Drop Down Menus disappearing behind Flash

z layers, flash, javascript, drop down menus

[tony_geye]

I have imbedded Flash in the body of my page and have designed drop down menus in Fireworks MX. Unfortunately the Flash seems to sit on top of the JavaScript therefore a portion of them disappears. I have done some research but can find no solution.

Is there a way to get the drop downs to show up above the imbedded Flash?

Thanks

[DrDoc]

Welcome to Webmaster World!

To my knowledge, there's nothing you can do about it. But I've been known to be wrong in the past, so you can always try playing with z-index

[BlobFisk]

To the best of knowledge, DrDoc is correct - there is no solution. Because it uses a plugin, a Flash movie will occupy a z-index outside the normal document flow - one that you can't stack a layer on top of.

This also applies to Java Applets and other plugins, as well as some form elements (select lists for example), as they use an object inherited from the OS.

One workaround I've seen is to hide the Flash movie while the layer is displaying... But that is pretty horrible!

[birdbrain]

Hi there tony_geye,

In certain situations adding...

<param name="wmode" value="transparent" />

to the <object> and/or

wmode="transparent"

to the <embed> has solved the problem.

birdbrain

[Mardi_Gras]

Funny - we ran into this exact problem today - and couldn't solve it. We ended up making the menu drop to the side - not exactly what we wanted, but it was just one page and we were running up the hours trying to fix it...

[NotoriousBeyeL]

Have you tried wrapping each dropdown menu in an iframe? I don't know if it'll work, but I had a somewhat similar problem with floating menus over <select> dropdowns. Nothing seemed to work until I wrapped it in an iframe. It was a pretty klug-ey solution.

[Milonic]

Hi All,

I hate to blow our own trumpet but thought you might like to know that the menu from milonic.com will go over Flash by default. It will also go over Form Select Boxes, a problem that has eluded many JavaScripters for years.

Again, I hate to promote our own stuff but if you are struggling with this it might be worth a look.

Cheers
Andy