Re: FLASH: moock flash player detection :: public beta

[fritz]

hi laura, cheri, and everyone else...

been out of the loop a bit on this i suppose ;) buried with work, and

flasher-l is much busier than it used to be....


anyway, here are my longish thoughts on the various detection scheme

initiatives...


i had been aware of the mm detection sdk, but not the flashability detection

effort, which looks great at a glance. the mm sdk also looks excellent so

far. seems like it will solve most problems for most users.


still, i don't think the various efforts out there (our three, plus the

hundreds of others on help sites and many flash sites) are necessarily in

competition. there are always many ways to solve every problem, and multiple

perspectives are, hence, always useful. it also is cool to see a few groups

taking this important issue on. but i have a feeling there is no single

approach that will suit every single circumstance. if there was, i betcha it

would be a windows app ;)


therefore, my code is intended to be useful to a slightly different audience

than that of the sdk. it addresses those faced with *writing* a detection

scheme, not just using one. what i'm trying to create with the sample is a

boiler-plate for developers, rather than a plug'n'play system for

non-programmers. meaning that my code may serve your needs as is, but it

also may not quite, in which case, you have to adapt and rewrite it. which

is where the documentation of the scripting methods used in the fpi comes in

(note that the docs aren't written yet...i'm waiting until the testing is

done). i think the people that use my info will be people who for whatever

reason want to write their own detection scheme because the sdk doesn't do

some weird little thing they need to do, or because they are asked to

custom-write one that their company can own, etc.


what this slant means is that i don't want to divert the developer's

attention from the main detection scheme by adding, say, a screen-res

detector, or cookies, or internal flash minor version detection. i'll save

those topics for other articles, and the developer can then snap them on as

appropriate. for example, you could do a flash-detecting-flash movie to

handle the macie4.5 audience using this info:

http://www.moock.org/webdesign/flash/detection/flash4noscript/index.html

...but that would be an add on to the main system, not a native part of it.

by keeping modules separate, developers aren't forced to include code they

don't need (which may matter on pages with very strict byte size limits).


i think that all this jives with the flashability work and the mm sdk. if

nothing else, developers will have more solid options than they have to

date, which is great.


when i get more time, i'll definitely look into joining the flashability

group.


thanks sincerely for your message(s), testing, and thoughts,

colin


// sig

<moock>colin</moock>



----- Original Message -----

From: "Laura Mollett" <

lmollettmindspring [dot] com

>

To: <

flasherchinwag [dot] com

>

Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2000 8:08 PM

Subject: Re: FLASH: moock flash player detection :: public beta



> > as i said, this is a public beta. it's been tested on about 100

> > machines, but needs the abuse of the masses. if you have time to click a

> > few test links, i'd appreciate your involvement.

> >

> > http://www.moock.org/webdesign/flash/detection/moockfpi/

>

> Hey Colin,

>

> As Cheri has already pointed out the flashability group and MM are both

> designing something similar and we're trying to make sure everything is

> complementary rather than competitive (we're all on the same ship,

afterall

> ;) I do hope you'll join our group so we can work together. I tested your

> moock fpi on the Mac (OS 7.6, using NN 4.7 and MSIE 4.5) and have just a

> couple of comments - MM came up with a rather nice looking workaround for

> the MSIE problem (I think you'll like it when their sniffer goes public :)

> rather than just sending those viewers to the 'no plug-in' page. It is a

> workaround, but I thought you'd like to know :) Also, you're testing for

> version (2, 3, 4, 5) but nothing internally. (I'm using Flash Player

Version

> 4/14 and it passes me forward to a "4" movie fine). I rather like this

> myself (since I don't want to upgrade) but I think it will leave you with

> the problem of people who might have one of the two version 4 "problem"

> players (the one that has a problem with music, and the one that doesn't

> deal properly with passing variables). I personally haven't been able to

> come up with any way to allow a "less than the newest release" of the

Flash

> 4 players and still ensure that viewers don't have one of these buggy

> releases (and a problem viewing your content)... so I think you might want

> to check for specific versions as well.

>

> Other than that, it seems to be working fine on my mac! Nice page too.

> hth,

> Laura

>

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