Detecting the QuickTime Plug-in
Experiencing your website depends on the QuickTime plug-in, so you want to be sure your visitors have it. If they don't, you want to redirect them to a download page or to alternate content pages.
Detecting browser plug-ins tends to be a black art, due to inconsistencies among browsers, operating systems, ActiveX, JavaScript, and VBScript. The easy and reliable way is to use QuickTime to detect itself.
You can do this by embedding a QuickTime movie in your main page that automatically sends people with QuickTime to the desired content page--just add
HREF
and
AUTOHREF
parameters to the movie's
<EMBED>
tag. Add an HTML refresh tag to your Web page to automatically redirect people without QuickTime--either to a download page or an alternate content page.
Here's a small HTML page (in the SpecialDelivery folder of the CD as
Redirect.htm
) that detects whether the viewer has QuickTime 4 or later and redirects the browser accordingly. It works with Internet Explorer or Netscape browsers, versions 3 and later, on Mac OS or Windows (95/98/NT/2000/ME).
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Detect QuickTime</TITLE>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="30;URL=GetQT.htm">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV ALIGN="Center">
<OBJECT WIDTH="160" HEIGHT="120"
CLASSID="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<PARAM NAME="src" VALUE="letsgo.mov">
<PARAM NAME="href" VALUE="HasQT.htm">
<PARAM NAME="autohref" VALUE="true">
<PARAM NAME="controller" VALUE="false">
<PARAM NAME="autoplay" VALUE="true">
<PARAM NAME="qtnext1" VALUE="HasQT.htm">
<EMBED SRC="GetQT.pntg" TYPE="image/x-macpaint"
HEIGHT="120" WIDTH="160"
ALT="You need QuickTime: www.apple.com/quicktime/download"
QTSRC="Letsgo.mov" HREF="HasQT.htm" AUTOHREF="True"
CONTROLLER="False" AUTOPLAY="True"
QTNEXT1="HasQT.htm"
PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download">
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>
<P>
If you have QuickTime 4 or later, you should automatically
be taken to our <A HREF="HasQT.htm>main page</A> in 1-2 seconds.
</P>
<P>
If you need to install or configure QuickTime, you should automatically be redirected to our
<A HREF="GetQT.htm">download page</A> within 30 seconds...
</P>
</DIV>
</BODY>
</HTML>
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