TechNote (Archived)

JavaScript code for Flash 3 does not detect the new Flash Player 4.0

Issue

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The JavaScript code to detect if the Flash Player 3 is installed does not detect the new Flash Player 4 .

Reason

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The JavaScript is probably hard coded for detection to check for only the Flash Player 3 and not 3 or later.

Solution

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Flash Player 3 or later detection
Use Aftershock to generate JavaScript that detects for the Flash Player version 3 or later, like in the example below:

 if (navigator.mimeTypes && navigator.mimeTypes
		

	 ["application/x-shockwave-flash"]&& navigator.mimeTypes["application/x-shockwave-flash"].enabledPlugin && navigator.plugins && navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash"]){
		

	  //Flash 3 or later is available } else {
		

	  //Flash 3 is not available
		

	 } 

Note:The test for navigator.plugins ["Shockwave Flash"] is true for Flash 3 and all future versions. The easiest way to create an HTML page that contains this code is to use Aftershock.

Flash Player 4
If you build a Web site that requires the Flash Player version 4, you need to explicitly check the version number as shown below. Note how it checks for version numbers >= 4. The easiest way to create this code is to use the new Publish feature in Flash 4.

 var plugin = (navigator.mimeTypes &&
		

	 navigator.mimeTypes["application/x-shockwave-flash"] ?  navigator.mimeTypes["application/x-shockwave-flash"].enabledPlugin : 0);
		

	 if (plugin && parseInt(plugin.description.substring(plugin.description.indexOf(".")-1)) >=  4) {
		

	  //Flash 4 or greater is available
		

	 } else {
		

	  //Flash 4 is not available
		

	 } 

Additional information
For additional information on detecting the Flash Player, please refer to How to detect the presence of the Flash Player.

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