Flash not rendering correctly in IE using Spry and SWFObject.

Question

Hi,
Tools that I'm using (Flash, Spry and SWFObject)
I just finished converting portions of the image gallery to a
video gallery using FLV Files.
It works great in FireFox and Opera, I guess all mozilla
based browsers.
Now my problem is that I pass the Path variable to Flash for
it to load the FLV file using SWFObject.
Code:
<div spry:detailregion="dsVideos"
class="AccordionPanelContent">
<div id="flashcontent"> You need to upgrade your Flash
Player. </div>
<script type="text/javascript">
// <![CDATA[
var so = new SWFObject("VideoPlayer.swf", "videoplayer",
"427", "288", "8", "#161616");
so.addVariable("video", "{@path}");
so.write("flashcontent");
// ]]>
</script>
</div>
The FLV files won't load at all in IE meaning the variable is
not going thru when Flash is rendered for a second time.
So I added another variable just to see Flash reaction once
the page loaded for the first time.
Code:
so.addVariable("Variable1", "I Love This Bug!");
I added Variable1 to the Flash Movie as a textbox and It
loads in a split second for the first render but when Spry loads it
datasets and renders the region where Flash resides the variable
doesnt go thru and Flash gets a undefined variable.
When Spry renders that region the video variable is not going
thru and no video is shown. :(
Any suggestion?

Answer 1

Don -
Have you had any success here? I've been trying to get any
kind of Flash
to load properly in IE in a spry:region (or :detailregion),
and have
failed entirely.
I added spry:state="ready" to the div with the Flash movie,
but no fix.
I've tested with both IE 6 and IE 7 beta, and with FP 8 and
FP 9.
I have a few test pages (everything works great in FireFox):
- www.imagicdigital.com/portfolios/video_state7.html
(uses SWFObject to write the movie, with spry info as
FlashVars)
IE: Flash movie is hidden. No FlashVars are passed.
- www.imagicdigital.com/portfolios/video_state7_noso.html
(same page as above, but with the standard Object/Embed tags,
no SWFObject)
IE: Flash movie is hidden. No FlashVars are passed.
- www.imagicdigital.com/portfolios/video_state7a_noso.html
(same page as above but with hardcoded FlashVars)
IE: Flash movie is hidden. No FlashVars are passed.
- www.imagicdigital.com/portfolios/video_state7b_noso.html
(a Flash movie with no FlashVars at all)
IE: Flash movie is hidden.
- www.imagicdigital.com/portfolios/video_state7c_noso.html
(same as 7a but with spry:region removed from the flash div)
IE: Works perfectly. Flash movie shows up, FlashVars are
passed.
I noticed a few things:
- In IE, the spry:debug generated markup shows FlashVars="",
empty.
- I don't see an innerHTML fix call for the FlashVideo div,
even if I
make it into a spry:region instead of detailregion. Can this
help omehow?
- In IE 7, if I right-click where my flash movie is supposed
to show up,
it does become visible (with no FlashVars). However, IE often
crashes
after that, either right away or on window close. The error
shown in
the alert is "Out of Memory at Line 56". This is both with
and without
passing FlashVars.
NOTE: This error was just recently discussed on the SWFObject
mailing
list. Geoff Stearns found a sort of bug in FP 9 that was also
causing
this same error when 2 Flash movies were embedded with
SWFObject and
each making different ExternalInterface calls. He fixed it by
removing
the function written by Flash when it loads called
"__flash_unloadHandler()". Link to the relevant discussion
thread:
http://lists.deconcept.com/htdig.cgi/swfobject-deconcept.com/2006-July/000795.html
It would be great (crucial, I think) to get Spry to work with
SWFs. Any
ideas or progress? Thanks in advance.