Strange IE ExternalInterface Bug: "Object does not support this property or method"

Question

We have an application on a relatively slow server (I mention
the speed because it may be relevant).
The app is flash 8 and uses ExternalInterface to call a
javascript function in its parent page. It also used the
ExternalInterface to receive a call from another function. These
calls happens separately (the outbound one calls up a list view of
items, clicking on an item calls up the details in the flash
movie). In between the calls, the flash movie is hidden by moving
it off screen using absolute positioning.
On my local development box (Windows XPSP2) this works fine
in both directions.
On our production server (LAMP) this works fine in both
directions in Firefox 1.5 and 2.0
BUT while the outbound call from Flash to the page works fine
in Internet Explorer 6 or 7, the call back from the page to the
flash movie fails with the error messgage "Object does not support
this method or property"
We've tried not hiding the flash so it is always present on
the page and still the browser > flash communication breaks in
ie.
We've tried using both the Adobe active content script and
swfobject to embed the flash in the page with no difference in the
resultset. In truth we've given up and gone to a two-page solution,
reloading the flash from the start each time but I wondered if
anyone had encountered a similar issue? Can't see why it would work
perfectly in FF but not in IE.

Answer 1

Not sure if this is your problem, but you do reference the
Flash object
differently, depending on the browser. In a video player we
made, that uses
JS to communicate back to Flash, I use a function like this
to modify the
variable depending on the browser:
function changeVideo(xname){
//ff
if(window.vplayer){
window.document["vplayer"].SetVariable("theXML", xname);
window.document["vplayer"].GotoFrame(2);
window.document["vplayer"].Play();
//ie
if(document.vplayer){
document.vplayer.SetVariable("theXML", xname);
document.vplayer.GotoFrame(2);
document.vplayer.Play();
The Flash is in a <div> named 'vplayer'
Dave -
Head Developer
http://www.blurredistinction.com
Adobe Community Expert
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/