Flash Player: Adobe Flash Player 9 Release Notes
Adobe Flash Player Release Notes
This document is for users developing content for Adobe& Flash& Player 9 and addresses issues which are not discussed in the Flex 2 documentation or release notes. This document may be updated periodically as more information becomes available.
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Adobe Flash Player version
Ensure that you have the latest version of Flash Player installed by clicking
to check the version. The current version of Flash Player 9 for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems is 9.0.115.0. The current version of Flash Player 9 for Solaris operating systems is 9.0.47.0.
Updated versions of the content debugger players are posted on the
Features in Adobe Flash Player 9, Version 9.0.16.0
Flash Player 9 builds on the advances in Flash Player 8 by focusing on three main areas: creating a more robust programming model, achieving standards compliance, and delivering ground-breaking performance.
This release of Flash Player includes:
ActionScript 3.0, a significant update to the scripting language of the runtime that provides a familiar syntax and compelling new language features. ActionScript3.0 delivers up to 10 times faster performance, faster application start-up times and a reduced memory footprint.
New Flash Player APIs, such as those for the display list, enable greater creative control over content and applications.
The features available in Flash Player 9 are described in the Flex Builder 2 help.
ActionScript 3.0 resources and documentation are also available in the . Features that developers should be aware of include:
ActionScript 3.0
ActionScript is the powerful object-oriented programming language of the Flash Player runtime environment. ActionScript 3.0 advances the language to offer developers a robust programming model for rich internet applications. ActionScript 3.0 is compliant with the ECMAScript Edition 3 (ECMA-262) standard and is based on the ECMAScript Edition 4 (ES4) draft language specification. For a complete listing of APIs, see the .
Some highlights of the ActionScript 3.0 language include:
ECMAScript for XML (E4X)
E4X enables easy manipulation of XML documents using a familiar syntax. Utilize new E4X classes XML, XMLList, QName, and Namespace to develop code to traverse, filter, and manipulate XML data more quickly and easily than was possible with previous programming techniques.
Regular Expressions
ActionScript 3.0 implements regular expressions, as defined in the ECMAScript Edition 3 language specification (ECMA-262). Native support for regular expressions saves coding time for string search and manipulation procedures.
DOM Events APIs
Based on the industry-standard Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Model, ActionScript 3.0 introduces better control over event handling through standardized APIs.
Display List APIsDirectly create, manipulate, and control objects on the Flash Player display list for complex application creation and control. New classes include Sprite, a lightweight building block, and Shape, for raw vector shapes. Depth management is automatic and handled by Flash Player 9, with new methods for specifying and managing the z-order of objects.
New Sound APIs
The new sound APIs provide greater control over imported for example, the puteSpectrum() method provides the ability to get information about sounds currently playing in Flash Player.
Binary Data and Sockets
Enables interoperability with existing custom protocols, and increases data transfer performance with a more compact representation of data versus XML.
Runtime Exceptions & Error handling
ActionScript 3.0 introduces runtime exceptions for common error conditions, improving the debugging experience and enabling development of more secure, robust applications.
Performance:
Faster ActionScript Performance
Flash Player 9 delivers up to 10x performance improvement for ActionScript 3.0 execution.
Reduced Memory Footprint
ActionScript 3.0 applications use less memory than equivalent ActionScript 2.0 applications.
Fixes in Flash Player 9.0.16.0
BitmapData and Video objects cannot be printed in vector mode. (136539)
Firefox browser will crash using the External API if JavaScript calls an ActionScript function in the onUnload handler, followed by the ActionScript function then calling another ActionScript function. This issue has been reported to Mozilla as Bugzilla Bug . (135795)
Internet Explorer incorrectly directs some URL requests (HTTP post of form data) that return SWF files with no HTML wrapper to point to an incorrect location. As a result, Flash Player will prevent the content from loading -- debugger players will display an error message, and Web players will fail silently. The issue has been fixed in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2. (134253)
Firefox does not notify the Flash Player when the user creates and switches to a new tab, and Flash content continues to render on screen. Mozilla has been notified of this issue in Bugzilla Bug .
Fixes and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.20.0: Support for Intel-based Macs
Flash Player 9.0.20.0 for Intel-based Macintosh computers includes all of the features from Flash Player 9.0.16.0.
This release includes only bug fixes and optimizations related to the Intel-based Macintosh platform.
Flash Player 9.0.20.0 is delivered as Universal Binary installer.
Users of PowerPC-based Macs may continue to use the installer for Flash Player 9.0.16.0.
