in short it is "no". I can definitely understand the goal to degrade nicely and it does make a great deal of sense especially if the Flash content has an alternative method of being served or is not mandatory for the page to be functional. I do think there would be usefulness to have a configuration option in SWFObject where I could specify that the Flash was required on the page, and I intended for the default behavior (missing plugin prompt) to occur. Of course, it's also entirely possible that I'm misusing SWFObject. My intentions have little to do with degradation and more to do with a cross-browser library which will guarantee my Flash content shows up in as many places as possible, and if necessary enable the user to procure Flash in the most pain-free way possible. If you have any other suggestions for libraries which are more centered around getting your users Flash, then degrading when they don't have it, then please let me know. Thanks! ~Brad -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SWFObject" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/swfobject?hl=en.
