I’m seeing this more and more everywhere I go. You know how IE7 keeps asking you to click on the flash module before it will run? and that’s if you’re lucky. Most times you get a blank block where your flash should go. Well there is a solution. It involves Java Script and a small script file.

The whole thing has arisen due to a patent dispute:

“Click to activate and use this control”

As of April 11, 2006 (assuming all relevant patches from Microsoft have been applied), any file embedded using the default object/embed code and viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer will prompt users to “click to activate and use this control”, before it will run. This is due to a patent dispute between the University of California, Eolas, and Microsoft[11] that has concluded by finding against Microsoft and awarding damages of $521 million against the company.[12]

In an interview with Jobro, Eolas founder Michael Doyle said, “We have from the beginning had a general policy of providing non-commercial users royalty-free licenses … the open-source community shouldn’t have anything to fear from us”,[13] so most other browsers should not be forced to follow suit.

The dispute was over the whole concept of embedded, interactive ActiveX controls in IE, using the object and similar HTML elements, which Michael Doyle patented for UC in 1993, then licensed exclusively to a company he founded (Eolas) in 1994.[14] There are potential workarounds for IE users, but implementing them will mean code alterations to countless web pages that currently make use of Flash and other embedded ActiveX applications.

The workaround for this issue essentially involves using external JavaScript to place the necessary html tags and .swf file into a web document, rather than placing them inline. Adobe has posted instructions for implementing this workaround. U.S. Patent Office reaffirms University’s Web-browser technology patent. A simple and widely used workaround is SWFObject. Macromedia/Adobe also modified how Dreamweaver 8.0.2 embeds SWF files to eliminate the need to “activate” the movie.

Well there is a solution. It involves Java Script and a small script file. I got this from the Macromedia site but I can’t find it anymore. They have since updated their software to automatically do this fix but for those of us that don’t use it, this is very handy. Basically put a small .js script in your root folder called AC_RunActiveContent.js . You can download it hereAC_RunActiveContent.js.

You then wrap your flash in a nocode tag and put this before the first nocode tag.

Before nocode tag.txt

Obviously you change the parameter values being passed to match your file. i don’t know why this works, and I won’t pretend that i do. But it does. Hopefully this will help some people out because just tonight I have come across this issue on three different message boards.