Can everyone see flash in browser?

[klemme]

I have not used falsh much before when creating webpages - But I need to create a header for a new site which has some flash in it.

Im just not sure, if that specific part of the site would be visible for all visitors?

Do all modern browses just auto play the flash file?

Or are they shown a message, that this page has flash elements and you need to download the latest flash player and blah blah.

Or do the browsers allready support flash and just show the file without any prompts for the user to see or activat??

Regards, Klemme

[Sahil89]

Or are they shown a message, that this page has flash elements and you need to download the latest flash player and blah blah.

Ya they do show such message, if user dont have flash installed. But nowdays almost everybody have flash installed, So I will suggest you to go for it.

[JorgeM]

I would agree as well. Flash is pretty prevelant. You may have some trouble in scenarios where the browser does not support flash and the user is unable to install it. For that scenario if you are checking for browser types, you could display something else.

[LaxLoafer]

Providing alternative content for non-Flash enabled browsers is good idea, as JM has suggested.

Here are a couple of scenarios that might cause problems...

• Apple recently killed off support for Flash on their mobile devices. How likely is it someone will want to visit your site using an iPhone?

• Most search engines have trouble "seeing" Flash content, or are partially sighted at best. Unsure what's best practice here, but you can expect to find ways of helping search engines understand Flash content, if indexing is important to you.

[MarielaMontaldo]

Providing alternative content for non-Flash enabled browsers is good idea, as JM has suggested.

Here are a couple of scenarios that might cause problems...

Apple recently killed off support for Flash on their mobile devices. How likely is it someone will want to visit your site using an iPhone?

Most search engines have trouble "seeing" Flash content, or are partially sighted at best. Unsure what's best practice here, but you can expect to find ways of helping search engines understand Flash content, if indexing is important to you.

Totally agree. Also I read recently that Flash will be replaced by HTML5 soon and most part of browsers will have Flash disabled by default.

Some of us despise flash with a vengeance. Do you really, really have to use it? With all the potential problems (mentioned already) that it can cause, is it really worth all that effort? Sorry, perhaps this doesn't answer your question, but I get really narked when I get buzzed for a flash update.

[Biiim]

I wouldnt create a website in flash unless you do something really fancy, treat flash more like a fancy image or promotion that has a backup or doesn't matter if they can't view it. Generally when you make it the flash has some default thing to show such as the link to an image <img src='logo.gif'/> the if flash is working it will replace the image with the flash object, so if flash is supported they get it otherwise they will just get some basic html.

Do all modern browses just auto play the flash file?

Chrome has flash built into it, probably safari too. Which just automatically keeps up to date so you always have the latest version. Browsers like ie just keep one version and only update when something tells it to like flash update or something on a webpage saying you need to update flash

Or do the browsers allready support flash and just show the file without any prompts for the user to see or activat??

I think you're talking like 95% + users will see flash

Or are they shown a message, that this page has flash elements and you need to download the latest flash player and blah blah.

Yes it will just appear on the page for those that have it installed, which is pretty much everyone, you tell it whether or not you want to show the "get flash" link

we used to make the odd flash header - we actually thought of starting to make them again it just seems to add that extra something. I think what stopped it is i got into webkit/javascript instead and that makes some nice movement on pages with little time spent so flash wasnt really needed - don't underestimate the power behind flash though it is very specialised i doubt its going anywhere for a long time despite being quite time intensive and the learning curve is pretty steep. Heres some really good examples of what you can do with flash: evian and Flash sites

Totally agree. Also I read recently that Flash will be replaced by HTML5 soon and most part of browsers will have Flash disabled by default.

I can see html5 fading out flash tbh, html5 runs off javascript as far as i know, javascript was quite familiar to me cause of actionscript they are quite similar in many ways it's basically a web version of it. Actionscript(flash code) is written for the sole purpose of making a "canvas", moving and manipulating objects and running code over it, i imagine it will be a lot better for running heavier more intensive games on plus the disadvantage of pretty much anyone can rip the code off any html5 game. It was the same thing when webkit came out, i think html5 is just going to take a load of the low end things people use flash for. The nice thing about it is you can play with html objects in html5 and it all runs in javascript/css so people who don't know flash can now flash like objects

Theres no way browsers are going to disable flash though, take a look at this http://www.kongregate.com/ and tell me flash is dying, they'll still have flash developers for decades. I imagine people are going to start getting annoyed when they realise all the spam ads will start using html5 now and for the majority of sites you could disable flash with no issue but disabling javascript will actually break a lot of modern sites functionality.

[Coloradojaguar]

The word that is circling about right now is that HTML 5 will replace flash but that is a bit on the outside if you are in a current design phase. Almost all users know about Flash and have it installed. If a user doesn't have Flash then they are taken by a prompt to the website where it installs easily for most. You might run into some issues with it but overall I think users are still really receptive to it. Flash still has good value in the design world as far as I'm concerned. There are other ways to create effects but if you know what you are doing and don't mind a few headaches along the way then Flash will be well received by your audience.