125208 - [Flash scripting on ford.co.uk] Fails to load: "flashnav.SetVariable is not a function"

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 110441

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect)

Description

[Mitch]

The above URL fails to load with Mozilla but succeeds with Netscape 4.x.

Browser stops with the message 

   Starting Plugin for type application/x-shockwave flash

in the message bar at the bottom of the browser.

Plugin is installed correctly and works on other sites properly.

Javascript console shows the message

   Error: flashnav.SetVariable is not a function

NOTE: Related Mozilla BugID 104355 is not the same problem (in my understanding
of that bug)

Comment 1

[R.K.Aa.]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 104355 ***

Comment 2

[Phil Schwartau]

Confirming bug on WinNT debug Mozilla trunk build 2002-02-10. 
The Shockwave Flash plugin never gets loaded. Here is the JS Console
error I see:

Error: flashnav.SetVariable is not a function
Source File: 
http://www.ford.co.uk/firefly/CPR/CPRNav.asp?SessionID={ADDA2E67-D3A7-45E5-9198-
8B4003CE8408}&PageID=&NavID=home&SiteVerID=1&LangID=28

Line: 197

I will attach that HTML file below -

Comment 3

[Phil Schwartau]

Line 197, where the error occurs is one with |flashnav.SetVariable| below:

function init() {
  if (flashnavloaded) {
    flashnav = isIE ? window.document.flashnav : document.flashnav; 

    // load information for the gts-buttons
    flashnav.SetVariable("languageUrl", 
"/firefly/spg/spg.asp?page=gtstexts&purehtml=true&Firefly=true&SiteVerID=1&LangI
D=28&XSLTemplate=CPRgts");

                       etc.
                       etc.

The problem is this: |isIE| evaluates to false in Mozilla, leading us
to the assignment 
 
                 |flashnav = document.flashnav|


However, the HTML mixes up "flashnav" both as an id and as a name:

<OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"

codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#ve
rsion=5,0,0,0"
                WIDTH=775 
                HEIGHT=63 
                id="flashnav">
                <PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="nav.swf"> 
                <PARAM NAME=loop VALUE=false> 
                <PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high> 
                <PARAM NAME=menu VALUE=false>
                <PARAM NAME=salign VALUE=LT> 
                <PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#ffffff>  
         <EMBED name="flashnav"
                src="nav.swf"
                MAYSCRIPT 
                swLiveConnect="true"
                menu=false
                loop=false 
                quality=high 
                salign=LT 
                bgcolor=#ffffff  
                WIDTH=775 
                HEIGHT=63

                TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash"
                
PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Vers
ion=ShockwaveFlash">
        </EMBED>
</OBJECT>

Comment 4

[Phil Schwartau]

Reopening bug; I agree with [e-mail] that this is a different issue
than Evangelism bug 104355, which has to do with document.layers errors.

Comment 5

[Phil Schwartau]

What's happening here is that Mozilla is not resolving |flashnav.setVariable|
as a function. I don't know if their HTML is correct or not, in the way they
are trying to access the Shockwave plug-in. 

Reassigning to Plug-ins for a decision. Changing OS from Solaris ---> All

Comment 6

[Phil Schwartau]

Attachment: The HTML file containing the error (as text)

Comment 7

[Phil Schwartau]

The following session from the Mozilla JavaScript Debugger shows that
the variable |flashnavloaded| evaluates to true above, and the variable 
|flashnav| is successfully resolved as the <EMBED> element above:


flashnavloaded
$[boolean] true

flashnav
$[HTMLEmbedElement] [class: HTMLEmbedElement]
typeof flashnav
$[string] "object"


However, the |SetVariable| property is undefined on it:

typeof flashnav.SetVariable
$[string] "undefined"


I don't know; are Shockwave plug-ins supposed to have a |SetVariable|
property, of type function?

Comment 8

[Phil Schwartau]

Idea: I just noticed this in the <EMBED> element above:

                  swLiveConnect="true"

Is this bug happening because the site is asking Shockwave
to use LiveConnect, when they should be using XPConnect? 

Comment 9

[Peter Lubczynski]

Flash and Shockwave aren't scriptable yet.

Comment 10

[Denis Antrushin]

Is it the same problem as in 111648 (Calling applet method from JavaScript
doesn't work for <object><embed></embed></object>)?

Comment 11

[Peter Lubczynski]

No, flash is not scriptable yet and there is nothing we can do about it.

--->over to evangelism

Comment 12

[Mitch]

Sorry for being naive, but if Mozilla flash/shockwave isn't currently
scriptable can this not be considered a regression from Netscape 4.x
that this site *does* work with ?

Have we lost some core code that used to work and now doesn't ?

Will this be fixed for Mozilla 1.0 ?

I don't know how this can be considered evangelism since this appears
to be lack of functionality of the Mozilla browser ? How can we ask the
site maintainer to fix something when it is the client browser that is
broken ?

Someone please enlighten me.

Comment 13

[Thomas Kessler]

I think I have the same problem with the following JavaScript:

===
PRACTICE_EXAM = 64;

/**
 * Set the header names and urls
 */
function init(){
    // Send to movies column names & column URLs
    for (var i=1; i<examName.length; i++){
        window.document["tblHdr"+i].SetVariable("hdrName",examName[i]);
        window.document["tblHdr"+i].SetVariable("hdrUrl",examUrl[i]);
        if (document.GradeBook["ExamType"+i].value == PRACTICE_EXAM) {
            window.document["tblHdr"+i].GotoFrame(3);
        }
    }
}
===

The error message on the JavaScript Console is:

Error: window:document["tblHdr" +i].SetVariable is not a function

The script works with Netscape 4.x and IE and it would be nice to see it working
with Mozilla 1.0 too.

Comment 14

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

duplicate of bug 110441?

Comment 15

[Rob Laucius]

Error: top.menuFrame.document.embeds[0].SetVariable is not a function
Source File: http://www.cosmod.com/1/00.html
Line: 11

var InternetExplorer = navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft") != -1;
   if (InternetExplorer) {
      top.menuFrame.menu.SetVariable("/:base_index", "204")
   } else {
      top.menuFrame.document.embeds[0].SetVariable("/:base_index", "204")
   }

Error: top.menuFrame.document.embeds[0].SetVariable is not a function
Source File: http://www.cosmod.com/1/00.html
Line: 11

The above code works for Internet Explorer and Netscape 4.x, but causes an error
in Mozilla build ID: 2002053012

Comment 16

[Greg L.]

Another example of this problem straight from Macromedia:

Example of JavaScript-to-Flash communication 
http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/java_script_comm/javascript_to_flash.html

It works in IE but not in Mozilla.

I discovered this problem on a site which had a flash ad which was unusable
because the address the ad should've forwarded the user to was set through the
.SetVariable function.

"document.banner170.SetVariable("banner_href","http://sj4.lenta.ru/cgi-bin/href/170?728856&login=ntv-inner-234");"

Comment 17

[Peter Lubczynski]

This is really a dup of bug 110441.

This is sort of not a regression from 4.x because 4.x used ancient technology
for allowing plugins to communicate with Javascript. Gecko now uses XPConnect
and plugin authors must do some simple upgrades to their 4.x plugins as
described here:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/plugins

Macromedia is in the process of doing this. Netscape employees who would like to
help test a version of the Flash player that is Javascriptable, please see the
e-mail from Paul Wyskoczka (paw@netscape) send to cpd-all on where to download.
Using that player, this bug should be able to be verified.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 110441 ***

Comment 18

[Kai Lahmann (is there, where MNG is)]

v

Comment 19

[Nick Bebout]

SPAM: New Components