Detect Flash Player Version | Actionscript based detection method (as3)

By Evan Mullins | Published: 19 November 2008
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See my previous post about how to do this with as2: Detect Flash Player Version | Actionscript based detection method (as2)

Overview

Recently I had a requirement that I had to detect which version of the flash player was currently installed. This is a normal thing, we do it all the time when embedding flash into html, we detect which version of the player is installed and if the user has an old version they are invited to upgrade…

But what about finding the flash version from within flash? An actionscript based detection method? I hadn’t ever thought about doing that…

Actionscript 3 now uses the flash system capabilities class to report all it’s “capabilities”. First we have to import it and then we have access to all the details through the Capabilities object, such as operating system, language, pixel aspect ration and flash player version. There are a ton of others and I’ve included them in the trace statements.

Steps

  1. import the class
    1
    import flash.system.Capabilities;
  2. read the version from the Capabilities object
    1
    var flashPlayerVersion:String = Capabilities.version;

This returns a string, 3 letter operating system, a space, and then the version number as four numbers seperated with commas. (just like eval(‘$version’); in as2)
I display the flashPlayerVersion and to split it out I split the string on the space, and then split the version number with the comma delimiter and display them all.

Example

Here’s what mine is (gif):

flash player version detection as3

And here’s what yours is (swf):

Get Adobe Flash player

Actionscript (as3)

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import flash.system.Capabilities;

var flashPlayerVersion:String = Capabilities.version;

var osArray:Array = flashPlayerVersion.split(' ');
var osType:String = osArray[0]; //The operating system: WIN, MAC, LNX
var versionArray:Array = osArray[1].split(',');//The player versions. 9,0,115,0
var majorVersion:Number = parseInt(versionArray[0]);
var majorRevision:Number = parseInt(versionArray[1]);
var minorVersion:Number = parseInt(versionArray[2]);
var minorRevision:Number = parseInt(versionArray[3]);

vers.text = flashPlayerVersion;
feedback.text = "Operating System: "+osType + "\n" +
  "Major Version: "+majorVersion + "\n" +
  "Major Revision: "+majorRevision + "\n" +
  "Minor Version: "+minorVersion + "\n" +
  "Minor Revision: "+minorRevision;

trace("Operating System: "+osType);
trace("Major Version: "+majorVersion);
trace("Major Revision: "+majorRevision);
trace("Minor Version: "+minorVersion);
trace("Minor Revision: "+minorRevision);
trace("--other capabilities--");
trace("avHardwareDisable: " + Capabilities.avHardwareDisable);
trace("hasAccessibility: " + Capabilities.hasAccessibility);
trace("hasAudio: " + Capabilities.hasAudio);
trace("hasAudioEncoder: " + Capabilities.hasAudioEncoder);
trace("hasEmbeddedVideo: " + Capabilities.hasEmbeddedVideo);
trace("hasMP3: " + Capabilities.hasMP3);
trace("hasPrinting: " + Capabilities.hasPrinting);
trace("hasScreenBroadcast: " + Capabilities.hasScreenBroadcast);
trace("hasScreenPlayback: " + Capabilities.hasScreenPlayback);
trace("hasStreamingAudio: " + Capabilities.hasStreamingAudio);
trace("hasVideoEncoder: " + Capabilities.hasVideoEncoder);
trace("isDebugger: " + Capabilities.isDebugger);
trace("language: " + Capabilities.language);
trace("localFileReadDisable: " + Capabilities.localFileReadDisable);
trace("manufacturer: " + Capabilities.manufacturer);
trace("os: " + Capabilities.os);
trace("pixelAspectRatio: " + Capabilities.pixelAspectRatio);
trace("playerType: " + Capabilities.playerType);
trace("screenColor: " + Capabilities.screenColor);
trace("screenDPI: " + Capabilities.screenDPI);

trace("screenResolutionX: " + Capabilities.screenResolutionX);
trace("screenResolutionY: " + Capabilities.screenResolutionY);
trace("serverString: " + Capabilities.serverString);

Download

Here’s the source fla file: flash version detection actionscript method (as3)

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3 Comments

  1. chris pendergraft
    Posted 27 February 2009 at 9:49 pm | Permalink

    awesome, just what I needed!

    Reply
  2. Eddie Staples
    Posted 23 March 2009 at 12:46 pm | Permalink

    Brilliant! You’re a lifesaver. Thanks for also tracing the results of the various Capabilities class methods. VERY useful and VERY easy to get to!

    Reply
  3. Pruthviraj
    Posted 28 March 2009 at 8:09 am | Permalink

    Much needed knowledge, Thanks a lot for the post…. awesome work…. :)

    Reply

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