Flash text not showing up in netscape, mozilla

[egge]

The Flash Text buttons I created in Dreamweaver only show up correctly in Internet Explorer. I am trying to make my website compatible with other browsers and I don't know why but the flash text will not show up when I view it online with Mozilla, Opera or Netscape. The weird thing is they show up fine when I preview the files on my hard drive with mozilla, netscape and opera, just not when I try and view them from the internet.

Does anyone have any ideas what might be going on?

you can view my website at www.amandaegge.com/main.htm

I had my website wc3 compliant and it looked great in IE but had to change some things in order to get it to look right in all browsers and I added the embed code because I guess netscape needs it but it still won't work.

PS: Here is the code I am using:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="c.swf?path=movie.swf" width="200" height="32">
<param name="movie" value="main.swf">
<param name="quality" value="high">
<param name="bgcolor" value="#333333">
<embed src="main.swf" width="200" height="32" quality="high" bgcolor="#333333"></embed>
</object>

[PatrickDeese]

Well the easy answer is that Flash doesn't have plug-ins for the Mozilla and Netscape browsers.

[iamlost]

Versions of Flash prior to Flash 6r49 (such as Flash 5) are not scriptable in Netscape Gecko browsers. Thus client-side detection for the right version of Flash is an important aspect of creating a scripted Flash experience. On Mac OS X, there is an additional caveat: Netscape Gecko browsers such as Camino (formerly Chimera), the latest Mozilla browsers, and future versions of Netscape which are built using the Mach-O binary format won't be able to use Flash's scriptability features. Until Macromedia changes this from within the Flash plugin, scriptability can not be used on Mac OS X browsers based on Gecko.

Full article:
[devedge.netscape.com ]

[egge]

Great. So basically they're useless. Thanks for answering that. I guess i'll have to ditch them for something else.

Thanks again,
Amanda

[pixelkat]

"Well the easy answer is that Flash doesn't have plug-ins for the Mozilla and Netscape browsers."

huh? I've been a Netscape/Mozilla browser user since Version 2, and I can tell you, starting with some flavor of version 4, the Flash player comes preinstalled in the Netscape or Mozilla plug-ins folder. Only with IE and Opera do I have to download and install it separately.

I also ask which font you used in Flash? I believe the default in Flash is Helvetica, which is not a native browser font or even a PC system font. It is only native to the Mac. I have found it necessary to change the font in Flash to either Arial or Verdana so it will render well on the web. Flash's 'achilles tendon' continues to be its problematic rendering of text. A productive first step might be to change the Flash default font to a cross-platform standard web font.

[pixelkat]

upon closer examination of your code to embed the flash player, you forgot to add the mime type to the embed tag. you have it in the <object> tag but not the <embed>. microsoft and netscape each treat flash differently. Microsoft uses <object> and Netscape uses <embed>. in order for flash to work, you have to include both. the browser will just ignore the tag it doesn't recognize. fact of life. it's not just a flash issue. you have to treat video and media streams the same way.

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="c.swf?path=movie.swf" width="200" height="32">
<param name="movie" value="main.swf">
<param name="quality" value="high">
<param name="bgcolor" value="#333333">
<embed src="main.swf" width="200" height="32" quality="high" bgcolor="#333333"></embed>
</object>

you should have included type="application/x-shockwave-flash" in your embed tag, like this:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="c.swf?path=movie.swf" width="200" height="32">
<param name="movie" value="main.swf">
<param name="quality" value="high">
<param name="bgcolor" value="#333333">
<embed src="main.swf" width="200" height="32" quality="high" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" bgcolor="#333333"></embed>
</object>

it's also helpful to use javascript to detect whether the flash player is loaded on the client machine and which version in order to facilitate success.

[pixelkat]

oh, by the way, I spent a whole quarter at school flash scripting my brains out on a Mac G5 running OSX using both Camino and Netscape 7 for testing, so the earlier post about not being able to script Flash on a Mac for Netscape MAY have been taken out of context and perhaps may apply only to specific yet-resolved scripting issues.

No application is perfect. Macromedia does an excellent job of supporting developers, as evidenced by their massive, content-rich dev site with tutorials, update news, examples, sample code and forums populated with lots of experts to get the rest of us out of a jam in a pinch!

kat