auto-checking if Flash player is installed and loading other page if not

[Dave]

Hi,

can someone tell me if it's possible and if yes what the script is and
where to put it in order to:
have the browser check upon loading page X to see if the user's
computer has Flash player installed. If answer is "no", then browser
loads page Y instead of page X.
Would such a check, if possible, be likely to be
cross-browser/platform understood?

Thanks
Dave

 

[kaeli]

can someone tell me if it's possible and if yes what the script is and
where to put it in order to:
have the browser check upon loading page X to see if the user's
computer has Flash player installed. If answer is "no", then browser
loads page Y instead of page X.
Would such a check, if possible, be likely to be
cross-browser/platform understood?

The standard way to handle plugins is to use plugin detection. Flash will do
this for you if you provide a URL for the download in the tag (IIRC). Then
have a text link on the page that tells users if they don't want to install
the plugin, they can click it.
This works well because many people would install the plugin if you had that
code there, but might not know how to do it (or wouldn't bother) without it.
I know as a user I like to have it there for convenience - I installed
Shockwave for NN just yesterday with one. I do have Flash, but never got
Shockwave for Netscape.

I don't use Flash a lot, but the last time I made a Flash thingy, there was
an option in the settings for making the swf that would put that code in the
page for you.

I don't believe there is a cross-platform, cross-browser way to do the
redirection you're looking for. I know you can in NN by looking at
navigator.plugins, but I also know that isn't cross-browser.

--
--
~kaeli~
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from
many is research.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

 

[Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn]

can someone tell me if it's possible and if yes what the script is and
where to put it in order to:
have the browser check upon loading page X to see if the user's
computer has Flash player installed. If answer is "no", then browser
loads page Y instead of page X.

No script but pure HTML is the best solution (client-side script
support can be restricted, disabled or not even present):

<object ...>
<param ...>
...
Alternative content
</object>

This should work for any multimedia content, including images.

Would such a check, if possible, be likely to be
cross-browser/platform understood?

Yes, it would. Yet Internet Explorer and Gecko interpret the "object"
element differently. If you run into problems there you may want a bit
of client-side scripting. IIRC I have posted a script that uses feature
detection to distinguish between the two object models (and thus browsers)
before; ask Google first. If you use that, you should also include a
"noscript" element in the case that client-side scripting is not supported
at all; only users with buggy browsers should complain that "it does not
work" then. But, depending on the media type, you could place a link to
the multimedia resource as alternative content for them (see above).


PointedEars