Fixed in this version:
Flash Player sound output does not work for OSX Audio MIDI sample rate settings higher than 48Khz. Some third party applications and MIDI breakout boxes will change the systemwide Audio settings on launch and fail to return settings to default on close. To workaround this issue, go to Applications-& Utilities-& Audio MIDI Setup.
Select Sound Output and change the properties for the 'Built-in Output' to a setting less than or equal to 48Khz. See this
for more information. (178206)
Fixes and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.28.0
Flash Player 9 now supports the Windows Vista operating system.
Flash Player 9 now supports full-screen mode in the web players, enabling greater immersive experiences for Flash, Flex and Flash video content.&For more information about how to use this feature, see .
Addition of ADDED_TO_STAGE and REMOVED_FROM_STAGE events to allow a DisplayObject to monitor and know when it can or cannot access its stage property. The ADDED_TO_STAGE event is dispatched to a DisplayObject when it (or the tree in which it is contained) is added to the stage. The REMOVED_FROM_STAGE event is dispatched to a DisplayObject when it (or the tree in which it is contained) is removed from the stage.
Adobe Flash Player 9.0.28.0 includes security enhancements described in .
Fixed in this version:
When opening 2 window instances of IE 7 with 2 tabs each, crash will occur with binary socket connection. (186530)
Clicking play/pause button in a Google video opens another IE window and new window crashes. (184274)
Player crashes when parent MovieClip destroyed using a onSetFocus event handler. (187080)
Safari dropping frames and playing video poorly in full-screen mode (PPC & Mactel). (187776)
Dynamic TextField prints as a solid box when using embedded fonts and set for anti-alias for readability. (187087)
Setting selectable=false on a TextField doesn't prevent keyboard selection. (186835)
RegExp .index property isn't double byte aware. (186337)
Artifacts when initially playing + video stream freeze when selecting second video clip. (186435)
Alpha channel rendering issue when rendering video containing an alpha channel, followed by another asset on the same stream without an alpha channel. (183860)
MovieClip.currentLabel behavior inconsistent with MovieClip.currentLabels. Returns null, but correct label name is expected. (169127)
Setting stage.mouseChildren or stage.tabChildren to false does not disable mouse
interaction for the stage's children. (175090)
Method closures do not work as keys in a Dictionary. (177261)
Pixel-snapped FlashType has incorrect spacing when scaled as compared to changing the point size of the font. (174530)
Non-integer letter-spacing values in CSS corrupts text field rendering. Floating point values for letter-spacing in CSS are now supported.&& Previously, non-integer values were not handled correctly and text would not draw as expected. (182482)
When the hitTestState of a SimpleButton is the same as any of the visible states, moving the SimpleButton instance will result in screen artifacts. Workaround: use a different shape instance for the hitTestState. (172822)
When calling out to ExternalInteface for FSCommand various timer related events, such as &enter frame,& no longer trigger. (178286)
Pixel-based grid fitting does not work for Flash Player 9.0.20.0 for PowerPC or Intel-based Macintosh computers in Rosetta mode. Pixel-based grid fitting works in native mode on Intel-based Macs. Designers and developers that are using pixel-based grid fitting for Flash Type should use native mode on Intel-based Macs or the PowerPC version 9.0.16.0 if developing and viewing content on a PowerPC system. (180560)
Crash in ActiveX control related to onSoundCompletion handling.(183831)
Fixes and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.31.0: Support for Linux
Flash Player 9.0.31.0 for Linux includes all of the features
from Flash Player 9.0.28.0 except for windowless mode and full-screen mode.
Flash Player 9.0.31.0 currently only supports the Firefox,
Mozilla, and SeaMonkey browsers using GTK2.
Instability issues are expected in all other, non-supported browsers,
such as Opera, Konqueror, Netscape, Galeon.
Only ALSA is supported for microphone input and speaker output,
and only Video4Linux v1 is supported for camera input.
Fixed in this version:
Prior audio/video synchronization issues have been resolved.
User can't type or delete when cursor is outside of the area of the running SWF.
Flash content does not print symbols at less that 100% alpha.
Motion Status remains the same even when motion is demonstrated for the Camera.
and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.45.0: Support for Creative Suite 3
Flash Player 9.0.45.0 includes bug fixes and improvements for Adobe Flash CS3
Professional.
This update is only for
Windows and Macintosh platforms.
Fixed in this version:
A crash occurs when flash.net.URLRequest.requestHeaders is passed an array that contains anything other than URLRequestHeader instances including null values. &(192166&)
The following issues will appear in previous versions of Flash Player 9 when
viewing content created with Flash CS3 Professional:
New ActionScript 3.0 components for Flash CS3 Professional do not function correctly in versions prior to Flash Player 9.0.45.0.
