Embed/Object Flash/Java

8t10 · 1 Nov 2011 at 16:07

Hi,

I'm trying to find out the most compatible way of embedding flash and java applets, for a client facing site, so it needs cross browser compatibility, but obs I can offer other browsers different solutions.

Valid HTML5 too.

<embed> or <object> is the question really?

redeye_uk · 1 Nov 2011 at 16:10

For Flash you should use the Google SWF code.

8t10 · 2 Nov 2011 at 10:32

redeye_uk said:
For Flash you should use the Google SWF code.

Thanks, but I'd rather not use conditional statements for IE. They are just a bit dodge. And I can't really use third party stuff for this project, but they use the object tag.

redeye_uk · 2 Nov 2011 at 12:23

The Google SWF object allows for flash players to be embedded in 2 ways - static and dynamically.

I suggets you look at the dynamic way (half way down the page linked) which is javascript based and does away with conditional statements.

Tripnologist · 2 Nov 2011 at 13:20

redeye_uk said:
The Google SWF object

swfObject is definitely the standard way of inserting flash these days. Everyone from Youtube to Amazon use it.

However, Google had nothing to do with its creation.

redeye_uk · 2 Nov 2011 at 13:32

Tripnologist said:
However, Google had nothing to do with its creation.

This is correct. Thanks for pointing it out

Tripnologist · 2 Nov 2011 at 14:28

Easy mistake to make considering it's maintained from Google Code and also included as part of Google's Libraries API.

8t10 · 2 Nov 2011 at 17:29

What is the standard non-javascript way? That is valid?

redeye_uk · 2 Nov 2011 at 17:53

There is no standard non-javascript way. It would be buggy as hell

Use the swfObject static publishing method

The static publishing method embeds both Flash content and alternative content using standards compliant markup, and uses JavaScript to resolve the issues that markup alone cannot

The advantages of the static publishing method are:

The actual authoring of standards compliant markup is promoted
Best embed performance
The mechanism of embedding Flash content does not rely on a scripting language, so your Flash content can reach a significant bigger audience:
If you have the Flash plug-in installed, but have JavaScript disabled or a use a browser that doesn't support JavaScript, you will still be able to see your Flash content
Flash will now also run on a device like Sony PSP, which has very poor JavaScript support
Automated tools like RSS readers are able to pick up Flash content

Is it purely the conditional statements which are putting you off?

RobH · 2 Nov 2011 at 23:34

Adobe actually ship swfObject 2 with their Flex SDK and is part of the default page templates in Flash Builder, it really is the best way of doing this.

8t10 · 3 Nov 2011 at 09:15

The thing that is putting me off is using a third party app. I can't do it for this project. And conditional statements wouldn't go down too well in this, since they are effectively a HTML hack.

I really only need to know how the best, current, in-form way to do it using either embed or object tags.