Flash 8 Active Content Update

By now you've probably heard that Internet Explorer 7 will usher in big changes for Flash -- namely, the inclusion of new permission dialog box that pops-up whenever the browser loads a page containing a Flash movie. Not every Flash movie, but only those using the standard HTML embed code published by the Flash IDE. This isn't unique to Flash, for it will affect all other embedded browser content in IE 7 as well, but because of Flash's omnipresence it will be especially painful for everyone involved.

To help Flash developers migrate their sites to an embedding solution that avoids this dialog, Adobe (man, I'm still not used to saying that name) has quietly released a Flash 8 Active Content Update which includes new publishing templates.

Trouble is, the solution is a little wacky. First, the templates are installed through Extension Manager, when it would have been much cleaner to install it with an application update. Second, publishing one of these updated templates is a two-step deal that's not very user friendly. You select an "Active..." template in Publish Settings, publish your HTML, then run a separate command from the "Commands" menu that adds a required JavaScript file to the folder you published the HTML to. In other words, if you only published the HTML thinking that would be all you needed to do (which has historically always been the case), the SWF wouldn't work when loaded into a browser. You have to remember to tell Flash to add the JavaScript for you post-publish.

Why couldn't the JavaScript file have been copied to the folder as part of the Publish process? If that would have been technically impossible with the current version of Flash, why not add that functionality as part of an application update? It seems to me that given the importance of this issue -- especially since it could severely impact consumer's opinion of Flash in general -- that a little more care and consideration should have been applied.

Granted, the storm is brewing on the horizon, and IE 7 won't be on your mom and dad's desktop any time soon, but it's definitely something to prepare for. In the meantime, I highly recommend FlashObject as an alternative, third-party solution to this same problem. I use it for every Flash movie I publish.

Update (4/21): A few people responded to this entry noting that the Flash embed issue is not only on the horizon with IE 7, but is now affecting IE 6 as of last Tuesday via Microsoft security patch MS06-013. The behavior is a little different, but the result is essentially the same -- anyone who installs this security patch will be forced into clicking on a Flash movie embedded using the <object> element in order to activate it. So if you have SWFs online embedded this way, it would be a good idea to stop reading this and update your content.

Update 2 (4/21): In related news, Adobe has forced a name change for FlashObject at the very time they need it the most. It's now SWFObject.