SWFObject Strange Validation Problem

Warning: Expected ‘:’ but found ‘undefined’. Declaration dropped.

If you have no idea what SWFObject is, you can find an article here. Chances are, if you use SWFObject and you care about having a site that validates, you will come across this very minor problem. If you’re new to validation, don’t worry. This isn’t something to get all ruffled about. It’s simply means your SWFObject code is one step away from perfection.

The Problem

The problem is that SWFObject is creating a field similar to style=”". This will never validate.

Note: You will never see this by hitting View Source simply because Javascript (the language in which SWFObject is created) is executed by your browser after seeing the HTML source; whereas languages like PHP and ASP generate HTML source before your browser retrieves it.

The Solution

It’s good to know that the solution to this validation problem is a quick fix. If you open your swfobject.js file. In there, you’ll have to modify the two longest lines, they start with:

swfNode = ‘<embed type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”
swfNode = ‘<object id=”‘+ this.getAttribute(’id’)

Further down both these lines you will have to remove:

” style=”‘+ this.getAttribute(’style’) +’

What this does is prevent SWFObject from ever writing style=”" code (you’re going to use a div container anyway, no big loss). Not a character after, not a character before. Take off starting at the double quote, and take off the single quote.

If you’re still looking for them, both instances are located on lines 89 and 101. Also, if it seemed like you tried everything and something went bonkers. You can click here to download the fixed SWFObject.
Now if you’re having problems getting your site to Validate, it won’t be SWFObject.

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