Flash 8 not appearing in plugins list on Netscape 8

[dscriv]

Hello,

I have Netscape 8.0.4 (in Firefox mode) and Flash 8.0.24.0.
I also have IE and Firefox installed.
If I go to this page, which contains a Flash detection movie:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_15507
all three browers successfully run the Flash movie and show the same
version of Flash to be installed.

However, if I try to use a javascript Flash detection solution, it does
not work under Netscape. Most of these scripts seem to work by looking
for "Shockwave Flash" in the array navigator.plugins. However, if I
iterate throught the array and write them to my document, with Firefox
the "Shockwave Flash" entry appears, but with Netscape it is missing
(all the others are the same as in Firefox). Even Macromedia's own
Flash Detection Kit, under its Javascript implementation, seems to
think that I don't have Flash installed when I run it under Netscape.

Macromedia's Flash Detection Kit contains the following javascript,
which is used when the browser is Netscape or Firefox:
....
if (navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash 2.0"] ||
navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash"]) {
var swVer2 = navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash 2.0"] ? " 2.0"
: "";
var flashDescription = navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash" +
swVer2].description;
....

It then goes on to determine the Flash version by parsing the variable
flashDescription.

My iteration code is as follows:
....
for (var j = 0; j < navigator.plugins.length; ++j) {
document.write(navigator.plugins[j].name+ "<br>");
}
....

In IE, this does nothing as IE does not populate this array. However
Netscape is supposed to, and the Flash Detection Kit seems to depend on
this, as do other scripts that I have seen. Netscape does in fact
populate the list with many items, but seems to omit Flash.

Does anyone know what is causing this, and what I need to do to
overcome the problem?

 

[cwdjrxyz]

Hello,

I have Netscape 8.0.4 (in Firefox mode) and Flash 8.0.24.0.
I also have IE and Firefox installed.
If I go to this page, which contains a Flash detection movie:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_15507
all three browers successfully run the Flash movie and show the same
version of Flash to be installed.

However, if I try to use a javascript Flash detection solution, it does
not work under Netscape. Most of these scripts seem to work by looking
for "Shockwave Flash" in the array navigator.plugins. However, if I
iterate throught the array and write them to my document, with Firefox
the "Shockwave Flash" entry appears, but with Netscape it is missing
(all the others are the same as in Firefox). Even Macromedia's own
Flash Detection Kit, under its Javascript implementation, seems to
think that I don't have Flash installed when I run it under Netscape.

I used to use script methods to detect versions of various players, but
I quit doing this quite a while back. If I feel that a viewer
absolutely must see a flash, WMP, or other display that requires a
player with at least a certain version, I just add a statement and link
to the player site under the player. Many people are not going to
bother to update anyway unless the contents shown by the player are
very important to them and they feel they must view it. The problem you
describe comes up again and again for various players when they are
updated. I had a script to detect the WMP version that came from
Microsoft, but it failed at one WMP update, for example. I now remove
all links to the player site in the object code for the player to
prevent the type of problem you describe. Also when writing my own page
with a player, I often use the next to last player version unless the
new version has something I have to use. When the new version has been
around about a year, I may start using it on my pages, if needed. If
one does use player version detection, one should carefully check their
pages using it at every player version upgrade and at every major
browser upgrade. This can be a lot of work, and I usually can not
justify it. Perhaps others can.