How to handle the absence of Flash in a browser

Question

Hi,

Please can somebody explain to me how to render a static banner instead of a flash banner in the event that the browser doesn't have Flash installed already, so as not to interrupt the user's browsing experience. I'm coding in PHP and it probably makes sense to test for this in IE as well as Firefox.

Thank you

Answer 1

It makes sense to test this for all the usual browsers and Adobe helps you with it. Download the Flash detection kit from the Adobe website.

After the script has told you about the availability of flash, take your further measures.

Answer 2

In case there is no flash player installed on users computer, then should follow these principles:

1. Progressive Enhancement
2. Graceful Degradation
3. And finally decide whether to alert the user to download or install the flash player or redirect him to your flash-less site alternative if you have.

Finally see this:

How to detect whether or not flash player is installed

Answer 3

for the best possible way, try SWFObject, its a javascript code that checks if flashplayer of the right version is available, if it is then it overwrites a tag. Very simple to use, see documentation for examples.