Note ID: S1075
Product: Internet Explorer 7
Version: 7 or above

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Activation required for Flash content with Internet Explorer 7

SYMPTOMS

A user must click Flash content before interacting with it.

SOLUTION

Replacing entire web page:

Download and install Alligator Flash Designer version 6.0.0.9 or above. Open your Flash project and choose File > Export Web Page. Save Flash file and HTML page. Leave "JavaScript Object" as the default option. Replace your old HTML file with the new one. Upload swfobject.js file on the website.

Replacing OBJECT and EMBED code in existing web page:

Download and install Alligator Flash Designer version 6.0.0.9 or above. Open your Flash project and choose File > Export SWF Flash File. Save Flash file. Choose File > View HTML Code and copy the JavaScript code. Open your exisitng web page in HTML view and replace OBJECT and EMBED tags with the JavaScript code. Copy swfobject.js file to the same folder where your Flash file is located. Upload swfobject.js on the website.

CODING INSTRUCTIONS

Use JavaScript object to load Flash content.

Using SWFObject is easy. Simply include the swfobject.js Javascript file, then use a small amount of Javascript on your page to embed your Flash movie.

  1. Download s1075.zip file
  2. Extract swfobject.js file and copy it to the same folder with your HTML page
  3. Open your HTML page where you want to place your Flash movie and switch to HTML view
  4. Place the cursor where the movie should appear and paste the code:

    <script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>
		
<div id="flashcontent">
  Here the Flash movie will appear.
</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
   var so = new SWFObject("movie.swf", "mymovie", "200", "100", "7", "#FFFFFF");
   so.write("flashcontent");
</script>
  5. change "movie.swf" to the name of your Flash movie (keep .swf extension)
  6. change "200" and "100" to be the width and height of your movie respectively
  7. change "#FFFFFF" to match the background color of your movie
  8. upload all 3 files to the web server: HTML page, Flash file and swfobject.js file.
Open example files in s1075.zip

More information

Here is a breakdown of what the code does:

<div id="flashcontent">[...]</div>

Prepare an HTML element that will hold our Flash movie. The content placed in the 'holder' element will be replaced by the Flash content, so users with the Flash plug-in installed will never see the content inside this element. This feature has the added bonus of letting search engines index your alternate content.

var so = new SWFObject("movie.swf", "mymovie", "200", "100", "7", "#336699");

Create a new SWFObject and pass in the required parameters:

  • swf - The file path and name to your swf file.
  • id - The ID of your object or embed tag. The embed tag will also have this value set as it's name attribute for files that take advantage of swliveconnect.
  • width - The width of your Flash movie.
  • height - The height of your Flash movie.
  • version - The required player version for your Flash content. This can be a string in the format of 'majorVersion.minorVersion.revision'. An example would be: "6.0.65". Or you can just require the major version, such as "6".
  • background color - This is the hex value of the background color of your Flash movie.

Microsoft KB Article:

Microsoft is releasing a software update to Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 for Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1). This update changes the way in which Internet Explorer handles some Web pages that use ActiveX controls. Examples of ActiveX controls include the following:

  • Adobe Reader
  • Apple QuickTime Player
  • Macromedia Flash Player
  • Microsoft Windows Media Player
  • Real Networks RealPlayer
  • Sun Java Virtual Machine
After you install this update, you cannot interact with ActiveX controls from certain Web pages until these controls are enabled. To enable an ActiveX control, manually click the control.

After a forthcoming update, Microsoft Internet Explorer users will not be able to directly interact with Microsoft ActiveX controls loaded by the APPLET, EMBED, or OBJECT elements. Users will be able to interact with such controls after activating their user interfaces. A new MSDN topic describes how Internet Explorer will handle ActiveX controls, shows how to load ActiveX controls so their interfaces are activated, and describes the impact of this behavior on accessibility tools and applications hosting the WebBrowser Control.

See also: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/activating_activex.asp

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