[thelist] Hey, Flash experts...some questions
John Dowdell
jdowdell at adobe.com
Fri Jan 6 15:02:31 CST 2006
Tom Dell'Aringa wrote:
> how easy is it to do a form partially in HTML and partially in Flash?
It depends on the browser. With techniques actually used today it
*should* be pretty reliable across the range of common browsers, but if
your audience chooses a minority configuration then it would be
worthwhile to doublecheck.
Here's a rough chronology of approaches:
(1) Netscape 3.0 introduced a means of JavaScript/applet/plugin
intercommunication, called LiveConnect.
IE/Win 4.0 (?) introduced a parallel means of
JScript/VBScript/ActiveX intercommunication, called ActiveX Scripting.
Macromedia Shockwave and Flash supported both immediately, but to
handle both Plugin- and Control-communication required dual
browserscripts, as well as much testing, and then there were other
browsers which never supported this at all. Progress was fitful.
(2) During the past eight years people have tried plugin-to-browser
communication through "javascript:" pseudo-URLs, but support again
varied by the browser. For browser-to-plugin communication people tried
things such as hidden frames, server data requests, more. Still messy...
here's an older survey of browser differences:
http://www.macromedia.com/go/14159
(3) A year or two ago there was mention of a new, third, LiveConnect
implementation (after NS3 and early Moz implementations), which would be
supported by other browsers such as Safari and Opera. I haven't heard
much news on this yet.
(4) These days, most people seem happy using the Flash/JavaScript
Integration Kit which Mike Chambers and Christian Cantrell put together.
It uses "javascript:" pseudo-URLs and a hidden DIV refresh, combined
with Flash's localConnection, to do browser-to-plugin and
plugin-to-browser communication respectively. (Many of the browsers
which balked at js pseudo-URLs from plugins have now passed on.) Check
these links:
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/flashjavascript/
http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mesh/archives/2005/06/flash_javascrip.cfm
http://osflash.org/doku.php?id=flashjs
Summary: People *are* doing plugin/browser intercommunication now, but
it's still more work to develop in multiple engines than a single
engine. If relying on undocumented browser behavior then please be sure
to check the project across the range of browsers your audience might be
using.
jd
--
John Dowdell . Adobe Developer Support . San Francisco CA USA
Weblog: http://weblogs.macromedia.com/jd
Aggregator: http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mxna
Technotes: http://www.macromedia.com/support/
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