EOLAS : inactiveX

[subquark]

Weird, but I could not find much here on the new MS ActiveX issue . . .

Well, yesterday was the beginning of the end . . . MS released it's patch that creates minor disruptions on the web. Namely, all activeX will be served up in an "inactive" state.

Check it out for yourself. All SWF content now requires the user to click it to make it active. So you have an inline question in your e-learning? No problem, the user hits that page, all flash content shows a hand cursor and alt tag telling you to click to activate the flash.

Yeah, there is a workaround, but when you have 1,000 of pages of online training that uses Flash heavily, it kinda blows.

Pretty suckie . . . :?

[Cota]

I heard about this....I was hoping they wouldnt actually go through with it...I'm starting to lose faith in MS..

[hangalot]

its not their fault. blame eolas. there are workarounds availible

[CyanBlue]

Flash, QuickTime, RealMedia, Java Applet, PDF, Windows Media are the ones that I am aware of which requires the fix...

I have found the fix for the first three but I am not able to for the last three... Anybody want to update the fix???

Flash
http://blog.deconcept.com/flashobject/

QuickTime
http://developer.apple.com/internet/ieembedprep.html

RealMedia
http://www.realnetworks.com/resources/howto/embedded/iechanges/index.html

[subquark]

actually it seems to be the fault of MS. seems they used a University of California patented method for ActiveX content. i guess there is enough merit for UC to do this since it has gone through the court system

regardless of whose fault it is, it still is an enormous impact on the web

personally, my company has training out there that is used internationally and will require the update to several thousand pages. the retrofitting of a work around into so many pages will require hundreds of hours that are not scheduled for and will cost this company thousands of dollars

good luck with the JS! :(

[shotsy247]

Simple work around posted on LP

http://forum.learningprovider.org/viewtopic.php?p=112#112

Still a pain but simple.

_t

[vayapues]

guess it is time to switch to firefox. sigh! Easier to switch the browser on all our corperate machines, than re-write the entire extranet.

I almost get the feeling MS does not want us to use their software. We have migrated to Linux, MySQL, Apache, Open Office, and now FireFox.

[shotsy247]

That's a sad statement when Microsoft / Lawsuits have made it simpler to chnage an entire corporations browser than deal with the issues.

_t

[drexle]

Thing is, Eolas could just as easily sue Mozilla and force them to either pay royalties or go the MS route and force a workaround on developers. The problem is bigger than just MS. Switching browsers might be a fix, but for how long?

[mrNewt]

I don't know about this: http://forum.learningprovider.org/viewtopic.php?p=112#112 ... - for me it just didn't worked. However ... this solution worked just fine for my flash files: http://blog.deconcept.com/flashobject/

Now that solution though is only for the flash files. Anyone have a solution for all the other ones? At least something similar?

[CamX]

Here is microsoft thing about it, http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/activating_activex.asp

This is the way I got around this problem for flash

JS file (external_script.js)

// JavaScript Document
function CreateControl(DivID, CLSID, ObjectID, WIDTH, HEIGHT, URL, align, allowScriptAccess, quality, scale, wmode, bgcolor)
{
var b = document.getElementById(DivID);

var d = '<object classid="' + CLSID + '" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" width="' + WIDTH + '" height="' + HEIGHT +'" id="' + ObjectID + '" align="'+ align +'">';
d += '<param name="movie" value="' + URL + '" />';
d += '<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="' + allowScriptAccess + '" />';
d += '<param name="quality" value="' + quality + '" />';
d += '<param name="scale" value="' + scale + '" />';
d += '<param name="wmode" value="' + wmode + '" />';
d += '<param name="bgcolor" value="' + bgcolor + '" />';
d += '<embed src="' + URL + '" quality="' + quality + '" scale="' + scale + '" wmode="' + wmode + '" bgcolor="' + bgcolor + '" width="' + WIDTH + '" height="' + HEIGHT +'" name="' + ObjectID + '" align="'+ align +'" allowScriptAccess="' + allowScriptAccess + '" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />';
d += '</object>';

b.innerHTML = d;

}

In the HTML

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="external_script.js"></script>
</head>

<body onLoad="CreateControl('SWF_Holder', 'clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000', 'site', '800', '530', 'seperatePreloader.swf', 'middle', 'sameDomain', 'best', 'exactfit', 'transparent', '#ffffff')">

<div id="SWF_Holder">
<noscript> // if JS is turned off it will still display the SWF
<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" width="800" height="530" id="site" align="middle">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" />
<param name="movie" value="seperatePreloader.swf" /><param name="quality" value="best" /><param name="scale" value="exactfit" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" /><embed src="seperatePreloader.swf" quality="best" scale="exactfit" wmode="transparent" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="800" height="530" name="site" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
</object>
</noscript>
</div>

</body>
</html>

if you want to use it more than once just put a ; between the calls e.g.
<body onLoad="CreateControl('SWF_Holder', 'clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000', 'site', '800', '530', 'seperatePreloader.swf', 'middle', 'sameDomain', 'best', 'exactfit', 'transparent', '#ffffff');CreateControl('SWF_Holder2', 'clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000', 'site2', '800', '530', 'seperatePreloader.swf', 'middle', 'sameDomain', 'best', 'exactfit', 'none', '#ffffff')">

Hope this is helpful. :)

[dBS]

I used this http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/ and it doesnt show up at all using firefox.

2advanced.com looks like they are having the same problem. Is there a way to make (omg i might be asking to0 much here...) BOTH BROSWERS work?

[Cota]

I've been using the deconcept method and it works fine for me in IE and FF. No problems at all.

[CamX]

This way you shouldn't have any problem with browsers.
You can see an example here http://www.ispot.co.nz

[dBS]

ur right my fault!

new computer at work didnt have flash installed for FF... Thought my world was falling apart for a minute there...:o