How would I validate this flash code for XHTML?

DSSR wrote: Thanks Megs. But I just learnt how to make html in this week and a bit. So I don't understand anything those sites are saying accept that XHTML isnt working with flash? Why have I been going for standards if this XHTML cant even use flash files? I wasted a whole week making my site valid come to th elast bit and now the ultimate truth is I cant use one single flash file?

Like Megan, I usually point people at the Flash Satay page. Unless you're doing something that needs to be streamed (i.e a large movie) you can ignore everything on that page from the "Flash Satay" section onwards, everything up to there is about making it validate, everything after there is about making it still stream after it's valid.

In your case, you should end up with something like this...

1. Removed the embed tag altogether, it doesn't exist outside the fevered imaginations of the Netscape developers.

2. Removed the classid and replace it with type="application/x-shockwave-flash".

3. Spaces are not allowed in the id attribute, removed.

4. Removed the codebase attribute.

5. Added the data attribute with the filename of the Flash movie.

6. Closed the empty param tags.

Obviously I haven't tested this but it validates as XHTML 1.0 Strict and it should work.

Downside: It won't stream and it won't prompt the user to upgrade their flash player if they have an ancient version.

Upside: It validates and will play in all browsers. Your updated version would validate if you removed the embed tag but wouldn't play in many browsers.

Quote: I dont understand why I started this? It seems XHTML has many many drawbacks.

It does indeed have some drawbacks at present but this isn't really one of them. You wouldn't believe the number of professionals out there who can't make embedded Flash validate (despite it being easy when you know how) so as a beginner I'd hardly expect you to.

Quote: Can someone confirm the reason why I am making my site valid? Is it just for other browsers? Or is there a bigger picutre?

There is indeed a bigger picture, making your site valid is important for a whole number of reasons, not least of them is that if it's not valid then it's plain wrong.

The biggie is that if your site is valid then it will be treated as (X)HTML by browsers. If it's not then it's treated as what designers call "Tag soup", an uncoordinated mess of tags that don't comply with any known standard. The browser doesn't know what you were trying to do so it makes a guess and tries to compensate for your mistakes. Usually it gets this right but the results are unpredictable and you could find that certain browsers render your site completely differently to how you were expecting it to look. If it's valid then browser knows what's going on and you have a reasonable expectation it will look something like you want it to.

As for whether you should be using XHTML or HTML, that's a discussion I'm involved in elsewhere on this site and probably not one you want to get involved in as it's geekily technical. It's all opinion anyway so go with whatever makes you happy, just make sure whatever it is it's valid.

DSSR wrote: iI doenst work but, ROFL...it comes up white, but since meg said it doesnt have to be perfect, I am going to leave it "not valid", or Ill have to come up with another sort of satisfaction method.

Doh, I don't suppose it's because you changed the filename is it? I notice in your most recent version you changed the spaces in the filename to underscores. If you did then you'd need to change the filename in the code I posted (in both places).

If your site is on a publicly accessible server I'd be happy to take a look and see if I can make the flash work.