Problem with AS3 "ExternalInterface.call" in InternetExplorer

Question

Hi,
Explaining how the page is setup:
I have a HTML page with 2 different AS3 Flash movies.
The first flash movie is the main animation and sits in the
middle of the screen with a large background image set into the
body of the HTML.
The second flash movie stretches 100% width/height of the
screen dimensions and acts as a fade from black>to invisible.
What I'm trying to do:
Once the second Flash animation has faded from black to
invisible it calls a JavaScript function in the HTML page to hide
the div element the second flash movie is embed into (this is
because the first flash movie will display a set of input boxes
which the user needs to be able to type into - which they wont be
able to click on if there is another flash movie overlaying the
entire first movie).
My intial solution:
In the second Flash movie is the following code:
stop();
// this will load the API necessary to communicate with
external entities
import flash.external.ExternalInterface;
// call the JavaScript function
ExternalInterface.call('myJavaScriptFunction');
...and this works fine in Mozilla Firefox/Safari. The
actionscript successfully calls the JavaScript function in the HTML
page and that JavaScript function simply (at this stage displays an
alert() message to show that it has been successfully called).
Problem with IE:
But, the moment I try this in Internet Explorer I don't get a
alert() message but a JavaScript error message that says:
Code: Select all
Line: 1
Char: 106
Error: 'null' is null or not an object
Code: 0
As you can expect I'm totally confused as to what the problem
could be.
This is really urgent as it's a live project that needs to
get completed immediately, so any help you may have would be
greatly appreciated!
Kind regards,
Mark.

Answer 1

My guess is that its to do with your embedding code. Check a)
you have an id attribute assigned to the resulting object tag from
whatever embedding method you use and b) for good measure make sure
its unique in your html page.
Javascript needs to have a valid reference to return the
value from the javascript function back to flash. In my experience
IE is more sensitive to issues here.
If you get stuck post a test page somewhere.
Tools to use to help with javascript debugging and view the
html embed results (e.g. from swfobject or activecontent.js):
In firefox : Firebug
In IE: IE Developer Toolbar , Companion JS, and DebugBar are
all helpful and , combined, get close to Firebug.