Is there a way to check if the browser supports flash / silverlight?

Question

I am making an application with SL / flash cards, and I am wondering if there is a way to check if the browser will be ported to silverlight support or not (ipad / iphone). And if it is not, I can use some kind of AJAX diagram in its place.

If it is possible to exchange platforms by testing against the host, how would I do it?

Answer 1

For flash, you can use this: http://ppk.home.xs4all.nl/js/flash.html or this: http://www.adobe.com/support/flash/how/shock/javaplugs/javaplugs04.html

Silverlight is discussed here: Detect via javascript whether Silverlight is installed

Answer 2

Here you can use a small hack.

Make a simple flash movie as3 and make a call

try { navigateToURL(new URLRequest("javascript:flashCheck()"),"_self"); } catch (e:Error){} 

after which you can write a simple validation function in javascript (flashCheck () {}).

You know that this function is only available for as3 (swf), so you can determine what you need.

Hope this helps.

ps

and I'm sure you can do this trick with silverlight.

Answer 3

We have used this in the past, http://developer.apple.com/internet/webcontent/detectplugins.html

Silverlight does not work.