Javascript to detect flash player

**evan** · 05-19-2009, 05:57 PM

I am looking for a script (or link that explains how to do it) that will detect weather the user has a flash player running or not.

I don't want it to offer the option to install the player, rather I want it to:

detect if the user does not have it and simply trigger an event(as in swap out the swf for a static graphic or make the div containing the swf not visible)

this way the user doesn't have to take time to load a player.

I can use this in a function:

if (pluginlist.indexOf("Flash")!=-1)
document.write("You have flash installed")

but is that all I need -I have been looking at more complicated examples that look for all versions for different browsers.

**rangana** · 05-20-2009, 01:27 AM

A markup solution might be useful:

Code:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="225px" height="265px" data="http://example.com/flash/tearoom.swf">
	<param name="movie" value="http://example.com/flash/tearoom.swf" />
	<param name="quality" value="high" />
	<h1>You don't have flash on your machine</h1>
</object>

If there is no flash installed, the markup inside the object tag will be seen then, otherwise, the flash will become visible and the markup hidden.

Hope that helps.

**evan** · 05-20-2009, 03:34 PM

a different approach...
Initailly I have two divs.
a static logo and a flash version of the logo.

So I opted to make two divs and run a javascript to check for flash then have it make the div holding the flash (with the z-index set so it's in front) invisible after javascript did it's check and if there was no flash player detected -using getElementId.

I tried it and it works!:

**evan** · 05-20-2009, 06:12 PM

It worked like a charm -how? so why would doing this with javascript even be an option?

**rangana** · 05-20-2009, 06:51 PM

If there is a way to do things without JS, then it's better to opt it first. JS can be disabled anytime, while pure mark-up/server-side scripts won't be controlled by user.

Hop that makes sense.