Breeze Macrochat: <b>Intro to the Flash Player Detection Kit</b> (blog mentioning it: www.markme.com/cantrell/archives/006887.cfm)

Level: Beg-Int
Topics Covered:<ul>
<li><b>What the Flash Player detection kit is</b> - 2 things: (1) Built into export/publish in Flash MX/MX Pro 2004 products, and (2) a ZIP file with a DW Extension (Flash Detection <i>Behavior</i>, Flash Actionscript code, basic HTML with Flash object & embed code (macromedia.com/software/flash/download/detection_kit/).</li>
<li><b>Why you may need to detect the player</b> - blah blah plugin talk; newer browsers use the <i>classid</i> HTML attribute to classify the plugin/player and help deliver the plugin with little or no fuss.</li>
<li><b>How you detect the player</b> - JavaScript or Flash "Shim" methods.</li>
<li><b>Detection options and reviewing the code it creates</b> - long old code, needed for backwards compatibility...we live with that everyday. <img src=../images/dmxzone/forum/icon_smile_tongue.gif border=0 align=middle></li>
<li><b>Dreamweaver Extensions</b> - mentioned above.</li>
<li><b>3rd party methods</b> - none mentioned, just asked everyone to use the legit MM Flash button (macromedia.com/support/programs/mwm/swb.html)... for additional button geekdom (macromedia.com/macromedia/style_guide/buttons/)</li>
<li><b>Moock FPI</b> - Moock Flash Player Inspector, has JavaScript detecting; popular but not without its warrants (moock.org/webdesign/flash/detection/moockfpi/).</li>
<li><b>BrowserHawk</b> - was not covered but asked about, and basically sounded like it <i>might</i> be using similar JS methods to detect (totally <i>needs</i> to be confirmed); it doesn't use any "Shim" method. I suggested <i>phpSniff</i>.</li>
<li><b>Multiple sites (one HTML and one Flash site)</b> - this was barely mentioned, just stated to auto-direct to Flash version is user has Flash, and that your HTML version should offer a link to Falsh version incase people wish to pursue due to detection error.</li></ul>

Breeze recording available at: www.macromedia.com/community/

Edited by - ccharlton on 28 Jan 2005 22:26:33