# 64-bit OS and Web Browsers (handling flash content) **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [July 26, 2009, 3:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/64-bit-os-and-web-browsers-handling-flash-content/172700 "2009-07-26T03:47:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/da6949/32.png) [@elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/elricstorm)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 3:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/64-bit-os-and-web-browsers-handling-flash-content/172700/1 "2009-07-26T03:47:30Z")
My site is going to rely on a lot of flash interactive content in certain areas and as I’m concerned about the lack of flash in 64-bit browsers. People can launch a 32-bit browser from their machine but some may or may not know how to do that. Anyone have advice for how to deal with this issue? Placing a message, or some type of notice on the site? I’m just curious if anyone else runs a lot of flash content on their site and whether or not they utilize some type of notifier mechanism to let people know what they need to do to use content. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/da6949/32.png) [@elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/elricstorm)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/64-bit-os-and-web-browsers-handling-flash-content/172700/2 "2009-07-27T05:43:11Z")
Alpha B. wrote: > My site is going to rely on a lot of flash interactive content in > certain areas and as I’m concerned about the lack of flash in 64-bit > browsers. > […] > Anyone have advice for how to deal with this issue? Don’t use Flash. That sounds flip, but I mean it pretty seriously. Most websites do not benefit from Flash, and it makes the site less accessible – not just to 64-bit users, but also to visually impaired users and mobile users. You might be interested in OpenLaszlo, which is a frontend programming environment for rich Internet apps. The cool thing about it is that it can compile either to Flash or to HTML/JS, which makes it more accessible to those without Flash Player. ## Best, Marnen Laibow-Koser [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/da6949/32.png) [@elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/elricstorm)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 6:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/64-bit-os-and-web-browsers-handling-flash-content/172700/3 "2009-07-27T06:21:32Z")
Thanks Marnen, I’ll look into that. At the moment, my site is still pretty heavy with flash and as it’s an interactive flash driven site, I might have to keep it this way for this particular sports season. I don’t have enough time to change everything around this year. I’ll definitely look into the site you gave me. ---
**Author:** ![elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/da6949/32.png) [@elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/elricstorm)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 7:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/64-bit-os-and-web-browsers-handling-flash-content/172700/4 "2009-07-27T07:25:48Z")
I don’t think this topic is suitable for this mailing list. This is not about the Flash Platform, but Rails! Anyway… Flash, when used properly, can provide a rich web experience. Of course, many have used it for things that it is not suitable for or that could be better developed using other web technologies. I would never use it for a CMS, for example (even though there are flash-based CMS frameworks/applications). As an alternative to OpenLaszlo (I never liked it, for particular reasons), you could try haXe, which is a language/compiler that targets JavaScript, Flash, Neko, PHP and C++ On Sun, Jul 26, 2009 at 11:21 PM, Alpha ---
**Author:** ![elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/da6949/32.png) [@elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/elricstorm)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 10:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/64-bit-os-and-web-browsers-handling-flash-content/172700/5 "2009-07-27T10:14:24Z")
Providing a full “fallback” site is considered good practice. Additionally it can assist with SEO as the site can hence have a quality semantic structure to the DOM used and then use capability sniffing to enhance progressively to the flash site. Also, ensure you use a URL manager to provide deep linking by altering the destination anchor and then using javascript to notify your flash movie of the appropriate scene for the user to be taken to. On Jul 26, 11:47 am, Alpha B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/da6949/32.png) [@elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/elricstorm)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 7:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/64-bit-os-and-web-browsers-handling-flash-content/172700/6 "2009-07-27T07:33:24Z")
Sent from my iPhone On Jul 26, 2009, at 8:43 PM, Marnen Laibow-Koser \ wrote: > accessible – not just to 64-bit users, but also to visually impaired > Marnen Laibow-Koser > [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid In addition to what Marnen suggested, I would also recommend starting to look at HTML5 and CSS Animation. For some cool examples, plase take a look at the following using Safari 4: [http://webkit.org/blog-files/3d-transforms/poster-circle.html](http://webkit.org/blog-files/3d-transforms/poster-circle.html) [http://webkit.org/blog-files/3d-transforms/morphing-cubes.html](http://webkit.org/blog-files/3d-transforms/morphing-cubes.html) > **[Apple](https://www.apple.com/)** > > Discover the innovative world of Apple and shop everything iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV, plus explore accessories, entertainment, and expert device support. Good luck, -Conrad ---
**Author:** ![elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/da6949/32.png) [@elricstorm](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/elricstorm)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 1:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/64-bit-os-and-web-browsers-handling-flash-content/172700/7 "2009-07-27T13:58:51Z")
Thanks for the replies all. I think this got a bit off topic as to what I was asking for. I mainly posted this topic due to the fact that Microsoft defaults 64-bit OS to use the 64-bit IE browser and the 64bit IE browser has no support for flash at all. Adobe issued a statement that they are trying to add something post flash 10 to deal with this issue. Therefore, I just wanted to know what type of “notifications” people use in their rails projects when they want to alert a visitor to a requirement. If I have a requirement that needs to be met on my site, javascript, flash, etc. what should I do to alert the visitor? I could possibly just put some type of detection+redirect mechanism in place that renders a notification. I could use a rails flash notification. Or, I could put a disclaimer in certain areas of my site. Again, Flash isn’t necessary to “browse” my site. But, it is required for the interactive portions of my site. The head-2-head matchups I provide are interactive flash and while the data and information is non-flash (there is content there). I suppose I could create images with the exact same size as the interactive flash and do a replace when a user can’t use flash. Maybe I answered my own question - replace the flash with (flash || images) depending on what the user can see using swfobject… I’d still like to put some type of disclaimer up for certain interactive portions - would flash notification messages be right for this? Or, would you recommend another notification system?