ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Name

getVersion( ) Global Function — examine the platform and version of the Flash Player

Availability

Flash 5

Synopsis

getVersion( )

Returns

A string containing version and platform information for the Flash Player hosting the current movie.

Description

The getVersion( ) function tells us the platform and Flash Player version being used to view a movie. It can be used to conditionally execute different code for specific versions of the Flash Player or on certain operating systems. The string returned by getVersion( ) takes the form:

platform majorVersion,minorVersion,buildNumber,patch

Where platform is a code indicating the platform ("WIN", "MAC", or "UNIX"), followed by the major version number, the minor version number, and the build (a.k.a. revision) number. The last item, patch, is typically 0. For example:

WIN 5,0,30,0   // Version 5.0, Build 30 (5.0r30) on Windows 
MAC 5,0,41,0   // Version 5.0, Build 41 (5.0r41) on Macintosh
UNIX 4,0,12,0  // Version 4.0, Build 12 (4.0r12) on Unix

Despite the Macromedia documentation’s claim to the contrary, getVersion( ) does work in the Flash authoring tool’s Test Movie mode. It reports the version number of the Player embedded in the authoring tool (which is not the same as the version of the authoring tool itself). For example, the Flash 5 authoring tool embeds the 5.0 r30 version of the Player, so its getVersion( ) function reports:

WIN 5,0,30,0
or
MAC 5,0,30,0

Any time a major or minor version of the authoring tool is created, the buildNumber restarts ...