Macromedia Flash Player Update
Since Macromedia Flash Player 7 was released for download on September 10, 2003, over 33 million computer users worldwide have downloaded it, making it one of the fastest-growing player versions to date. To see the numbers behind this, take a look at the September 2003 study conducted by NPD, an independent statistical research company. Why are users adopting this new version so rapidly? We think that it's because of all the new things authors can do in Flash Player 7.
One of the greatest innovations in Flash Player 7 is the ability to dynamically load Flash video (FLV) files into your movies. Video authors are realizing just how much the user experience improves when video integrates into the interface rather than playing in a separate pop-up window. In fact, this week we’re featuring some of the greatest sites we've seen so far that feature video. One of the most recent and fun is by Ben & Jerry's ice cream, who took their cameras on an adventure in ice cream manufacturing from dairy farms to packaging, spending time at all the places and with all the people in between. They're calling this odyssey "From Cow to Cone" and are displaying it on their website today. Check out the other new examples of Flash video.
In addition to the great video experiences that Flash users are falling in love with, Flash designers and developers have taken advantage of CSS support in the player, as well as the ability to wrap text around images or movie clip objects. These features have enhanced the flexibility of Flash when working with large quantities of text—a feature the Flash community has been calling for.
Flash Player 7 Update
This update to Flash Player 7 introduces some noteworthy new functionality and enhances the Flash Player security policy. In addition, we improved the player’s memory management code, stability, and performance on both Windows and Mac.
Below is a brief overview of the major new additions that will add excitement to your life. The complete details of everything we added, fixed, or changed are in the release notes posted on our website.
Auto-Notification and Update
In this release of Flash Player, we've added support for auto-notification to Netscape and to the supported Mozilla-based browsers on Windows platforms (98/ME, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP). When Flash Player 7 shipped in September, we built support for auto-notification into the ActiveX control versions of the player, which Internet Explorer uses. The auto-notification feature alerts Windows users of Flash Player when a new version is available for download and manages the installation process if the user chooses to install the update. The experience is similar to the auto-notification feature of Windows Update. It guarantees that your player is kept up to date with the latest performance, security, and stability enhancements as we continue our ongoing effort to make Flash Player the best platform for great user experiences on the web.
Here's a brief description of how it works. Every 30 days the player checks macromedia.com for the version number of the most recent Flash Player and compares it to its own version number. If the version number on macromedia.com is greater than the version on your machine, the Flash Player shows this dialog:
Figure 1. Macromedia Flash Player auto-notification message
Users can easily change the interval between checks or turn it off altogether in the Flash Player settings manager, found in the Macromedia Flash Player help pages. We do not recommend disabling the auto-notification feature, as keeping current with the latest Flash Player ensures that you can see the latest and greatest Flash content.
When you click the auto-notification "bubble" message, you will see a dialog that gives you details on the update and asks you how want to proceed. Here's an example of that dialog:
Figure 2. Macromedia Flash Player installation dialog box
Clicking Install Now begins the installation process. Remind Me Later will postpone the install process until you're ready, and clicking Settings will take you to the settings manager so you can adjust your auto-notification settings.
Read more about this feature in the Auto-Notification and Update Dialog Box section of the Flash Player Help.
Local Shared Object Security Improvements
The local shared object feature introduced in Flash Player 6 lets authors store arbitrary data on a user's machine with the user's permission, much in the same way that browsers store cookies. This data can be a user's preference for the background color on a website or documents that she is editing. It can also be information that helps a website remember what a user has seen and interacted with, so that next time the site can tailor the experience to the specific user.
The updated Flash Player stores this data in a random location on disk. Flash Player remembers how to direct a Flash movie to the appropriate location, but users of other applications outside of the Flash Player, like a web browser, cannot use those apps to access the data. This ensures that the data is used only for its intended purpose.
Flexible Policy File Locations
Here's some good news for developers who work with heavily with remote data: You can now place policy files in author-specified locations. Previously, the policy file had to live in the root of the web server. This was restrictive for web content authors and impractical for users working with XMLSocket servers who had to run a web server to host the policy file. Beginning with this release of Flash Player, ActionScript can inform Flash Player of a nondefault location for a policy file, using new ActionScript syntax. Here are a couple examples of using the new syntax:
System.security.loadPolicyFile("http://foo.com/sub/dir/pf.xml")
Or if you're using an XMLSocket server:
System.security.loadPolicyFile("xmlsocket://foo.com:414");
Any permissions granted by the policy file at that location apply to
all content at the same level or below in the virtual directory hierarchy
of the server. Also, you can load any number of policy files using loadPolicyFile.
When considering a request that requires a policy file, Flash Player
always waits for the completion of any policy file downloads before
denying a request. As a final fallback, if no policy file specified
with loadPolicyFile authorizes a request, Flash Player
consults the original default location, /crossdomain.xml.
This is just an overview; there's a lot more detail to this feature under the surface. Find out more about this enhancement in the Flash Player Release Notes.
Download the updated Flash Player now from the Flash Player Download Center. Early next year, we'll prompt Windows Flash Player users to download the new Flash Player release using the auto-notification mechanism. We thank you, the community, for your continuous feedback on how to improve Flash Player, and we’re excited that these updates continue to make it a better, more secure platform for deploying an incredible range of content and applications.
