Javascript – How to overcome “Error calling method on NPObject” and Play() a SWF

flashjavascriptjqueryswfobject

I am working on a quiz system. Normally it uses jpeg images with each question. But a few of the quizzes instead feature animated .SWF files. I want to use jquery swfobject to call the play() method, once the user has clicked on an answer.

My solution works fine locally, but when I try to run it online, it throws the "Error calling method on NPObject!" message.

The quiz HTML is located on www.somedomain.com and the SWFs are on images.somedomain.com. So, I'm guessing this is a cross-domain thing.

Trouble for me is, I don't know anything about Flash… how to edit SWF files, anything about Flash attributes, or the like.

Here's an example of my code:

<div class="photos">
    <object data="http://images.somedomain.com/q1tattooquiz.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="600" height="350">
        <param name="movie" value="http://images.somedomain.com/q1tattooquiz.swf">
        <param name="wmode" value="opaque">
    </object>
</div>

And the javascript:

if (hasFlash) {
    $('#question'+quesNum+' .photos').flash(function() { this.Play(); } );
    }

It's pretty simple, and as I said, it works fine on my PC. But once uploaded, it errors out.

What can I add to my javascript to make these files work right?

Best Answer

Kirkman14,

Apart from the allowScriptAccess thingy, make sure you are calling the functions with the correct number of parameters, matching AS declaration. If your AS declares:

function playSound(event:MouseEvent):void{
// code here
}

then make sure you use the function accordingly playSound(null). I've been through this myself.

Related Solutions

Javascript – Is it possible to embed a SWF in a form using swfobject 2+ in IE6+

i'm not sure where you're having a problem. ExternalInterface and SWFObject work in IE6/7/8 just fine. See this example (explanations for the example are here)

when you say 'embed a swf in a form', what exactly are you trying to do? if you're embedding the swf into a div, it shouldn't matter whether the div is in a form or anywhere else in the body.

here's an example of a SWF in a form

as for window[id], that's a deprecated approach and should be replaced by document.getElementById(id). a lot of old Flash tutorials/documentation say to use window[id] when working with ExternalInterface, but that advice is safe to ignore now that every major browser supports the W3C standard document.getElementbyId. This includes IE6/7/8, Firefox, Safari/Webkit, Opera, etc.

As far as the element existing before trying to find it, that's a timing issue. SWFObject embeds the SWF at domready/onload, which means you shouldn't try to invoke ExternalInterface until after the SWF has loaded. You can do this by placing whatever code you're writing in a domready function:

swfobject.addDomLoadEvent(function (){
  //safe to execute code on your embedded SWF in here
});

SWFObject 2.2 has a new callback feature that lets you invoke a function as soon as the SWF has been embedded. Bobby Van der Sluis has an example you can 'view source' on. The SWFObject API documentation covers its usage.

hope that helps

--philip

Javascript – Swfobject and MooTools: Dynamic movie height

The simplest solution is to embed your SWF in a wrapper DIV. Set the SWF to 100% width/height of the wrapper DIV, then use JS to resize the wrapper DIV, not the <object> itself. Less buggy that way.

Since SWFObject 2 replaces the target DIV with the object, you'll need an additional div in your markup:

<div id="wrapper">
   <div id="flashcontent"></div>
</div>

becomes

<div id="wrapper">
   <object id="flashcontent" width="100%" height="100%" (etc.) ></object>
</div>

Related Topic

Jquery – Uncaught Error: Error calling method on NPObject