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Internet Explorer 7 security feature hampers Flash movie effectiveness

by Jason Reckers, President & CEO - PixelMill Inc.

Over the last two years, I have been working with ATTA and helping manage .travel authentication. During this time, I have reviewed a couple hundred ATTA member sites and found a majority of them to be exceptional. I have to say that the Adventure Travel industry has some of the best designed and most informative sites on the web.

In this article I want to address an issue that has become an instant nuisance and frustration for many web site designers. A new security feature in Internet Explorer 7 is affecting any web site that contains a Flash movie (web site content - often animated - built with Macromedia Flash). The recent release of Internet Explorer 7 (and recently applied hot fixes in Internet Explorer 6) could make some elements of your site unusable, which could leave customers lost and confused.

Fortunately, there is a solution to the problem, and the silver lining is that we'll show you how this solution (“fix”) will also help make your site more accessible and search engine friendly moving forward. There is no cost involved with this solution other than your time to update your site. 

I recommend that everyone read through this article to gain a better understanding of how Flash works with your site, but you should definitely contact your web site administrator to confirm they know about this issue and this solution.

Background

Last year we started working with a Flash embedding solution called SWFObject by Geoff Starnes. (Flash embedding is the code used to make Flash run within a HTML web page.) At the time, it was simply a helpful tool for Flash detection (Flash detection determines if a user has the Flash player installed on their computer.) and search engine optimization. Our effort was focused on building a Flash solution that went beyond just adding a Flash movie to your site, but to enhance a site visitor's experience when using a site that includes Flash elements. We wanted to make it easy for Web site builders to build around some of the drawbacks of using Flash, including:

• Lack of Search Engine Optimization. This is caused by the inability for search engines to crawl text within the Flash movie.
   
• No alternate content by default. Unless otherwise added, Flash code inherently does not deal with situations where the site visitor does not have the Flash Player installed. Though this is a very small percentage of web users, since the Flash Player is often installed by default on most computers, those without the Flash player would only see a blank square where the Flash movie should play.
   
• Lack of Web Standards compatibility. With the default embedding of Flash into a web page, the web page does not validate to W3C HTML or XHMTL specifications. Meeting web standards is not a critical issue, but it does help ensure that your site will look very similar in different browsers and in future browsers.

When using SWFObject you gain the ability to include:

• Search engine friendly content that can be crawled by the search engines.
   
• The ability to deliver site visitors alternate content (text or image) when they do not have the Flash Player installed.
   
• The ability to code your site to meet W3C HTML or XHTML specifications, even with a Flash movie on the page. 

The Immediate Problem

Our effort was also focused on looking at the solution as a preemptive strike to work around a planned Internet Explorer (IE) 7 change to ActiveX controls (a common way to embed Flash into web pages to be viewed in Internet Explorer). This update is due to the ongoing lawsuit from Eolas. Microsoft was/is facing the requirement to modify how ActiveX controls work, which has a direct impact on how Flash movies are embedded in a web page. This change has resulted in the need for site visitors to click a Flash movie once before the movie would function.

At this time, more and more Internet Explorer users are (whether they realize it or not) using Internet Explorer 7 or applying this ActiveX hotfix to their copy of Internet Explorer 6. Therefore, many of your web site users will have trouble viewing your Flash movies unless you update your site with this SWFObject solution, the proposed Adobe/Macromedia solution, or any other proven solution you or your administrator may find.

As with any issues like this, there are a number of different reasons, scenarios, and solutions to the problem. The SWFObject code and our following tutorial are provided based on our experience, and we recommend that you perform the appropriate level of research to meet your specific needs.

Our Proposed Solution - the technical stuff

Here, Corrie Haffly, our Senior Multimedia Developer, explains more about the SWFObject solution and provides a link to our support document and video tutorial.

(excerpt from PixelMill's April 2006 Newsletter)
...This article, along with our written and video tutorials, should help you understand how to address the ActiveX issue and also take advantage of the other features that Geoff Starnes' solution offers. Now it's easier than ever to learn how to use Geoff's code in your own web site by following my brand-new video tutorial.

A quick note, last month, the code was updated and renamed to SWFObject ("swiff-object") from its original name FlashObject.

Why use the SWFObject embed code?

• It allows you to provide alternative, searchable content for both users who don't have Flash and for search engines.
   
• It automatically detects if the viewer has the Flash Player - if not, then they see your alternative content.
   
• It bypasses Internet Explorer security issues; someone with a high security setting will see your alternative content if IE tries to block the Flash.
   
• It bypasses the Internet Explorer Eolas patent hotfix, which causes normal Flash code to require an extra click for interaction.
   
• It helps your code to have validated HTML, while normal Flash embedding code will cause your HTML code to fail validation.

The SWFObject embed code is simple enough to use to embed basic movies (like Flash intros), but complex enough to handle multiple movies on a page or when variables are passed to the Flash movie via the HTML code. View our 12 minute video tutorial to see the step-by-step process of integrating the SWFObject code into your own web site. The video can go hand-in-hand with the written article on the PixelMill site -- it may make it easier to copy and paste the code that you need.

Go to our SWFObject Tutorial today to get started.

If you have any questions about this issue or the SWFObject solution, please contact me at either or .