Providing Alternative Images If Adobe Flash Isn't Available

August 03, 2022 Post a Comment

Are there any ways providing an alternate GIF/PNG image, in case the user has no Adobe Flash installed and/or deactivated. I’ve found recommendations, like the following from W3C

Solution 1:

Actually having flash installed but javascript turned off is a valid scenario. This should work across most browsers:

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="800" height="600" id="flashContent">
  <param name="movie" value="flash.swf" />
  <!--[if !IE]>-->
    <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="flash.swf" width="800" height="600">
  <!--<![endif]-->
      <img src="(...)" alt="Put your alternate content here" />
  <!--[if !IE]>-->
    </object>
  <!--<![endif]-->
</object>

Solution 2:

I use the following code for graceful degradation. It works well.

<!--[if !IE]> -->
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="flash.swf" width="500" height="100">
<!-- <![endif]-->

<!--[if IE]>
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" 
    codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0" 
    width="500" height="100">
  <param name="movie" value="flash.swf" />
<!--><!--dgx-->
  <param name="loop" value="false">
  <param name="menu" value="false">
  <param name="quality" value="high">
  <img src="flash_replacement.png" width="500" height="100" alt="No Flash">
</object>
<!-- <![endif]-->

Solution 3:

I don't know why you want to avoid javascript, it is the best solution when dealing with Flash.

using the SWFObjects Library (the best known so far for the matter) you can do this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" 
            "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> 
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> 
<head> 
 <title> My Home Page </title> 
 <meta name="viewport" content="width=780"> 
 <script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script> 
</head> 
<body> 
 <div id="splashintro"> 
   <a href="more.html"><img src="splash_noflash.png" /></a> 
 </div>
 <script type="text/javascript"> 
   var so = new SWFObject("csplash.swf", "my_intro", "300", "240", "8", "#338899"); 
   so.write("splashintro"); 
 </script> 
 </body> 
</html>

what the script does is replace the splashintro div with the flash file, if the browser does not support Flash, then does nothing and the splash_noflash.png will be shown.

P.S. With this technique you are ready for the iPhone, instead of showing the blue cube, it will show the image :)

Solution 4:

I find using inline styling to do the trick.

For example:

<div style="background-image: url('...');">
    <object>
     /* Embedded Flash */
    </object>
</div>

Solution 5:

We can provide an alternate GIF/PNG image, in case the user has no Adobe Flash installed and/or deactivated.

<object id="flashcontent classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="550px" height="400px">
<param name="movie" value="mymovie.swf" />

<!--[if !IE]>-->
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="mymovie.swf" width="550px" height="400px">
<!--<![endif]-->

<p>
Fallback or 'alternate' content goes here.
This content will only be visible if the SWF fails to load.
</p>

<!--[if !IE]>-->
</object>
<!--<![endif]-->

</object>

And also add this...

<script type="text/javascript">
swfobject.registerObject("flashcontent", "9", "/path/to/expressinstall.swf");   
</script>

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