If anyone can help, I'll Fed-Ex y'some freakin cookies!

[Sahjine]

I can't actually promise anything regarding the cookies, but I definately have a weird issue:

Ok, I'm trying to send Flash in an email, but I'm having general problems with Flash Player 7 displaying a remote movie in a local HTML file. Even if viewed in IE (not Outlook) there's no content. But if I use the same HTML and put it on the website with the flash file to be streamed changing the embed src to a local reference, it works just fine. Here's the code, first what works, then what doesn't:

If I post an HTML file on my server with the flash movie containing this code, it works fine:

<OBJECT classid="clsid27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"codebase="

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"WIDTH="300"

HEIGHT="100" id="test.swf"><PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="test.swf"> <PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high>
<PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#FFFFFF>

<EMBED src="test.swf" quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="100" NAME="test.swf" ALIGN="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="

http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></EMBED>

</OBJECT>

However, if I view the HTML file locally (as would be done in an email) and include this code instead (changing only the embed src) I get nothing in my browser:

<OBJECT classid="clsid27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"codebase="

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"WIDTH="300"

HEIGHT="100" id="test.swf"><PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="test.swf"> <PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high>
<PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#FFFFFF>

<EMBED src="

http://middleroom.iwarp.com/Flash/test.swf"

quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="100" NAME="test.swf" ALIGN="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="

http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></EMBED>

</OBJECT>

In this example I used an swf from a website because I knew it to be working. My swf file works the same way (displays if reference originates from the server to the server, doesn't display if reference originates from my local machine to the server).

I should also note that I tested my movie in an email on an old box running Windows 95 in both IE/Outlook 5.5 and Netscape 6 with Netscape Mail. It worked fine. Didn't work on a Mac with Outlook Express 5, though, and it doesn't work on this computer running XP Pro and Outlook 2000/ IE 6.

Can anyone help me please?? It's driving me nuts! I've tested it on two different servers with the same results!

Thank you much,
jeremy

 

[chrigil]

If I understand you correctly you're trying to send an HTML formatted email to someone which when opened in something like Outlook etc will display a Flash movie as part of the rich email???

Is this actually possible? I tried something similar about a year ago and gave up because I came to the conclusion that you couldn't load an SWF into an email client.

I might be wrong so if you do manage to work it out, it would be helpful if you could post the solution.

Thanks, Chris

 

[pixl8r]

I think the problem you are having is related to security. Flash is an ActiveX control. Because of that it is disabled in most e-mail clients.

Even if you can get it to work on your machine, odds are pretty good you won't get it to work on most e-mail clients out there. They simply block it.

Here is a quote from Outlook help on the subject:

Your security zone setting is set to the highest security level by default, which disables all active content in HTML messages.

Obviously this is to prevent the spread of viruses and other e-mail nasties. So once again the virus writers ruin it for all of the legitimate uses.

Best advice is to make a nice static web page and e-mail that. At least that will work in HTML compatible e-mail clients without the need for ActiveX.

Hope it helps,

Wow JT that almost looked like you knew what you were doing!

 

[Sahjine]

Thanks guys,
This is exactly what I've been finding the more I research this stuff. I read an article before we began this project that suggested security and compatibility overall makes flash an unpredictable presentation format in email, but when I was about to bring it to the table as such, I found out my company did exactly this last year with success. Of course, there are no copies of emails lying around for me to check for context or even to see if it would work anymore, and I'm not sure how thoroughly they tested it themselves. I believe there have been a number of security updates in Outlook in general (both Express and the office version) because again, my one test box running Win95 and IE 5.5 with Outlook Express (and Netscape Mail for Netscape 6) displayed everything just fine. This being the comp I ran it on first, my reaction was "What's the problem?" until I tried it on the boxes with newer versions of Outlook or IE. The thing that was baffling me was that, even out of context as just an HTML page in IE it wasn't displaying when the file was local. That was apparently due to my not swapping the movie value in the object tag.

Either way, Outlook is not going to display this pretty much across the board. I'm going to try to get in touch with Macromedia on the subject and see if they can tell me exactly what kind of compatibility I can expect. It looks pretty grim, though.

I'll let you know if I find anything useful.

Thanks again for your input.

jeremy

 

[oldnewbie]

Who wil get the cookies? Macromedia?

 

[Sahjine]

Nah, you guys can all split 'em up. Macromedia sure hasn't been of any assistance thus far in this matter (got the whirlwind customer service deal shifting me from point A to B to a tech who didn't know anything more than installation instructions who then referred me to the Professional Service Desk, which you must contact a sales rep to get information about, and I have yet to hear from that sales rep (they only supply email addresses, no phone numbers) so everyone here has been significantly more helpful.

No new news, though.. as far as I can tell it's a no-go.

jeremy