Runtime Shared Libraries (RSLs) exported for ActionScript 3.0 generate a runtime security error. (195395)
Display objects instantiated by the playhead entering a frame because of a gotoAndStop command (or similar action) incorrectly process actions on frame one. (189490)
flash.text.TextField.getCharBoundaries returns a rectangle that is offset to the left by 2 pixels for fields that are created using the Flash CS3 Professional text tool. (193249)
Fixes and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.47.0 and 9.0.48.0
Adobe Flash Player&9.0.47.0
for Solaris includes all of the features from Flash
Player&9.0.31.0.&Adobe does not officially support specific cameras
or sound drivers on the Solaris platform.
Adobe Flash Player 9.0.47.0 and 9.0.48.0 (Linux) includes security enhancements
described in .
Fixes and improvements in Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 3, Version 9.0.115.0
Flash Player 9 Update 3 extends the performance and standards compliance advances introduced in Flash Player 9. Of key importance, this update adds H.264 video and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio codec support that opens up a broad ecosystem and selection of standards-based video — up to HD quality — that developers can leverage in their applications. The update also features hardware accelerated, multi-core enhanced, full-screen video playback for high-resolution viewing across major operating systems and browsers.
Adobe Flash Player 9.0.115.0 includes security enhancements described in
A summary of the new features that developers should be aware of includes:
New audio/video options
H.264/HE-AAC codec supportFlash Player 9 Update 3 includes H.264 video and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio codec support that opens up a broad ecosystem and selection of standards-based video — up to HD quality — that developers can leverage in their applications. Supporting a subset of MPEG-4 Part 12 (container) and Part 10 (H.264), including baseline, main and high profiles, Flash Player can play back existing MP4, M4A, MOV, MP4V, 3GP and 3G2 content.
Improved Performance
Multi-core support
Speed the rendering of vectors, bitmaps, filters and video, including true 1080p video, with new multi-core support that takes advantage of up to 4 CPUs.
Hardware scaling
Improve the performance and quality of full-screen video through the use of hardware scaling.
Multi-threaded video decoding
The VP6 video codec now runs in a separate thread on multi-core systems, enabling true 1080p video.
In addition, the responsiveness and decode blockiness of the VP6 codec is improved with this change.
Image scaling
A new algorithm for scaling bitmap images enhances the quality and rendering performance of downscaled images.
Flash Player cache
The Flash Player cache enables common components, such as the Flex Framework, to be cached locally and then used by any SWF from any domain. Use of the Flash Player cache can significantly reduce SWF file sizes and speed application download times.
Flash Media Server buffering
The stream buffer is maintained while a stream is paused.
Universal Reach
Full screen mode for Linux
Full screen mode with hardware scaling is now supported in Linux.
Accessibility support for the plugin
Flash Player 9 update 3 adds support for Microsoft’s Active Accessibility (MSAA) API to the plugin, enabling consistent support across plugin-based and Internet Explorer browsers.
Mac Os X Leopard support
Flash Player 9 update 3 now supports the Mac OS X Leopard operating system.
Fixed in this version:
On Linux, modal dialogs displayed by Flash Player stay in front of browser windows but do not prevent interaction with the browser as they should. (191331)
On Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 Protected Mode may prompt users with security warnings when attempting to view Flash content after installing the Flash Player 9 (9.0.45.0) ActiveX control. Security warnings may also appear for users who choose to install the Google Toolbar from the Flash Player Download Center
as part of the player installation process. This was fixed in an Internet Explorer update in June 2007.
On certain SUSE 9.2 installations using the standalone player only, trying to Open a browser from the standalone player with SeaMonkey open will cause the player to hang. (193383)
On Linux, networking operations in the standalone player are currently slow. (193158)
On Linux, when the mouse is hovering over Flash content, keyboard input is not sent to the browser. (194265)
Full-screen mode is not supported in the Opera Browser on Macintosh systems. (189140)
Full-screen mode is now supported on Linux.
Invoking document.write(..) method of JavaScript using ExternalInterface or FSCommand hangs Safari on next page load. This issue has been reported to Apple. (167996)
The Mozilla Plugin Finder Service will not install Flash Player 9.0.20.0 on Intel-based Macs using double-byte language modes. Users may either install from the Adobe Player Download Center or use the Plugin Finder Service in non-double-byte language modes. (180719)
The plugin version of Flash Player does not fire flash.events.Event.RENDER when wmode is set as transparent. (198515)
Full-screen can be used when wmode is set
Passing large amounts of XML through External Interface is significantly faster (206828)
ExternalInterface now works with HTML objects that contain dots within the object name (199614)
Fixes and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.124.0
Adobe Flash Player 9.0.124.0 includes security enhancements described in .
