FlashHeed: Fixes the Flash Ads Z-index Problem | Hacker News Reader

FlashHeed: Fixes the Flash Ads Z-index Problem

coding.scribd.com

41 pointsjamesjyu8 comments

For those of you wondering why most flash applications leave wmode as window, it's simple because wmode opaque and transparent breaks a bunch of flash behaviors.

It creates performance problems, it creates browser incompatibilities, and in general makes flash worse than usual. (It also breaks accessibility, but I'm not sure if people care about that for ads)

Mode details: http://justin.everett-church.com/index.php/2006/02/23/wmode-...

This page has a good list of known wmode related bugs: http://xebee.xebia.in/2010/08/29/the-wmode-nightmare-in-flex...

I have been frustrated by this problem for years; the most common occurences being dropdown menus rendered below flash ads on vendors' websites. Even just 2 days ago I saw it on netapp.com (though most of their pages set wmode correctly). I was puzzled that no one seemed to care. I never saw this pb mentioned anywhere on the Net. All of my friends seemed to have never witnessed the pb until I opened a vendor's website to demonstrate it.

I am glad that FINALLY I see an explanation and that people FINALLY start caring.

Most flash ads would be inside an iframe on another domain outside your control :/

So unless I've missed something, I don't see how this helps. No amount of javascript can modify flash elements in an iframe outside of the security box.

From looking at the ads that appear on Scribd, this isn't the case. I haven't seen a flash ad that uses an iframe coming from Google.

Here is an example of a typical flash ad that I've seen from AdSense: https://github.com/scribd/flash_heed/blob/master/test.html

But yes, if the flash is in an iframe from a domain you don't control, there's no way AFAIK to fix the z-index issue.

In what version of adsense does it not use an iframe? It's always used an iframe, dynamically generated from js.

The top ad on scribd actually has about 5 iframes.

No idea why my original comment stands a 0. Please do your research people.

You know what has a very serious problem with z-indexing, at least in Chrome? The new YouTube iFrame embeds. They offered a version of the embeds that allowed you to set wmode, but it stopped working a couple of weeks ago.

It's weird, because Chrome had no problem with them at all until version 7, at least on my end. Per axod's comment, I just tried those with this and got nothing.

From my understanding, setting wmode to transparent creates harsh performance detriments.

The contents of the SWF are drawn over top of the elements on the page, once per interval. In essence, it is running outside of the browser.

I've had experiences where wmode="transparent" would effect the SWF if I were CTRL+TABing through Firefox's tabs. The SWF would not engage as no official focus had been set because it seems that it is actually "floating" over the page, rather than residing in it.

FlashHeed is probably a bad idea.

For Flash games or other page content, I agree that the performance impact of wmode=transparent is to be avoided. But Flash ads are a different story.

FlashHeed is designed to be used specifically on Flash ads that you don't control. If you're embedding rich content on your page (like Flash games) where performance matters, you'll write your own embed tag and can control the wmode directly.

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