browser vars into flash...USEFUL DATA

[sneakyimp]

I hope i won't incur the wrath of any moderators for cross-posting, but someone
suggested I post this particular forum. I have created a test movie that
passes variables from the browser into the flash movie in 3 different ways.
Please visit, fill out the form, and check the results! the results page is
broken down by os, browser, version, etc.


[L=http://keystone-design.com/td/flashpoll/var_test.html]http://keystone-design.
com/td/flashpoll/var_test.html[/L]

[Laiverd.COM]

Nicely done. With some more info on the pros and cons of every method and
how you implemented it and suggestions for use, could become a nice
resource. Was just wondering you you don't automatically detect OS and
browser instead of letting users fill in thos data. Maybe I missed part of
the point.

John

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[sneakyimp]

It did occur to me to collect the users' browser data, but I haven't ever done
that before...i know there are environment variables in PHP that let you do so
but i have no familiarity with them.

the other issue concerns my design...the poll is all about the browser getting
data into the flash movie...if i can't get the browser to talk to the flash
movie, it couldn't possibly tell the flash movie what kind of browser it is,
eh? I guess I could fix this by putting my form in the PHP page instead, but
this seemed easier.

I do hope to add a little bit about the pros and cons, time permitting. right
now, aside from the obvious MAC handicap regarding javascript, the only cons of
the other two methods are that the QueryString approach might cause one's
browser to reload a flash movie they had already downloaded. (i.e.,
myFlash.swf?arg=TRUE might not be recognized as the same swf file as
myFlash.swf?arg=FALSE and that might prompt a whole new download). This could
be a problem if your application is large...perhaps containing a lot of fonts
or something.

I guess the advantage of the javascript approach (that it can dynamically send
vars to flash depending on user activity) is completely nullified by its poor
implementation on the MAC platform. It did occur to me that the Javascript
function (assigned to the BODY's ONLOAD event) might be firing before the flash
movie is ready. This could possibly be remedied by a timer approach...either
waiting to fire it for some amount of time or possibly relying on an event
triggered from the flash movie. this might just cause more trouble though.

can't really think of any other pros/cons in general. thoughts?

[Laiverd.COM]

You can get variables like browser and platform info into Flash using
javascript or php. Don't know how you've set up things now., but one could
simply create a php page that echo's the browser or wahtevr info to Flash. I
find the LoadVars object quite handy for this. Javascript could perform the
same but is less browser/os compatible, but works in a very direct way
(although of course the swf file would have to be loaded before it can
receive variable values.

John

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
RESOURCES
[url]http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?hl=en&as_ugroup=*flash[/url]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
TUTORIALS at
[url]www.laiverd.com[/url]
Flash & PHP Emailform
Using textfiles in Flash
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------

[sneakyimp]

i'm actually using the loadvars functionality to submit the user input to PHP.
the problem is that since I'm collecting information about how well data gets
from the browser into flash, we can't rely on that very process to collect our
data...it would skew the results.

I can imagine a version of this test where we put the data collection form in
PHP instead and just use use FLASH to display the information...that would be
the proper way to do it.