Internet Explorer Cache about swfobject HOT 8 CLOSED

Added from the SWFFix version 0.3 public alpha discussion [
http://www.swffix.org/devblog/?p=12#comments ] and probably related:

===

#  Ted Godwin Says:
September 12th, 2007 at 11:30 am

I am having an issue with IE7 (using Windows XP) which can be viewed here:

http://www.thermosites.com/ball/ball2.html

This displays a simple red circle in the middle of the screen… until the page 
is
refreshed. After reload, the circle is continusously placed in the top left 
corner
(again, only an issue with IE7).

The default javascript code provided by Flash works (ball1.html). Honestly 
I’d rather
use your object as it makes more sense. Event listeners in the AS3 code can be 
used
to resolve this issue, but I wanted to point this out.

Thanks for your work. It’s a valuable tool for the entire Flash community.

===

Bobby Says:
September 13th, 2007 at 4:23 am 

The default code provided by Flash has its alignment set, while this isn’t 
done in
the SWFFix version. This will probably solve your issue.

===

#  Ted Godwin Says:
September 27th, 2007 at 12:21 pm

I tried setting the alignment in SWFFix but there is still a glitch with IE7. 
Once
again: it only appears after the page is refreshed. See for yourself at:

http://www.thermosites.com/ball/ball2.html

This is supposed to display a red cirle in the middle of the screen. I tested 
this
under IE7, Safari, Opera, Firefox and Netscape. IE7 is the only one that does 
not
refresh correctly. Once again this does not happen with Flash’s default code 
(ball1.htm).

The flash file is a blank document with the following code:

//**** BEGIN FLASH9 AS3 CODE ****
//Define stage sizing and scaling
stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;

//Draw a red circle.
graphics.beginFill(0xFF0000);
graphics.drawCircle(stage.stageWidth/2, stage.stageHeight/2, 100);
graphics.endFill();
stop();
//**** END FLASH9 AS3 CODE ****

Copy this into the first keyframe, compile, embed with SWFFix and you will see 
what I
am talking about.

===

#  Ted Godwin Says:
September 27th, 2007 at 4:48 pm

Something about IE7 causes the stage to trigger Event.RESIZE within AS3 upon 
loading.
This is not apparent in any of the other browsers nor does this happen with the
default javascript supplied by Flash. Dare I jump in and explore the JavaScript 
code?

===

#  Bobby Says:
September 28th, 2007 at 4:15 am

@Ted: Please be our guest :-)

Please note that with static publishing (method 1) in IE6+ and Opera9+ a SWF 
will be
replaced by itself as soon as the window onload event fires, this to avoid the 
click
to activate content. With dynamic publishing (method 2) a SWF just replaces
alternative HTML content, so probably the resize won’t occur here.

I looked into the issue and found the following:
- With IE6 or 7 and the static publishing method, or with Adobe's dynamic embed
method, the stage size is available both on first load and on reload (or if you
browse on and surf back e.g. via the browser back button)
- With IE6 or 7 and the dynamic publishing method, or with UFO, the stage size 
is
available on first load, however is 0 on reload (or if you browse on and surf 
back
e.g. via the browser back button)

The interesting bit, which was already noted by Ted, is that obviously the Flash
player team already previously encountered this issue, because the Flash player
itself triggers the stage.resize event (and keeps on triggering it) until it 
receives
its current value.

My opinion is that it is a feature that comes with how Internet Explorer 
displays web
pages and manages its cache. The only way to prevent this is to add to listen 
for a
resize event and center your assets accordingly (this will most developers do 
anyway,
because people can resize their browser window), e.g.:

stage.addEventListener(Event.RESIZE, resizeHandler);

function resizeHandler(event:Event):void {
  // center stuff
}

This issue is not caused by SWFObject, however publishing with SWFObject is 
affected
by it. I will probably make a technote of it in a later stage.

This is also a problem even for dynamically sized flash components where window
resizing doesn't affect the size of the flash object but its size is variable 
from
page to page within a website.  After a lot of trial and error I have found 
that this
strategy works well, I hope it will help someone else.  

public function Object(){   
  stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
  stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT; 
  stage.addEventListener(Event.RESIZE, resizeHandler);
  this.start();
}

public function start(){
  if(stage.stageWidth > 0 && stage.stageHeight > 0){
    //add objects to stage etc.
  }
}

public function resizeHandler(event:Event):void {
  if(stage.stageWidth > 0 && stage.stageHeight > 0){
    this.start();
  }
}

The first call to start() will work for firefox, etc. and the resizeHandler 
will call
it for ie7 after the stage size has been initialized.  I have no idea why
resizeHandler does not keep getting called after it has worked once, but I 
swear that
this works for me - while every other method I tried to ensure that start() 
would be
called only once did not.  My guess is that the resize event stops getting 
called as
soon as a real value for stageWidth and stageHeight is set.

Does anyone have a workaround for this based in AS2. I'm now encountering this 
problem with a website I just launched live so I need to fix this a.s.a.p..

The way I did it...
If the swf sita in a webpage, if its not dinamically resizable, pass width and 
height
of object with 2 flashvars.
If its dinamically resizable, use a javascript that intercepts resizing, then 
sends a
ExternalInterface call to the swf with the new dimensions.
it works
love