Devil’s Advocate - Why You Shouldn’t Use SWFObject

Monday, January 14th, 2008

Categories: SWFObject

Devil’s Advocate Series This is a forewarning that this is an article that I made to see other people’s points of view that differ from my own. I take the opposite standpoint and make an effort to defend it.

This article will deal with why you shouldn’t use SWFObject to integrate your Flash piece into your website. If you’re interested in having a look at the original article where I highly recommend SWFObject as being part of all Flash Developer’s toolkit, click here.

In brief, SWFObject is a Javascript file that allows you to easily insert your SWF file into your webpage. It avoids the debacle in Internet Explorer where you “Click to activate and use this control“. It makes Flash more usable and more attractive because there are no longer any foreign or worry-some warnings for the user.

Adobe CS3 Accommodates This Problem

Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 and Flash CS3 already insert the required code to bypass the problem described in the introduction paragraph. Why should we worry about a problem that’s already fixed. If they’re taking care of all the nitty gritties, why download 3rd party scripts?

Adobe takes care of making the directory and throwing in the Javascript file. I don’t have to copy and paste SWFObject.js, make sure I have it in the right directory, read it in as code, etc.

If It Doesn’t Work, I Won’t Know Why

Adobe CS3’s solution will always work and takes care of auto-detection and errors I might make. If SWFObject goes wrong, there’s not much I can do apart from commenting on blogs and posting on forums. That could mean days until I find a solution.

Quality

Adobe’s solution likely had more research and people working on this fix to get the best results. When you really look at the code, they took everything into consideration including visitors with Javascript disabled.

One Less CSS Element

SWFObject requires you to make a CSS element for your SWF file to target. That’s an extra element you need to make sure functions correctly. CS3’s code lets you plunk your SWF without any hassles from CSS.

That’s everything I can think of, does anyone have anything else to add?