Flash (Actionscript 2.0) behavior in IE vs. Firefox

Question

Our company has a large and complex flash (AS2) application. The application uses a small controller main.swf file that loads in over 100 .swf modules that make up the various parts of the application.

We have been experiencing a periodic problem where some of the loaded modules will contain corrupt data after loading. As this happens in less then 1% of loads - it has proven to be challenging to debug/duplicate.

One thing we've noted is that this problem only happens when our clients are using IE -never Firefox.

Has anyone experienced loading errors or data corruption in IE and not in other browsers - and have you found a way to handle/fix the problem?

Are there documented differences anywhere between browsers when running flash applications?

Any other idea on what might be causing the problem? Or maybe some ideas on ways to pinning the problem down.

Thanks for any help!

Craig.

Answer 1

I've not had those specific issues, but there is certainly an issue with IE's handling of Flash. Recently, I lost an entire week to the Flash ActiveX implementation because of LocalConnections (which are one of the main ways to communicate between instances of a Flash player).

I suppose my first question will then be, "How are your swf's communicating?" If it is LocalConnections, then I suggest you make sure that you are only sending small packets through and have insurance against the potential for IE to create a lag. (This is my best guess)