[thelist] Flash 5 installation hell

[Mike Migurski]

>>has anyone here dealt with deploying flash 5 content? We have site we're
>>deploying soon that makes use of 5's new scripting architecture, and we're
>>trying to make the upgrade as painless as possible for our users. Using
>>the Flash 5 deployment kit, including personal advice from its author,
>>we're still running into massive difficulties get installation to work on
>>PC's - with netscape we've had to restart windows, and ran into issues
>>with the browser not recognizing the plugin, and IE users have experienced
>>a range of problems from system crashes to interrupted downloads. Can
>>anyone offer any advice on the subject? Our mac tests have gone smoothly.
>
>I'm not sure what the problem is... sounds like "life is hell", but...?
>
>Some browsers definitely need a restart. Although Netscape has a
>theoretical plugin-refresh method, it's more stable to actually shut down
>the browser before installing things into it.
>
>IE/Win won't always need a restart, but if you've got an ActiveX Control in
>use then you can't replace it while it's running, and so would need to
>restart the machine in that case.
>
>If something isn't downloading fully, then that seems like it would be a
>separate class of issues.
>
>I'm not sure whether any of this is what you're seeing though...?

yeah, that helped a lot - thank you

>For "How can I make sure they're using the Macromedia Flash Player 5?" then
>I'd usually have some Flash scripting that checks the "version" property,
>jumping to the main HTML page if it's 5+. With any failure they'd stay at
>your "you need a player" page.

No, the problems we're running into are post-plug-in-detection. Once we've
ascertained that a user needs F5 and sent them to the download site, then
we go through hell trying to get the files to download and install
properly. Once, I was able to get a smooth PC/IE install going, with no
browser closure or restart needed, but other people in the shop have been
complaining of system crashes and conflicts and other drama.

curse windows.

-mike.

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                   michal migurski     mike at cloudfactory.org
                  tel:415.876.0939     AIM:migurski
    http://www.viberation.com/mike     ICQ:47513232
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