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Check for Program
- Thread starter M444
- Start date
In the example you have given... Shockwave is probably not something you would consider a Program (in the Windows sense) but more a Plug-in to the web browser.
Web browsers supply methods to check versions of their Plug-ins (since they have full control over their own environment). In the case of Shockwave, Macomedia have supplied code that you can copy/paste to do this (check their support site).
You cannot check to see if a (real) Program is installed on the visitor's computer. This would provide some nasty security holes if you could... not to mention the privacy issues of 3rd parties being able to interrogate your local computer.
Now... before someone comes up with "you can use ActiveX to do it"... I would ask you to seriously consider whether you would click "Yes" to allow some (unknown) ActiveX code from some (untrusted) website to run freely over your computer. Besides... using ActiveX only works for IE running under Windows (so any Mac or Linux people are immediately ignored... as are any Windows users using Mozilla, Opera etc).
Hope this answers some questions... and provides some "food for thought"!
Jeff
Web browsers supply methods to check versions of their Plug-ins (since they have full control over their own environment). In the case of Shockwave, Macomedia have supplied code that you can copy/paste to do this (check their support site).
You cannot check to see if a (real) Program is installed on the visitor's computer. This would provide some nasty security holes if you could... not to mention the privacy issues of 3rd parties being able to interrogate your local computer.
Now... before someone comes up with "you can use ActiveX to do it"... I would ask you to seriously consider whether you would click "Yes" to allow some (unknown) ActiveX code from some (untrusted) website to run freely over your computer. Besides... using ActiveX only works for IE running under Windows (so any Mac or Linux people are immediately ignored... as are any Windows users using Mozilla, Opera etc).
Hope this answers some questions... and provides some "food for thought"!
Jeff
- Thread starter
- #3
Flash and shockwave both should attempt to download automatically if the plug-in is not present.
If you are trying to detect either of those two you should either check Macromedia.com or the Flash forum. You could even google on "flash detection".
Knowing what software/plugin you are trying to detect (exactly) would help us to tell you if/how it can be done.
Hope it helps.
Wow JT that almost looked like you knew what you were doing!
If you are trying to detect either of those two you should either check Macromedia.com or the Flash forum. You could even google on "flash detection".
Knowing what software/plugin you are trying to detect (exactly) would help us to tell you if/how it can be done.
Hope it helps.
Wow JT that almost looked like you knew what you were doing!
- Thread starter
- #5
M444,
To test like a "plug-in", your program would have to be a "plug-in" for the browser. Testing for anything beyond the browser would be to access a security hole that has long been plugged. If you're program doesn't interact with a browser or an application inititated through the browser, then you're out of luck.
If it is a true "plug-in", I would think that you would have to have the "plug-in" source code for the browser, or some other SDK type utility to build the plug-in as well as provide a method to download the plug-in.
There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!
To test like a "plug-in", your program would have to be a "plug-in" for the browser. Testing for anything beyond the browser would be to access a security hole that has long been plugged. If you're program doesn't interact with a browser or an application inititated through the browser, then you're out of luck.
If it is a true "plug-in", I would think that you would have to have the "plug-in" source code for the browser, or some other SDK type utility to build the plug-in as well as provide a method to download the plug-in.
There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!
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