IE 5 Dynamic Problems

[Ed Smith]

I can't get SWFObject 2.0 to work dynamically with either IE 5.01 or
IE 5.5. The static test pages:

http://www.swffix.org/swfobject/testsuite/test.html
http://www.swffix.org/swfobject/testsuite/test_params.html

both work fine, but for the dynamic ones, I just see the alternate
content:

http://www.swffix.org/swfobject/testsuite/test_dynamic.html
http://www.swffix.org/swfobject/testsuite/test_dynamic_params.html

Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just somethings weird
about my test environment? Older versions of SWFObject still seem to
work fine.

Thanks,

Ed

[andy]

As much as I hate "me toos" I am also getting this problem. I have
tested IE5.01 and IE5.5 in virtual machines running win98 and neither
loads the flash content correctly.

Was this a conscious decision to drop support for these browsers by
the developers or is it something that could be fixed? We haven't
phased out support for IE5.5 yet so it'd be nice if it did work.

Thanks

Andy

[Bobby]

I suspect that IE5 on older Windows systems (before NT) either doesn't
support the required JavaScript or the Flash version cannot be
retrieved using JavaScript, which means that SWFObject will not come
into action. Unfortunately I have no means to test this.

When using the static method, this means that we are not going to help
the markup, so in this case if a player is available, it will always
attempt to play Flash content, even if it is aimed for a higher plug-
in version. When using the dynamic method, it means that alternative
content is the base content, and this will only be replaced when
enough Flash AND JavaScript support is available. Please note that the
two publishing methods are not designed to create consistent results,
they both have a different basic philosophy and therefore in some
cases might render different results.

When we talk about numbers, these are the stats from thecounter.com:
IE5.x: 44764 out of 12143911 = 0%
Older Windows systems: approx 1%

[digiblue]

Hi All,

I have the same problem with IE 5.5 SP2 on a windows 2000 pro system.
The static sample page works fine, but the dynamic sample page does
not work.

I tried alert(swfobject.getFlashPlayerVersion().major) in the dynamic
page and it returns 9, so at least part of it is working, and I don't
get any script errors.

I have tried removing and reinstalling flash 9, but it makes no
difference.

Thanks

[Bobby]

@digiblue:

Would you mind checking the following:

1. Does the following page return the correct version info?:
http://www.swffix.org/swfobject/testsuite/test_api_getflashplayerversion.html

2. Does:

alert(typeof document.getElementById != "undefined" && typeof
document.getElementsByTagName != "undefined" && typeof
document.createElement != "undefined" && typeof document.appendChild !
= "undefined" && typeof document.replaceChild != "undefined" && typeof
document.removeChild != "undefined" && typeof document.cloneNode !=
"undefined");

return true or false?

3. Does the DomLoad example work as expected (clear your cache and
check if the alert pops up before the image has loaded)?:
http://www.swffix.org/swfobject/testsuite/test_api_adddomloadevent.html

4. Do you see alternative content on this page?:
http://www.swffix.org/swfobject/testsuite/test_dynamic.html

[digiblue]

hi Bobby, thanks for looking into this. In ie5.5 on win2k:

1. Returns correct flash version (9.0.124)

2. Pasting into a blank page returns false

3. I get no alert, but the image loads.

4. I see 'Alternative content' and the get flash player icon.

On Apr 24, 3:12 pm, Bobby <bobbyvandersl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> @digiblue:
>
> Would you mind checking the following:
>

> 1. Does the following page return the correct version info?:http://www.swffix.org/swfobject/testsuite/test_api_getflashplayervers...

[Bobby]

This would mean that on IE 5.5 lacks proper W3C DOM support:

alert(typeof document.getElementById != "undefined" && typeof
document.getElementsByTagName != "undefined" && typeof
document.createElement != "undefined" && typeof document.appendChild !
= "undefined" && typeof document.replaceChild != "undefined" && typeof
document.removeChild != "undefined" && typeof document.cloneNode !=
"undefined");

should have returned true, so obviously one or more of these
properties is/are undefined.

This is odd, because IE 5.5 should support all of these features, e.g.
take a look at the test suite on Quirksmode.org:
http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/w3c_core.html

I will have a closer look at it.

[Bobby]

typeof document.appendChild != "undefined"
typeof document.replaceChild != "undefined"
typeof document.removeChild != "undefined"
typeof document.cloneNode != "undefined"

all return false

[Bobby]

I have added issue report 77: http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/issues/detail?id=77

[digiblue]

Thanks for the work, let me know if you'd like me to do any testing.