Running a Flash . SWF using A Link command- Ughhh

**Marcos Frijoles** · 02-26-2008, 01:02 PM

Hi-

This is probably a stupid question and I apologize before hand for my lack of technical ability. I did check the two Sticky notes posting regarding Flash and neither seems to be applicable and I don’t really understand using an embedded object to run a Flash presentation (pretty pitiful eh?).

I am trying to run an. SWF file using a simple HTML A Link command rather than as an embedded object.

Here is the line of code that I am trying to run:

<a href="728_Medisoft.swf">Medisoft Flash Demo for FREE!</a>

I had a different website published for several years using virtually the same .SWF file and the same command with no problems.

When I attempt to run this .SWF by clicking on the link IE7 displays a blank (white) page and I get two page errors (displayed in lower left corner of IE). The errors are:

Line: 1
Char: 1
Error: Object Expected
Code: 0
URL: Medicalsoftwaretools.com/728_Medisoft.swf

Line: 2
Char: 1
Error: Invalid character
Code: 0
URL: Medicalsoftwaretools.com/728_Medisoft.swf

When I view the source for the page attempting to run the .SWF I get this:

<html><head><script src="res://mshtml.dll/objectembed_neutral.js"></script></head><body objectSource="http://www.medicalsoftwaretools.com/Medisoft_Demo_Video/728_Medisoft.swf" onload="ObjectLoad();" leftmargin=0 topmargin=0 scroll=no> <form id="objectDestination"></form> </body></html>

I don’t remember using any resource files when I had this working before. I have not been able to locate a file called objectembed_neutral.js.

Also I contacted the support folks at my ISP host and was told that their platform supports running .SWF files. I was told that if it isn’t working than it is a problem on the local box. I am able to run the same demo from the web sites of two other companies on two boxes I have. I looked at their code and they are using the same A Link code to run the demo. My page fails on both of my boxes.

I have not been able to locate any documentation on running Flash using the A Link HTML command. I would be curious if the embedded object method is better and why? I was hoping to make this easy and just do it like it worked before. So much for easy…

Any help would be appreciated… I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.

**LadynRed** · 02-26-2008, 02:25 PM

The reason IE is refusing to show you anything, and the need for using the object method (the js file) instead of the nasty <embed> tag is Microsoft's LOSS of a lawsuit. So, now ANY active content must be 'activated' in order to view it, requiring 2 clicks to see the content - in this case flash.

You NEED that .js file in order for the SWF file to be visible. Are you using FrontPage ?

**Marcos Frijoles** · 03-01-2008, 11:48 PM

Howdy-

Thanks for responding. Yes I am using MS Expression Web (the new and "improved" FrontPage) but I do not post with FrontPage (as that is a nightmare). I create the pages in FrontPage then upload them using an FTP program.

I found the code that one fellow published for objectembed_neutral.js and created a text file by that name and uploaded it to the working folder on my server with this text in the file:

function ObjectLoad()
{
if ( objectDestination )
{
var bodyElement = objectDestination.parentElement;
if ( bodyElement.objectSource )
{
bodyElement.innerHTML = "<embed width=100% height=100% fullscreen=yes>";
bodyElement.firstChild.src = bodyElement.objectSource;
}
}
}

Am I doing that correctly? Do I need to reference that .js file from my page? I looked at a couple of other sites that succesfully use the same line of code that I am trying to run with the same .SWF file:

<a href="728_Medisoft.swf">Medisoft Flash Demo for FREE!</a>

Those other sites do not seem to have a objectembed_neutral.js file nor do they reference any .js files as resource files from the page with the link to run the .SWF file.

Hope I have explained myself clearly... the upshot is I don't know how to make this work.

Thanks!