Testing with different Flash versions

Ben Logan - Published: 19th Feb 2009 11:45 GMT

So you have your shiny new website incorporating some of the slickest Adobe Flash animations and interactivity on the market but have you tested the site for backwards compatibility?

What is Adobe Flash?

Adobe Flash (previously called Macromedia Flash) is a multimedia platform created by Macromedia and currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages; Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web page components, to integrate video into web pages, and more recently, to develop rich Internet applications.

Why should you test older versions?

Not everyone upgrades their Adobe Flash plugin at the rate that the Adobe would like. This maybe due to technical constraints, such as users within corporate organisations, who rarely get to install applications or plugins as they do not have administrative rights on the machine.

If you have invested considerable time and resources with an external agency or internally, you should find out how the site performs on an older version of Adobe Flash.

We often find in our testing sessions the following:

• Version detection scripts, such as Moock Flash Player Inspector not implemented correctly
• Video and audio out of sync with animation
• Static image for non flash users from an old feature or promotion

Want to test the Adobe Flash versions yourself?

Adobe provide an excellent resource of all the backdated versions of Adobe Flash. If you can't find a specific version then drop us a note as we have a complete set of them on our test network.

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