How to check with JS if flash is installed, or not?

Question

How to check with JS if flash is installed, or not? I don't want to detect the version, or other informations. I want to check only, if it's avaiable, or not.

The swfobject library makes it (and many other things, which are unneccessary for that), but I don't want to use a library for only one function.

There is better solution to this. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/998245/how-can-i-detect-if-flash-is-installed-and-if-not-display-a-hidden-div-that-inf — Prakash, Dec 02 '14 at 21:14

Mathias Bynens · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-22T13:09:50.273

9

If you’re using Flash to progressively enhance a document, please use this script to feature detect it first.

var hasFlash = ((typeof navigator.plugins != "undefined" && typeof navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash"] == "object") || (window.ActiveXObject && (new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash")) != false));

hasFlash will be true if Flash is available, or falsy if it isn’t.

If you already have access to the Flash element you want to use then you could just do:

var hasFlash = 'Pan' in element;

Source: https://gist.github.com/675496

edited Mar 22 '12 at 13:09

answered Mar 22 '12 at 12:45

Mathias Bynens

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thanks, but when flash isn't avaiable, then it return with undefined – Danny Fox Mar 22 '12 at 12:56
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Does this return true when something like clicktoflash is installed? It annoys the hell out of me when I try to watch something, go to click on it to enable it, and then the site removes the flash object and tells me to install flash. – callumacrae Mar 22 '12 at 13:05
@Callum Macrae Yes. In opera with opera turbo it also returns wirt true ;) – Danny Fox Mar 22 '12 at 13:11
Greatness! Helped all of my issues – webdevinci Jun 20 '18 at 19:24

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 22 '12 at 13:02

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You can check if Flash is installed (see Mathias answer) but be aware that even if Flash is installed is still may be disabled (see here for examples http://blog.lroot.com/articles/techniques-to-easily-disable-flash-in-firefox-and-ie/) so your movies won't play at all.

answered Mar 22 '12 at 13:02

Jakub Konecki

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how can I detect in JS if flash is disabled, or not? – Danny Fox Mar 22 '12 at 13:05

How to check with JS if flash is installed, or not?

2 Answers2