Customizing SWF content

When you click the "more" link at the bottom of the SWF definition section of SWFObject Generator, a subsection will expand in which you can fill in all optional attributes and parameters to configure your content.

For more information about what you can do with these parameters, please read the SWFObject documentation or the following Flash Player TechNote: Flash OBJECT and EMBED tag attributes. As an example, disable the default contextual Flash menu by selecting "false" under menu and set the quality of your test SWF file to low by selecting "low" under quality (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Changing the settings for menu and quality in the SWF definition section

Click the Save File button, name your HTML file index_parameters.html, and save it in the example_1 directory. Open the newly saved index_ parameters.html file in your web browser, and then right-click the SWF to make the minimal context menu visible (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Displaying a context menu over a low-quality SWF file

Passing FlashVars to your SWF file

At the bottom of the SWF definition section, you will find two input fields where you can enter your FlashVars name-value pairs. Just click the add link to add as many new name-value pairs you like. As an example, we have prepared a test SWF file that displays three FlashVars named name1, name2 and name3.

Change the name of your SWF file in the SWF definition section to test_flashvars.swf and add three flashvars named name1, name2 and name3 with a test value of your choice. Next, click the Save File button, name your HTML file index.html, and save it in the example_2 directory. If you open the newly saved index.html file in your web browser, you should see the result shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. SWF file showing FlashVars

Using alternative content

The Alternative content text area in the HTML definition section (see Figure 6) enables you to define fallback content that will be displayed if Flash Player is not installed or supported. When using dynamic publishing, it will also be shown when JavaScript is disabled or unsupported.

Figure 6. Configuring alternate content

Alternative content will also be picked up by search engines, making it a great tool for creating search engine–friendly content. Providing alternative content for SWF files gives an in-depth overview on how you can use alternative content to improve the overall user experience and searchability of your content. By default, SWFObject Generator publishes a "Get Adobe Flash Player" button to point visitors to where they can download the Flash plug-in.

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