Many multimedia Web developers may not be aware that a Windows security patch is going to be released this April 11 that breaks most multimedia pages as they now stand. This includes any Web page that uses the <OBJECT>, <EMBED>, and <APPLET> tags. In short, the result is that, unless a kludge, as it were, is used, users of your materials will have to interact with the multimedia before it works -- no automatic play. Usually this means the user will either have to click on the object or a dialog box will appear requiring the user to click OK to make the multimedia work. This happens on every page these tags are used and every time the user browses the page, no matter whether the page is cached.
The background for this is summarized here:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1932304,00.asp
The effects of the patch can be delayed:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1943847,00.asp
but this is really an enterprise-level delay, since it has to be applied after the security update, a step most Web users won't know or care to take.
Here is a whitepaper by Microsoft that outlines in detail what the user experience will be:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/activating_activex.asp
The whitepaper also describes how developers can work around the patch. Essentially, the legal way to make your pages work without major pain for you and your users is to create JavaScript code, probably in a separate, linked file, that writes the <OBJECT>, <EMBED>, or, <APPLET> code to a page after it has displayed. Apparently this legally circumvents the wording of the patent that Microsoft has infringed on.
The MS workarounds take different approaches. To have accessible content, you probably should NOT use the ones that include document.write() or docuement.writeln() functions.
If you attended our CSUN workshop or read the materials from it, you may remember different ways we presented that you can embed your Flash video in HTML pages. This change in IE suggests that the Flash Object method of determining browser and Flash version and dynamically providing the correct tags or error messages to the user would be a sufficient way to work around the IE patch. I haven't tested this yet, and will report back when I do. You can find the Flash Object code (downloadable) at this address:
http://blog.deconcept.com/flashobject/
If you want to test your page with the applied patch before the April 11 update, you can download the patch now at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912945/en-us/
Good luck.
Dave
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