Member Avatar for MoncefFaik

Hey guys, I'm new to the board and I recently put together a flash-based website [template] showing my photoshop work. I've been having issues with IE compatibility. A white space shows up where my content is supposed to be, and the green bar in IE shows it's loading, but it's not after the space is clicked [due to ActiveX]

There is a preloader that shows a wheel turning and a percentage loaded on-screen which is supposed to be there when functioning properly. When the space is right-clicked it says 'movie not loaded'. If anybody knows anything about this issue, assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Moncef.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by MidiMagic

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and — useful start, and is right that fighting the browser load cycle makes debugging harder. Below is a concise, practical troubleshooting path that isolates the usual causes for IE+Flash problems (embedding markup, server headers, IE ActiveX handling) and gives quick fixes you can apply now.

  • Quick isolation checklist:

    • Open the SWF directly in IE (type its URL in the address bar). If it does not appear there, the problem is server/plugin related, not your page markup.

    • Check the HTTP response headers for the SWF. From a shell:

      curl -I http://example.com/path/yourfile.swf

      Confirm an HTTP 200 and a Content-Type of application/x-shockwave-flash.

    • Ensure the server sends the correct MIME type. For Apache add:

      AddType application/x-shockwave-flash .swf

    • Inspect your embedding markup. Use a library like SWFObject (dynamic, standards-compliant embedding) rather than hand-rolled mixed object/embed that can trigger IE quirks.

    • Temporarily remove wmode (transparent/opaque) and any surrounding <a> tags while testing — both are common sources of IE click/activation issues.

  • IE-specific notes and practical fixes:

    • Right-click or “movie not loaded” normally means the plugin is present but never received the SWF (bad URL, blocked request, or wrong embed param). Use a network tracer (Fiddler/DevTools) to see the actual requests and status codes.
    • IE’s ActiveX handling can require the control be properly embedded; avoid wrapping the object in clickable HTML and prefer a JavaScript-based embed that writes correct markup for IE.
    • If the page modifies DOM during load with document.write or repeatedly injects the object, stop that while debugging. Let the browser finish and the plugin initialize.

Caution and long-term advice: Flash Player has been deprecated and is blocked in modern browsers. For long‑term compatibility convert the site to HTML5/CSS/JS or consider a Flash emulator (e.g., Ruffle) for legacy SWFs.

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Member Avatar for MidiMagic

You are trying to do something that belongs to the browser in the user's computer. It does not belong to you.

The loading bar is part of the browser. You are not really supposed to have control until the page has already finished loading. When you try to control the loading sequence, you mess everything up.

I'm really surprised that it works in any browser.

Member Avatar for MoncefFaik

You are trying to do something that belongs to the browser in the user's computer. It does not belong to you.

The loading bar is part of the browser. You are not really supposed to have control until the page has already finished loading. When you try to control the loading sequence, you mess everything up.

I'm really surprised that it works in any browser.

I don't want to control the browser? I wanna know why this website isn't functional on IE, and I'm giving the telltale signs. The bar in IE says it's loading when it's really not. I want the page to WORK in IE.

Member Avatar for MidiMagic

It's because you are trying to change the browser display without waiting for the browser to finish loading the page.

In the case of IE, it is probably repeating the loading of the same part of the page over and over, as you keep interrupting it, without ever finishing the whole load.

I am now beginning to think that the DaniWeb spinner showing download is causing the slow-load problem.

So DON'T do anything until the entire page finishes loading!

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