Possible Successors to Flash-style Runtimes

flash

I tend to believe that Flash and other proprietary, browser-based runtimes are not a good idea.

But, people seem to love them because they are pretty and offer developers a lot of power as long as they get on board with buying the tools, etc.

Does anyone see a future where such a business model doesn't exist? I think there is a great opportunity for a standards-based graphical toolset using javascript, css, and html to compete with (and preferably, for me, defeat) Flash-based tools.

What does Flash offer that can't be accomplished with the basic building blocks of the web? What would a possible successor to Flash need to tackle to seriously be a "Flash-killer?"

Best Answer

Mozilla is trying this very hard with HTML 5 for things such as video, audio and drag&drop. However, they aren't being very successful yet since other some other browsers, including Internet Explorer and older versions of Firefox, don't implement these technologies.

As a result, I don't think Flash-like technologies(including Silverlight) will be gone soon.

Related Solutions

Javascript – Cross Browser Flash Detection in Javascript

I agree with Max Stewart. SWFObject is the way to go. I'd like to supplement his answer with a code example. This ought to to get you started:

Make sure you have included the swfobject.js file (get it here):

<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>

Then use it like so:

if(swfobject.hasFlashPlayerVersion("9.0.115"))
{
    alert("You have the minimum required flash version (or newer)");
}
else
{
    alert("You do not have the minimum required flash version");
}

Replace "9.0.115" with whatever minimum flash version you need. I chose 9.0.115 as an example because that's the version that added h.264 support.

If the visitor does not have flash, it will report a flash version of "0.0.0", so if you just want to know if they have flash at all, use:

if(swfobject.hasFlashPlayerVersion("1"))
{
    alert("You have flash!");
}
else
{
    alert("You do not flash :-(");
}

JavaScript versus google flash component… possible

This will depend entirely on whether the flash component provides an external api. In general, it's possible to allow javascript to access a flash component. However, it has to be explicitly designed into the flash component.

I'd check to see if there are any docs from google about using this flash component. I'd also check to see where it's embeded to see if any javascript on the page is accessing it.

Lastly, if you look at the embed, it seems it has an attribute allowscriptaccess="never". That seems relevant:)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Javascript – Cross Browser Flash Detection in Javascript

JavaScript versus google flash component… possible

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