PHP/SWF Slideshow: Designed for 13% of Web Users
This is a story about two crappy pieces of software: Microsoft Internet Explorer and PHP/SWF Slideshow.
In the spring of 2006, MS IE changed the way it handles so-called "Active Content" such as embedded QuickTime movies and Flash animations. Ostensibly it was "forced" to do so after losing a patent lawsuit. How convenient that it screwed up the movies/animations of its competitors, but not its own stuff.
Now, the interactive aspects (links, navigation buttons, etc.) of such content do not initially work and the user is presented with the prompt to:
"Click to activate and use this control."
This problem is explained in gory detail by Adobe/Macromedia, one of the companies greatly affected by the change. And Microsoft has published a workaround for it, but it's very awkward.
Okay, so this is pretty annoying, but the situation gets crappier.
I searched the Web recently for a little slideshow application that I could insert into the TCF Website in order to display new stuff entered into the archives. I found what I thought was the perfect solution: PHP/SWF Slideshow. It hooks right into PHP/MySQL and displays images in cool ways--with dissolves and wipes and even one animation that appears to be dropping into the frame. Nice.
But not free. Generally, I prefer open-source software for things like this, but this app seems so perfect that I asked my department chair for the $45 to buy it. Only after purchasing it did I discover it was bitten by this IE bug. I emailed them to ask when they were going to update their software to deal with it.
Their reply, in entirety:
And that is some pretty crappy software.
P.S. Nowhere on their site do they explain that their app only works for 13% of Web users.
In the spring of 2006, MS IE changed the way it handles so-called "Active Content" such as embedded QuickTime movies and Flash animations. Ostensibly it was "forced" to do so after losing a patent lawsuit. How convenient that it screwed up the movies/animations of its competitors, but not its own stuff.
Now, the interactive aspects (links, navigation buttons, etc.) of such content do not initially work and the user is presented with the prompt to:
"Click to activate and use this control."
This problem is explained in gory detail by Adobe/Macromedia, one of the companies greatly affected by the change. And Microsoft has published a workaround for it, but it's very awkward.
Okay, so this is pretty annoying, but the situation gets crappier.
I searched the Web recently for a little slideshow application that I could insert into the TCF Website in order to display new stuff entered into the archives. I found what I thought was the perfect solution: PHP/SWF Slideshow. It hooks right into PHP/MySQL and displays images in cool ways--with dissolves and wipes and even one animation that appears to be dropping into the frame. Nice.
But not free. Generally, I prefer open-source software for things like this, but this app seems so perfect that I asked my department chair for the $45 to buy it. Only after purchasing it did I discover it was bitten by this IE bug. I emailed them to ask when they were going to update their software to deal with it.
Their reply, in entirety:
Sorry, we're not implementing the workaround at this time. This is currently left up to individual users.Oh. I see. So, this application will only work with Web browsers used by 13% of Web users. The remaining 87% will not be able to use it.
We're joining companies like google to recommend the switch to other browsers.
And that is some pretty crappy software.
P.S. Nowhere on their site do they explain that their app only works for 13% of Web users.
posted by Jeremy Butler at 4:10 PM
1 Comments:
funny... PHP/SWF Slideshow seems to work fine for me.
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