Cross-domain network headers are now allowed through the use of
cross-domain policy files. The cross-domain policy file is required for
both sending and loading requests.
All socket connections now require the use of a socket policy file.
HTTP cross-domain policy files can no longer be used to authorize a
socket. This change is described in .
SWF7 content loaded in Flash Player 9.0.124.0 will now have a default AllowScriptAccess setting of “sameDomain”.
For additional information on the security changes and to learn if your content is affected, please see the .
Fixed in this version:
A media streaming security vulnerability was fixed in both Flash
Player and Flash Media Server. As a result, Flash Media Interactive
Server 3 and Flash Media Streaming Server 3 customers who are streaming
H.264 content to Flash Player 9.0.124.0 or higher will need to upgrade
their server to version 3.0.1. (1688970)
When html/SWF is in the local sandbox, getURL('javascript:.....')
calls fail with Flash Player 9.0.115.0 in IE7. These calls will no
longer fail in 9.0.124.0. (214359)
A run-time warning has been added to the debug player in version
9.0.124.0 to reflect that AllowScriptAccess=”never” has been
deprecated. (217472)
Full-screen playback shows black triangles in Flash Player 9.0.115.0 on ATI cards on Microsoft Vista. (213941)
Authorization header has been reinstated in Flash Player 9.0.124.0.
Fixes and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.125.0 (Solaris only)
On Solaris operating systems, Adobe Flash Player 9.0.124.0 may cause Firefox 3
to crash when an HTML page with SWF content renders in a non-current tab or
when a tab containing SWF content is closed. Flash Player 9.0.125.0 for Solaris
operating systems resolves this problem.
Flash Player 9.0.124.0 is still the current Flash Player for all other
operating systems.
Fixes and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.151.0
Adobe Flash Player 9.0.151.0 includes security enhancements described in .
Fixes and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.152.0
Adobe Flash Player 9.0.151.0 includes security enhancements described in .
Fixes and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.159.0
Adobe Flash Player 9.0.159.0 includes security enhancements described in .
Fixes and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.246.0
Adobe Flash Player 9.0.246.0 includes security enhancements described in
Fixes and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.260.0
Adobe Flash Player 9.0.260.0
includes security enhancements described in .
Fixes and improvements in Flash Player 9.0.262.0
Adobe Flash Player 9.0.262.0
includes security enhancements described in .
Known issues
For a comprehensive list of emerging and known issues, please visit the
Flash Player cannot progressively load files that are greater than 2Gb (210223)
UILoader ignores scaleContent when content is loaded through loadBytes (209828)
Memory utilization could substantially increase when large numbers of bitmaps that are subject to mipmapping are loaded (205555).
Flash Player supports up to 30 frames per second playback for video.
Opera and Netscape do not allow recursive calls using the ExternalInterface API into the Flash Player. This issue has been reported to Opera and Netscape. (184777)
In certain browsers, full-screen does not render correctly when the window is split between two monitors where one monitor has a higher resolution than the other. (210161)
Socket connecting to port under 1024 throws ioError, not securityError (209795)
When using the Flex profiler, if FlashPlayerTrust is incorrectly created as a file, the Flex profiler will crash. Please ensure FlashPlayerTrust is properly configured as a directory. (203879)
On the Windows standalone Flash Player, empty POST actions are changed to GET. (85982)
Subsequent loads of
ActionScript 2.0 SWFs containing components into a parent ActionScript 3.0 SWF
may cause some components to break. The components will work on the first load,
but loading new, or unloading ActionScript 2.0 components of the same class may
exhibit this behavior. (176101)
Developers should not rely on
garbage collection if immediate clean up of active objects, such as display
objects, streams and media, is expected. Use the appropriate ActionScript 3.0
APIs (close, removeEvent Listener, etc.) to get immediate behavior when cleaning
up active objects.
The delete operator is
intended to remove properties of an object, and cannot be used to remove members
of a class. For more details on the delete operator, see the .
Flash Player sound input does not work for OSX Audio MIDI sample rate settings higher than 48Khz. The microphone will either record noise or nothing.
