Flash!

[vord]

I had to download flash to help out a client, so before I remove it again I thought I'd take a look at that great chunk of flash at the top of the SEO Guy site.

It's pretty cool. Glad to see the Aston is still there.

My usability issue is that people either don't want it on principle, or can't have it because of a fault with windows (very common). For these people there are two usability issues:

1/ They get a big blank section on the page that does nothing, and have to scroll down to get to the content. I'd site the scrolling as a usability issue even for people with flash.
2/ They get a pop up message every time they open a page saying you don't have flash would you like to download it.

Every time. It's so annoying of Macromedia to make that an default setting. No I don't want flash thankyou very much. It's like the webmaster thinks this is the first flash site I have ever looked at and will be pleased to have it pointed out in a pop up window that I don't have flash. Also it's already downloaded the flash that I can't see by the time it asks that question.

So to finally get to my question... Is there an alternative set up that perhaps provides a link where the flash would be that explains that tis big white space is flash and I could click the window to download it? Some way to get away from that popup.

Even better, if someone doesn't have flash, is it not possible to send them an image instead, rather than an annoying popup and a big blank space?

Is that possible or do I need to offer my consultancy services to Macromedia.

:bond:

[wyrickj]

There really is no way of getting rid of the popups. The popups are usally from people having older versions of the Flash Player. Like if I published a flash document in Flash Player 7 and the client has player 6 then they would get the popup asking to download/intall Flash Player 7. As far as the whie background well they are probley using an older version of the player.

Here is a few tips you can use:

Make the Flash document compatible with Flash Player 5 or 6 (You will lose any ActionScript 2 if you use Flash MX 2004)

You can detect if they have the right Flash Player installed by using some simple Javascript / Actionscript. If they don't have the right player installed you can forward them to a page saying you don't have Flash Player 7 installed. Put a button up to download the latest version.


Hope this helps.

[vord]

Wouldn't forwarding someone without Flash to a different page stop them from viewing the site at all if they were unwilling or unable to download it?

Sniffing is an idea though. I'm assuming that can only be done client side. Even so, the Flash could mabe be done as an include, and the JavaScript could decide whether to include an image or the Flash depending on whether the user has flash installed. Am I mixing up my server sie and client side here? I'll have to go away and have a think.

I think you've answered my question there. If it's that easy why doesn't everyone do it - is it just because non-Flash users are considered to be in the minority?

:cool:

[wyrickj]

Well like SEO-Guy's website uses Flash and I already had Player 7. But a lot of websites use the old Player 5 because of backwards compatiblity. Every Windows version since 98 came with Flash 5 Player.

[vord]

WIndows itself still doesn't come with Flash (or at least didn't with 2000 which is as far as I've got). That's why Macromedia are so agressive with their popups.

I think if you buy a computer with software pre-installed then probably it will have flash. I'd accept the norm is for people to buy computers with software already installed. It's unusual to follow my route and build one from electrical looking bits.

I recall an old computer running windows 98 which crashed at the very hint of me trying to load flash. I have a friend whose computer at work will freeze everytime he tried to view a flash site. I think that, and my accessibility ideals, cause me to be careful with Flash.

I also feel that if anyone doesn't have flash it's either by choice or due to a computer problem, in which case those pop ups gets very annoying. I like the JavaScript solution of offering an image as an alternative rather than a popup.

:cool:

[wyrickj]

You can use the Macromedia Flash Deployment kit to detect if Flash is installed and if not you can forward them onto a diffrent page telling them you need to install flash. As far as Windows 98 goes well Windows 9x sucked anyways. Windows 98 was a very unstable operating system for me and I bet everyone on this forum. When I said Windows did come with Flash Player 5 well what I ment was Internet Explorer comes with it.

[whitefrog]

I can't imagine that there are any internet users out there on the world wide web that would like to view a flash website but don't have the technology or ability. The only people left not using flash are consciencous objectors to the technology. IMHO flash provides the dynamic interaction that markters / businesses need to convery their message to their customers.