Some .swf files wont load/play

Help!

[demigodryan]

on my apache site some of the .swf files wont load/play in the embeded page and when viewing just the file, any help would be apreciated.

If this helps,
-flash buttons work
-one or two flash games/movies work

[edited by: jdMorgan at 10:44 pm (utc) on Jan. 4, 2006]
[edit reason] No URLs, please. See Terms of Service. [/edit]

[jdMorgan]

The most likely cause is that your server is not returning the correct MIME-type for these files. Request them manually and review your server's response using the server headers checker [webmasterworld.com].

Jim

[skyeflye]

My answer is a bit off-topic for this forum, but that is because I wonder if this issue has anything to do with the web server software. It's certainly possible that the MIME types aren;t configured correctly, but the fact that some are working but not others leads me to believe this is more likely an issue with client-side code -- either in a web page, or in a Flash file.

Perhaps the HTML code (the <object> and/or <embed> tags) on the web pages that display the Flash movies are not coded *exactly* as they need to be to assure that the Flash movies will play correctly in all browsers.

As an aside, the easiest way I have found to make sure that SWF files will show up and display correctly in all browsers is by using the freely available (open source) "FlashObject" javascript. Just search Google for "FlashObject" and click the first result to grab this free and awesome script. Loading Flash movies (and any other on-page multimedia) in this way is actually going to be very important soon due to the patent lawsuit that Microsoft just lost (but is surely appealing) against Eolas Technologies.

The other factor that could be buggering things up is the Flash coding itself. If you are loading one SWF into another, and the URL for loading the SWF isn't correct, then the movie obviously won't work as expected. Also, (since you said you are using Flash Buttons) many of the "off-the-shelf" Flash movies like that often require secondary files (such as actionscript files) that the SWF loads at runtime in order to play correctly. This can be even more common when using Flash components. But it may or may not be a factor in your case.

[jairsinho]

I have the same problem and I'm pretty sure that HTML code is not te problem, because I tested the same html and swf files on a Sun ONE webserver and both work as expected.

Regards.

[skyeflye]

If NONE of the SWF files will load, then it very well could be a MIME setup issue on the web server. But if some of the SWF files are working fine, and others are not (the way the Original Poster indicated) then it is probably either a problem with the SWF files themselves or with the HTML code or with missing "supporting" files (such as external actionscript files, etc.).

Cheers!

[jairsinho]

Apache mime types are well defined, an actually all the swf files are failing. Also I noticed that the status code 206 is returned whit different size.

Regards.

nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn - - [24/Jan/2006:17:44:57 -0600] "GET /smart.swf HTTP/1.1" 206 221578
nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn - - [24/Jan/2006:18:13:46 -0600] "GET /smart.swf HTTP/1.1" 200 418186
nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn - - [24/Jan/2006:18:24:38 -0600] "GET /smart.swf HTTP/1.1" 206 90506

[r00tb0x]

I am having the same problem with my server. Everything was fine untill I reinstalled Apache. Now some .swf files don't load, and certain .jpg files are half picture/half black&white pixels. If anybody has found a fix for this please let me know!

Thanks

[dareRock]

I am having the same problem....the object tags don't show up at all in the source of an html page that has flash embedded....

so, yes, any advice on such would be very much appreciated.

[timmeh119]

i have the same problem with loading/playin swf files.
i have looked into it a little and i have found that although the swf file on the server is functional and its data is fine, when u download the swf file through Apaches's HTTP it changes the data. the beginning of the file's data is fine but as it gets to the end it changes. i don't know why and i don't know where it starts to change but i would really appreciate it if someone else that actually knows something about anything would help me out.

oh and im using Apache v2.0.55

[jdMorgan]

Status code 206 is Partial Content. This means the client (SWF plugin) requested and received only part of the file. The client got what it wanted, and the server did as it was asked.

We have several reports of Apache 2 having problems serving large multimedia and/or image files. In at least one case, the problem went away when a clean install of Apache 1.3.x was done. However, before anyone here goes off to try that, you need to check your dependencies very carefully; there's no use reverting to Apache 1.x if you have other programs or modules that require Apache 2.x.

Also, the real problem may simply be a configuration setting that is more critical in Apache 2 than in Apache 1. Maybe a default buffer size was reduced to a size that is too small to properly handle SWF content (I don't know, this is just an example).

Those of you having similar problems might want to continue this thread by comparing server version numbers and other information that might be useful to figure this out. Since it is evident that an 'expert' on this problem is not liekly to appear, working together may help all of you.

Jim