Google Chrome, Flash and z-index wrong behaviour

Question

Google Chrome is displaying the z-index of a Flash video incorrectly.

Take a look at http://maxusglobal.com/ in Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Now take a look at it in Chrome.

The big video at the top of the page should have a "preview" image z-indexed over the top of it. It does in Firefox and Internet Explorer, but not Google Chrome.

This doesn't seem to be a WebKit thing, but specifically a Chrome bug.

I have tried all the wmodes, (opaque, window and transparent), but this doesn't fix it. I also changed the z-index of the Flash box, but it is still not working.

Yorick

Without a link, or the complete markup, anything we say is just a wild guess. – Cerate

which Firefox version are you checking on? I checked its working fine in IE but I can not see the preview image in FF and Chrome. – Chimp

In my case, I had a problem with IE and FF and it was working in Chrome. In FF and IE, flash was incorrectly overlapping dynamic popup objects. It was fixed by <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> inside the <object> tag as advised at css-tricks.com/snippets/html/keep-flash-behind-other-elements – Niobic

Smickie, You should probably formulate your question better, it is not clear what was overlapping what in your case. – Niobic

Answer 1

Add wmode="transparent" to your <embed> tag. Like the following.

<embed wmode="transparent" 
       height="314" width="516"
       type="application/x-shockwave-flash" 
       id="player"
       name="page_player" 
       src="/swfs/player.swf" 
       allowscriptaccess="always"
       allowfullscreen="true" 
       flashvars="file=/attachments/files/u_t_o_N_1.mp4">

And hide the div of the hello image if that is not necessary.

I hope this helps!

Chimp

Setting wmode="opaque" will also work. Also, if you are using <object>, just add it as a <param name="wmode" value="transparent/opaque". Finally, if you are using SWFObject, make sure to put the <param> in both the inner and outer <object>. – Steddman

This solution does not work in Chrome 19.0.1084.52 m, Safari 5.1.7, but works in IE9. – Household

does anyone know if there is a bug filed for this that I could track? – Reprovable

Inside the <object> tag one would use <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> as advised at css-tricks.com/snippets/html/keep-flash-behind-other-elements – Niobic

Answer 2

There are a couple of options here as I see them:

Option 1

Use the wmode tag and you need to set this as the object is rendered. Adding it later will not work
(ref1) (ref2)

Using opaque should allow you to target the object with CSS z-index styles. Be aware that you should set this value in the <embed> tag as well as as a param
(ref3) (ref4)

Option 2

Hide the object until a user has clicked on your preview button. I spent ages tracking down the javascript that you used before I noticed that Sotiris had said the same thing. I believe this is your code here:

$('#play_video_box').click(function(){

if(app.isiPhone() == "iphone" || app.isiPhone() == "ipad"){
return true;
}

$(this).fadeOut('fast');
$('#page_video_preview_image').fadeOut('fast');
var player = document.getElementById('player');
player.sendEvent('PLAY');
return false;
});

I would amend one line to:

$('#page_video_preview_image').fadeOut('fast',function(){$('#video_wrapper').css('visibility','visible')});

And use CSS to set visibility to hidden by default. Depending on your no javascript support requirements you may need to modify that.

The third link provided here is a rather good article on wmodes and how they work - I recommend checking that out if you decide to go with option 1 and run into trouble.

Hope that helps!

Pellmell

Your first point is worth reemphasizing: adding wmode after the object is rendered will not work. You have to catch it beforehand. So no amount of messing with it in Firebug and kin will get you anywhere. – Reborn

Answer 3

I too was having a problem with the z-index of embedded Flash objects when using Google Chrome 8. Everything worked perfectly in IE 7. lnrbob hit the nail on the head with his option 1 solution. I had set wmode to opaque in the <embed> tag; but I neglected to add wmode as a <param> tag. Once I added <param name="wmode" value="opaque"/> between the <object> tag and the <embed> tag, the z-index started to work perfectly in Chrome without breaking IE.

Frenzy

Answer 4

It doesn't work in Firefox 3.6 and Opera 10, also in Windows.

Possible solution: Just add in your CSS visibility:hidden; for the selector #both_video_and_preview_image #video_wrapper.

Then add jQuery code (I see that you use the library), so when the user click the preview image then the visibility change for the above selector to visible.

$("#page_video_preview_image").click(function() {
    $("#both_video_and_preview_image #video_wrapper").css("visibility","visible");
})

Rotifer

Answer 5

the following code works in ie,firefox,opera, but not worked on chrome(version 21)

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0" width="300" height="250">
<param name="movie" value="http://img.emarbox.com/dsp/img/300x250.swf">
<param name="quality" value="high"></param>
<param name="wmode" value="opaque"></param>
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
<embed src="http://img.emarbox.com/dsp/img/300x250.swf" wmode="opaque" allowfullscreen="true" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" height="250"></embed>
</object>

<div style="cursor: pointer; margin-top:-250px; width:300px; height:250px; z-index:1; visibility: visible;">
<a href="http://www.emarbox.com" target="_blank" >
<img border="0" src="http://img.emarbox.com/dsp/img/flash_blank.gif" width="300" height="250" border="0" /></a>
</div>

Appropriate

Answer 6

Have you tried using SWFObject and loading it like that?

Sudhir