Some third party applications and MIDI breakout boxes will change the systemwide Audio settings on launch, and fail to return settings to default on close. To workaround this issue, go to Applications-& Utilities-& Audio MIDI Setup. Select Sound Input and change the properties for the 'Built-in Input' and/or 'Built-in Microphone' to a setting less than or equal to 48Khz. (160350)
The standalone player cannot self-register SWF and FLV file associations under Vista without administrator privileges.& Workaround: Users should launch SAFlashPlayer.exe once with administrator privileges by right-clicking on the EXE and selecting &Run as administrator& so it can correctly set the registry properties. (183319)
Bitmap effects and filters cannot be printed. (185581)
Button label text may not redraw correctly upon exiting full screen mode. User must mouse over the text to force the redraw. (185459)
Transform Matrix transformations are not reflected in respective MovieClip/DisplayObject properties. Properties like scaleX, scaleY, and rotation are not changed as the result of changes to a DisplayObject's transformation matrix (flash.geom.Transform, flash.geom.Matrix). However, changes to those properties are reflected in the matrix. If you change a property after changing the matrix, the matrix also resets to its original value. Affects ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0. Workaround: If using matrix transformations, avoid using scaleX, scaleY, and rotation in favor of their respective matrix transformations.
Triggering stage.invalidate() during a &render& event listener fails. (184574)
Empty strings passed through External Interface API via JavaScript are converted to null. (184474)
Some users are experiencing sound problems under Windows due to lack of support for WaveOut with drivers for some video cards, such as Realtek and SoundMax. (184367)
Launching the context menu when in full-screen mode may temporarily reduce FLV video playback performance on Macintosh systems. (189059)
Although full-screen mode does not support text input, the text input cursor will display over input text fields.& Workaround: dynamically convert input fields to dynamic text fields or disable TextInput components when in full-screen mode. (182474)
Installation/uninstallation
The Flash Player plugin (Netscape/Plugin) must be
manually uninstalled on Chinese language operating systems.
Japanese language operating systems will
not install Flash Player if an older Flash Player is currently installed.
Express Install will not work for updating the Flash Player 8 preview release (8.0.17.0 or 8.0.27.0) to the latest player. Users should go directly to the Player Download Center to install the latest release.
If the uninstaller is launched
while the Flash Player is in use by another application, such as Yahoo Instant
Messenger, the uninstall will silently fail and Flash Player will not be
removed. Please close all applications before running the uninstaller.
The Mozilla Plugin Finder Service will not install Flash Player 9.0.20.0 on Intel-based Macs using double-byte language modes. Users may either install from the
or use the Plugin Finder Service in non-double-byte language modes. (180719)
On Windows Vista, Internet Explorer
7 Protected Mode may prompt users with security warnings when attempting to view
Flash content after installing the Flash Player 9 (9.0.45.0) ActiveX control.
Security warnings may also appear for users who choose to install the Google
Toolbar from the Flash Player
Download Center
as part of the player
installation process. To workaround this issue, the Flash Player installer may prompt users to restart
Internet Explorer 7 upon installation, or users can follow the instructions in this . Adobe is working with Microsoft to resolve this issue.
URLRequest with custom
&User-Agent& header results in two User-Agents in header on Firefox and Netscape
browsers. Reported to Mozilla as . (173842)
Full-screen mode is not supported in the Opera Browser on Macintosh systems. (189140)
JavaScript must be enabled in Safari browsers to correctly target frames with URL calls and to obtain window values like &window.location& and &top.location&. (178510)
In Mozilla, FireFox, and Netscape browsers, some Japanese characters may display incorrectly with UTF-8 used for the Encode Type. (180778)
Printing a web page from the browser File menu results in Flash content not printing. Workaround: Use the Print option from the browser context menu instead. (194270)
Some video will play back too fast on Windows Vista running in VMWare (210586)
Express Install is an unsupported feature due to the variety of Linux platforms, each handling the Adobe Flash Player plug-in installation in different ways.
SSL support is available only when users install flashsupport.c.
More information on SSL support can be found at .
Modal dialogs displayed by Flash Player stay in front of browser windows but do not prevent interaction with the browser as they should on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Firefox. (191331)
When the mouse is hovering over Flash content, keyboard input is not sent to the browser. (194265)
You may experience an error similar to the following when
initially installing the Flash Player plugin for Linux via YUM:
Public key for flash-plugin-9.0.48.0-release.i386.rpm is not
installed Retrieving GPG key from file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
Importing GPG key 0xF6777C67 &Adobe Systems Incorporated (Linux RPM
Signing Key) &&&
this ok [y/n]: y
Key imported
successfully
Import of key(s) didn't help, wrong
SOLUTION: Repeat the command to install (yum install
flash-plugin).
The second instance of the command should succeed and install
the Flash Player plugin. (207465)
Reporting a bug to the Adobe Flash Player Team
Found a bug? Please send the detailed bug information via the online
Note: Due to the high volume of email we receive, we are unable to respond to every request.
Thank you for using Adobe Flash Player and for taking the time to send us your feedback!}