Website Design Tips - Hypergurl

How to make a website that checks to see if your visitor has the appropriate browser plugins.

There are numerous browser plugins that your visitor may need in order to view your website properly depending on its content. For example, Flash, Shockwave, Live Audio, QuickTime, Windows Media Player. If the website visitor doesn't have the appropriate plugin you have two choices. You can redirect them to a page that doesn't need that specific addon, or you can send them to a website where they can download the plugin.

Dreamweaver makes it easy to add the code that checks for plugins. Firstly open your HTML page and press your keyboards F8 to open the Behaviors Action window. Then press the 'plus' icon, followed by 'check plugin'.

Press select > Choose plugin from the drop down > Type in 'Go To' URLs > press OK

Here is the website address for popular plugins if you want to send them to the download page:

Adobe Flash Player
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

Shockwave Plugin
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi

QuickTime Plugin
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html

Windows Media Player Plugin
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/

Thats it, Too easy!

Shown below is a visual tutorial demonstrating how to use Dreamweaver to check for browser plugins and redirect to a specific page depending on the outcome. For example, you might have one version of your website that uses Flash animation and another version that is created with basic HTML. If your visitor has the Flash plugin installed in their browser they will be redirected to the Flash version of your website. If not, they are redirected to the HTML pages.

To start this Dreamweaver video tutorial, press the go arrow.