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I was wondering, our community is kind of slow with computers as far as users keeping their players up to date.
If they can't view the flash, I should put a link to get the Mac Player right? What is the latest version and am I right for assuming I just need to put a link that says something like..
"Best Viewed with Macromedia Flash Player (whatever number, is it 8?)
Only certain elements of the site have flash on them.
thanks in advance,
tobin83
2) put an alternative image in in flash can not be displayed ie within the embed tag
<img src="noflash.jpg" alt="you need to install flash to view the whatever" />
3) put a link to macromedia downloads as well if you feel it is needed.
you can either automatically install flash player, or redirect to downloads page or simply replace the flash file with a graphic ..
You need to add a 'sniffer' in to the code, which will detect if flash plugin is available, you can then decide what to do if there is no flash..
Fistly a cross browser "sniffer" is problematic, secomdly and more importantly surely its the end users place to decide what happens on their machine not the designers. Installing programmes automatically is a huge no-no in my book.
Give the user the information they need, ie flash player is not installed/out of date, then let them do what is right for them
Flash will never install completely automatically, there is always a check box to request permission, and that is redirected to macromedia..
And I believe that is exactly what Tobin is asking for? how would you know wether to deliver flash or not if a sniffer was not in place? so your statements don't make sense?
The only other options is to not use flash or have a huge hang while the browser decides what to do ...
giving the user options is what it is about...
Exactly, but IMO pushing a visitor to another site automatically is where I have issues. A simple statement and link to macromedia/adobe plus an alternative image is enough. Then the visitor decides... no automatic redirect (which may confuse the hell out of the less than web savvy). It is also incredibly bad practice having actually got a visitor to your site which can involve a lot of effort and expense in marketing, to then push them straight away somewhere else. How many will actually come back?
If anything provide a link to both the macromedia/adobe download page or a link to an alternative page where the information in the flash file can be served up in (X)HTML
Hope this statement makes sense and I am sorry if you find my writings nonsensical, by the way dont is not a word :-)
Macromedia download does not entail going to their site ..
The only time you would redirect is to your own downloads page explaining the down load and in fact having this as a popup page can work just as well...
Personally, I feel, that is another layer to the content that is best avoided...
tobin
