Please note that the information in this post may no longer be accurate or up to date. I recommend checking more recent posts or official documentation for the most current information on this topic. This post has not been updated and is being kept for archival purposes.
Today I was working on a site that uses Flash to display content. The issue was Internet Explorer users were not able to see the Flash object. Crazy ol’ IE huh? This wasn’t only happening in older versions (>IE8) but also in the latest version 9.
Here’s what IE users saw (or didn’t see):
And here’s what users of modern browsers see:
I took a look at the code and found the object tag where it was being placed. Here’s the bit of problematic code:
(I had to take a screenshot because the object tag kept rendering even in my pre tags… lame)
Fix: Remove the ClassID Attribute
Notice the classid=”blahblahblah” part above? IE apparently doesn’t like this attribute and chokes on it. I’m not exactly sure what this tag does but according to HTMLhelp:
The CLASSID attribute may be used to specify an implementation for the object. Java applets, Python applets, and ActiveX controls all provide implementations for the embedded object, and so are specified with the CLASSID attribute…
I simply removed this seemingly unnecessary attribute and BAM, we’ve got Flash in IE as well as other browsers. Hopefully this helps some of you working with Flash in IE!