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Subject:	Re: FLASH: JS-automated link "switch"?
From:	Marc Hoffman (Dart Frog Media)
Date:	Sun, 18 Jul 1999 23:12:54 +0100

At 08:20 PM 7/18/99 +0200, you wrote:
>
>Hello.
>
>I'm new to this list, so please excuse me if this has been asked before:
>
>Is there a way (e.g. by using Java or Javascript) to make an anchor link
>to a flash-enabled page if the browser has the flash plugin and to link it
>with a non-flash page if there is no plugin?
>
>Any hint appreciated,
>TIA
>Volker

There is, but you won't be able to detect all instances of the Flash
plug-in, so you'll send some Flash-enabled visitors to the non-Flash site.
Or you could write it to send most Flash-enabled viewers to the Flash site
and the rest would sit on the current page and be given some manual choices
(get Flash or go to the non-Flash page).

A more universal method is this:

Send the viewer to a gateway page where you carry out this scheme: Create a
Flash movie that consists only of a frame action to get the URL of your
Flash site. Place it on your gateway page and make its size 2x2 pixels (1x1
won't work). If you need it to test for Flash3, put the get URL action in a
movie clip (Flash2 plug-in won't see the movie clip and will ignore the Get
URL). Then use a META refresh tag on the same gateway page which, after
maybe 5 or 10 seconds (sufficient time for the Flash movie to load and kick
in), redirects the browser to the non-Flash site.

You could even have this scheme carried out in a hidden frame so there'd be
no visual indication of going through the gateway page. Hidden frames are
created by making a 2-frame frameset in which the sizes are specified as
"100%, *" which makes the second frame zero size.

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