Flash Alternates

Charles, Chuck, and everyone else,

Want to revisit how to make macromedia accessible.  We have developed two
uses cases that one could use for a Macromedia FIX.  What do you think?  Pls
pass around.  The purpose as previously mentioned by Wendy and possibly
Charles would be to put this in the techniques document.

/rob


----------------------------------------

Use Case 1: Resulting image being created by Generator is a simple
(non-interactive) animation or a static image; users may or may not have the
Flash plug-in installed; and an ALT tag is required.
Description: Generator can dynamically output a .gif stream instead of a
Flash stream by  adding the "type=" parameter and an appropriate value.
Example:
		<IMG
	
SRC="http://path/flashtemplate.swt?type=gif&param1=val1&param2=val2
<http://path/flashtemplate.swt?type=gif&param1=val1&param2=val2> "
		HEIGHT="111" BORDER="0" WIDTH="222" NATURALSIZEFLAG="1"
ALIGN="BOTTOM"
		ALT="Description of the Image"
		>
Critical Elements: The "type=gif" parameter/value.

Use Case 2: Provide code that will determine (via Javascript) if the user
has installed the Flash plug-in, and provide an alternate image if they have
not.
Description: This code is derived from the code automatically generated by
Flash 4.  It is modified to merely trigger on the presence of the Flash
plug-in.
Example:
<!-- Image Map -->
<MAP NAME="AK"></MAP>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript>
<!--
var UseFlash = 0;
if (navigator.mimeTypes &&
navigator.mimeTypes["application/x-shockwave-flash"] ) {
		// Check for Flash version 3 or greater in Netscape
		var plugin =
navigator.mimeTypes["application/x-shockwave-flash"].enabledPlugin;
		if (plugin &&
parseInt(plugin.description.substring(plugin.description.indexOf(".")-1))>=3
)
	UseFlash = 1;
} else if (navigator.appName && navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft") != -1
&&
		navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Windows") != -1 &&
navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Windows 3.1") == -1) {
		// Assume any Windows IE except for Windows 3.1 supports the
OBJECT tag UseFlash = 1;
}
if ( UseFlash ) {
		// Use Flash player
		// Although these alt tags do not apparently seem to be
supported with the
plug-in,
		// they are included on the chance they are supported in an
upgrade
		document.write('<OBJECT ALT="Object Map of Alaska"
classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"');
document.write('
codebase="http://active.macromedia.com/flash2/cabs/swflash.cab#version=4,0,0
,0"');
	document.write(' ID=AK WIDTHU0 HEIGHT35>');
	//
	// the next 'document.write' line will need to be modified to point
to your
file and to use your params
	//
	document.write('<PARAM NAME=movie
VALUE="http://path/flashtemplate.swt?param1=val1&param2=val2
<http://path/flashtemplate.swt?param1=val1&param2=val2> "> <PARAM
NAME=quality VALUE=high> <PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#FFFFFF> ');
	//
	// the next 'document.write' line will need to be modified to point
to your
file and to use your params
	//
document.write('<EMBED ALT="Embed Map of Alaska"
src="http://path/flashtemplate.swt?param1=val1&param2=val2
<http://path/flashtemplate.swt?param1=val1&param2=val2> " quality=high
bgcolor=#FFFFFF ');
		document.write(' swLiveConnectúLSE WIDTHU0 HEIGHT35');
		document.write(' TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash"
PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_
Version=ShockwaveFlash">');
	document.write('</EMBED>'); document.write('</OBJECT>');
} else if (!(navigator.appName && navigator.appName.indexOf("Netscape")>=0
&& navigator.appVersion.indexOf("2.")>=0)) {
	// Netscape 2 will display the IMG tag below so don't write an extra
one
	// You will need to modify the SRC param
	document.write('<IMG
SRC="http://path/flashtemplate.swt?type=gif&param1=val1&param2=val2
<http://path/flashtemplate.swt?type=gif&param1=val1&param2=val2> " ALT="GIF
Object Map of Alaska" WIDTHU0 HEIGHT35 BORDER=0>');
}
//-->
</SCRIPT>
// You will need to modify the SRC param as follows
<NOEMBED><IMG
SRC="http://path/flashtemplate.swt?type=gif&param1=val1&param2=val2
<http://path/flashtemplate.swt?type=gif&param1=val1&param2=val2> "
ALT="NOEMBED GIF Object Map of Alaska" WIDTHU0 HEIGHT35 usemap="#AK"
BORDER=0></NOEMBED>
// You will need to modify the SRC param as follows
<NOSCRIPT><IMG
SRC="http://path/flashtemplate.swt?type=gif&param1=val1&param2=val2
<http://path/flashtemplate.swt?type=gif&param1=val1&param2=val2> "
ALT="NOSCRIPT GIF Object Map of Alaska" WIDTHU0 HEIGHT35 usemap="#AK"
BORDER=0></NOSCRIPT>

Received on Thursday, 4 November 1999 14:12:24 UTC