No more "Click to activate and use this control"

Well, I kind of know this trick for ages (really long long time ago). Actually most of the big websites now have changed their code so the annoying “Click to activate and use this control” for objects like flash does not appear anymore. All you have to do, is to have a javascript funcition for creating the object in an external js file. Use the script in your html and call the function to write the object out, like what Sony, Samsung, etc does.

Or, like my wedding website (sorry for being budget not having my own domain but rely on blogspot), have external header and footer generation functions, but leave the middle part inside the html. I can’t remember why did I do that, but I did.

Anyway a js file with a function like this and call the function in your html will do:

function CreateObject(){ document.write(‘ <OBJECT id=”WeddingHP4.swf”); document.write(‘ codeBase=”…’); document.write(‘ height=”470″ width=”700″ align=”middle” classid=”…” style=”border:solid 2px #FFCECC”‘); document.write(‘ VIEWASTEXT>’); document.write(‘ <PARAM NAME=”Movie” VALUE=”WeddingHP4.swf”‘); document.write(‘ <PARAM NAME=”Src” VALUE=”WeddingHP4.swf”>’); document.write(‘ <embed src=”WeddingHP4.swf” quality=”high” bgcolor=”#ffffff” width=”800″ height=”470″ name=”WeddingHP4.swf” align=”middle” allowscriptaccess=”sameDomain” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” pluginspage=”…”> </embed>’); document.write(‘ </OBJECT>’); }

Pass out BIG Number from Flash

Working with big number just inside flash is all sweet (Number.MAX_VALUE approx. 1.7976931348623158e+308) , but when you need to pass it out by xml it would be a pain because it would become a 14 decimal places scientific notation somewhere between 2^49 and 2^50. (which is the same behaviour as most of the languages).

2^49 = 562949953421312
2^50 = 1125899906842624 which to string would be 1.12589990684262e+15 (note that a “4″ is missing at the end)

So passing out big number as string and convert it back to a number from it would not work (obviously)!

We were using bit mask for marking selections, i.e. 101001 indicates 0,3 and 5 are selected. I didn’t notice this issue until we have 50 selections and people are choosing multiple (i.e. 50 and something else, which means 2^49 plus some more). I have been finding a easy solution but apparently there is none. Therefore I’ve decided to do the following in ActionScript:

static function GenerateBitMask(listOfPowers:Array):Array{ var bitmask:Number = 0; var bitmaskHead:Number = 0x0; var bitmaskTail:Number = 0x0; // Loop through all selection for (var index = 0; index<listOfPowers.length; index++) { var indHead:Number = 0; var indTail:Number = 0; // if power > 32, set in bitmaskHea if (listOfPowers[index] > 32){ indHead = listOfPowers[index] - 32; bitmaskHead = bitmaskHead + (Math.pow(2, indHead -1)); } // if power <= 32, set in bitmaskTai else{ indTail = listOfPowers[index]; bitmaskTail = bitmaskTail + (Math.pow(2, indTail -1)); } } // Combine bitmaskHead and bitmaskTail to get bitmask for flash usag bitmask = bitmaskHead * (Math.pow(2, 32)) + bitmaskTail; var bitmaskArray:Array = new Array(); bitmaskArray[0]=bitmask; bitmaskArray[1]=bitmaskHead; bitmaskArray[2]=bitmaskTail; return bitmaskArray; }

I do have a reason for picking 32 as the magic number, but it doesn’t really matter. The bitmaskTail and bitmaskHead are passed to the web application (which in this case .NET C#) and the web application need to reconstruct the number:

XmlNode bitmaskHead = selectionNode.Attributes["BitmaskHead"]; XmlNode bitmaskTail = selectionNode.Attributes["BitmaskTail"]; ulong bigNumber = Convert.ToUInt64(ulong.Parse(bitmaskHead.InnerText) * Math.Pow(2, 32) + ulong.Parse(bitmaskTail.InnerText));

To pass big number to flash is basically the reverse process. Anyway I hope there is an easier way so if anyone have something in mind please tell me. Otherwise let’s live with this pain.