Flash detection

What is the simplest and most compatible method?

[rpking]

I need a simple short and rock solid flash detection scheme.

I've seen a very short Javascript code that uses the navigator.mimeTypes["application/x-shockwave-flash"] property to write an EMBED statement or an alternative gif. However, this javascript property is bugged in IE.

It seems to have to be combined with a lot of OBJECT code (which is invoked on Active-x browsers) as well which makes the whole thing very bulky.

Is there a shorter way to achieve this?

[tedster]

As far as I know, if you want to detect the presence of a Flash 3 player, and up, you need to go the route you described, and wrap your EMBED tags within a set of OBJECT tags.

I've just been reading up on this a bit, as I wade into the Flash-y waters. It seems that if you want to detect Flash 4 up, there is a non-JavaScript method. This involves embedding information in the Flash 4 file itself.

There's a lot of technical information accesible on the MacroMedia site [macromedia.com]. After studying for a while, I came the conclusion that there is no short and sweet method.

But the next time I see a Flash banner ad, I'm going to try to grab that code.