Re: Flash Central Detection Script

[todd levin]

this is actually a battle that has been fought around the office for the

last couple of days.


i was told under the impression that you cannot detect the presence of the

flash active-x control in ie and, as an alternative, you could simply detect

IE users and send them to a page where they can do the following:


a - click here if you have flash

b - click here to get flash

c - click here if you don't have flash but want to continue


then you can cookie them based on their response so they don't have to view

this page again.


we were wrestling with a way to handle IE users without having them get that

"harmful sounding" dialog alert box as IE tries to automatically download

the active x control for flash.


how does it detect for flash in IE??


thanks for your attention,


todd levin




by the way, for kicks, i used n3.0 to access flash central, because i don't

have flash on this browser, and all the pages i viewed (the GET FLASH page,

etc.) had broken images.




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

From: John Croteau <

croteauerols [dot] com

>

To:

flashershocker [dot] com

 <

flashershocker [dot] com

>

Date: Thursday, February 19, 1998 2:47 PM

Subject: Re: Flash Central Detection Script



>Hi Joao and all

>

>Flash Central is using he front-end (directing users to Flash if they

>have Flash) of my 4th generation All-Flash detection script. This script

>detects/directs all Flash capable browsers using the best technology for

>each.

>

>The All-Flash detection uses two pages to detect if Flash is present

>and all browsers with Flash get Flash.

>

>The first page detects Flash where possible with script.

>       Netscape 3+ using the navigator.mimeTypes test in JavaScript

>       IE3+ for Win95/NT using VBScript

>       WebTV (JavaScript enabled) is directed.

>       Previous visitors with JavaScript and cookies enabled.

>

>The second page accepts all other browsers and exposes them to a Flash

>jump movie and sets a cookie. If the browser is JavaScript and cookie

>enabled, the next time a visitor visits he will be directed to Flash

>from the first page.

>

>The reason for the two page set-up is to provide the quickest and

>cleanest transfer based on browser capability.

>

>When using the jump movie there is a delay and glitch that occurs while

>the mini Flash page loads and plays. Including the Jump movie with the

>other script on  one page does not eliminate the jump/glitch even for

>browsers in which the Flash plug-in can be detected. This is due to

>multiple loading and processing that browsers do. In the single page

>set-up the jump-movie will begin before the JavaScript has actually

>loaded and displayed the Flash content page.  To prevent this

>delay/glitch on browsers that don't need to use the Flash jump movie, I

>use a second page for the Jump Movie detection and send browsers where

>Flash can be detected directly and more seamlessly to the Flash content

>page.

>

>-----------                               -----------------------

>

John Croteau croteauerols [dot] com (mailto:croteauerols [dot] com)

>-------------                             -------------------------

>Flash Central (The Universe Starts Here) http://www.FlashCentral.com

>FlashTech  (Advanced Help for Flash)    http://www.CrownMall.com/Flash

>The Flash Tech Resource (Tech Notes)   http://www.FlashCentral.com/tech

>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>