[thelist] Some browsers behave strange with Flash

[Eric Cestari]

Hi list !

While upgrading my website, I came around strange behavior on every
mainstream browsers while displaying movies.
I did check the relevant sites and Google, but nothing came up. So I
guess this is a job for .... evolt ! :)

Ok, let's go :

--------------------------------------------
IE 5 on Win2k :
IE5 sometimes crashes with a read error, for no reason when displaying
flash. Seems to happen randomly. I still have to look deeper, but I
don't know where to start from ...
If you have tricks and tips, you're welcome !

--------------------------------------------
NS 4.7 on Win2k:
Flash is really slow, nearly unusable. I am displaying two big movies on
one page. I really have no clue about this one.

--------------------------------------------
NS6 (and 6.01) on Win2k:
As I wanted to add a little more interactivity to my movies, I appended
variables in a GET form to my movies URL.

<object width="928" height="128">
<param name="movie"
value="{ROOTDIR_URL}/layout/pclm_flash/menu.swf?root={ROOTDIR_URL}">
<embed width="928"  type=application/x-shockwave-flash height="128"
src="{ROOTDIR_URL}/layout/pclm_flash/menu.swf?root={ROOTDIR_URL}"></embed>
</object>

But the movies did not want to show up in NS6 whereas in every other
browser they do show up (ie : no path problem)
NS6 wanted to install the Flash plugin, that was already installed.
I thought of a mime-type problem. And that was nearly that.

The way NS6 parses the SRC attribute to get the mime type seemed buggy.
So I appended to the URL ".swf" :

<object width="928" height="128">
<param name="movie"
value="{ROOTDIR_URL}/layout/pclm_flash/menu.swf?root={ROOTDIR_URL}.swf">
<embed width="928"  type=application/x-shockwave-flash height="128"
src="{ROOTDIR_URL}/layout/pclm_flash/menu.swf?root={ROOTDIR_URL}.swf"></embed>
</object>

And, well, the damn NS6 opened the movies correctly !

To finish this dirty workaround, I added to every of my movies the
following ActionScript :
root = root.substring(0, root.length - 4)

Of course, it is quite straightforward with one parameter, but one has
to be more careful with more parameters :)

So my issue is corrected, but I'd sure be happier without this handling
!

Has anyone else encountered this, I'd really like to know how he(she)
dealt with it ...

---------------------------------------------------

TIA,
	Eric

-- 
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Eric Cestari                      |               Ohm Force
Chief Web Designer                |  Digital Audio Software
mailto:eric.cestari at ohmforce.com  | http://www.ohmforce.com
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