Setting focus for Flash Applets in dynamic Coldfusion forms is not an easy task. This solution was inspired from one derived from a CFSilence blog article that contained the secret, which is to use a focus call to the form and then for the form to use it's onload call to the flash actionscript that does the needed focus on the form element.

There are a number of possibilities here with expansion of the script into standard functions in a CFC or similar use being the logical progression/development. Enjoy.

<!--- Place the focus on the form --->
body onLoad="document.myForm.focus();">
<cfform format="flash" name="myForm" onload = "formOnLoad('login')" >
<cfinput type="text" name="login" label="A reliable way to insure form focus in Flash applets" value="" width="200">

<!--- ActionScript for the actual focus and cursor activation --->
<cfformitem type="script">
function formOnLoad(frmField:String) {
Selection.setFocus(frmField); // Set the focus
Selection.setSelection(0,_root.frmField.text.length); // Point to the field to set selection to
fscommand("activateTextField", ""); // Now activate the field!
}
</cfformitem>

</cfform>
/body

See the references at the end of this article.

My trusty VMWare server gave up the ghost when I upgraded Ubuntu to Hardy Heron. After reviewing a number of recipes that all were missing pieces of the real process, I took my own stab at documenting what worked for me after about an hour of beating the walls of Google for the best solutions. Here is my attempt at helping you to get VMWare running on your system once you begin your attempt to fix the problem.

Don't panic if you have an established VMWare server that got killed in the process of your Ubuntu upgrade. Things can be fixed easily to have your server running in no time. Remember, the Ubuntu community is vast and all-knowing. Help can be had at many quarters and if one recipe doesn't work, then keep looking for more articles and writeups. You will find the solution by being diligent and patient.

On to the fix!

• First, try downloading the latest VMWare server from VMWare's site and see if they have fixed this yet. If your install blows up, then the next steps need to be taken:
  • cd to lib/modules/source under the vmware-server-distrib where you extracted the original vmware source code.
  • tar -xvf vmmon.tar (This will create the vmmon-only directory).
  • cd vmmon-only/include.
  • Edit the vcpuset.h file in this directory, you need to change line 74 from # asm/bitops.h” to “# linux/bitops.h. (Yes - keep the "#" character just "as-is". Just change the "asm" to "linux" and all will be well.
    
  • cd ../..
  • remove the old vmmon.tar or rename it if you want to keep it.
  • tar -cvf vmmon.tar vmmon-only (This creates the replacement tar image with the file you just updated).
  • Re-compile the modules by re-running the standard "sudo vmware-install.pl"
  • Know that this probably will fail, but we are going through the needed steps to get through the entire process. This is how things work on a starship ;>). No worries. There is more to the process. If yours does work at this point, then more power to you, else... read on!
    

Getting the Linux version of Flash Player to work with Hardy Heron (and presumably other Debian versions?) has been something of a chore for me. I was perplexed as to why I could not seem to get the installation procedure that the good folks at Adobe had created to run with my various flash videos and finally figured out a fix. As always, my goal is to share such fixes with the wider audience and I hope my recipe finds use in your installation!

The Recipe

1. Download the player from Adobe.
2. Close your Firefox browsers - all of them running. Nary a one operating.
3. Unpack in your /home/*your username here* directory.
4. cd into the install_flash_player_9_linux directory.
5. Install w/o sudo or use sudo as preferred. See the nice blog at benjaminlim.net on the various ways to do this depending on your choice of sudo or not. In my case, I ran without the sudo and things went just fine. If you do the sudo install, note the you'll need to select the install directory as being /usr/lib/firefox-3.0b5. For whatever reason, the installer dislikes /usr/lib/firefox as the install pathname.
   
6. Now for the secret sauce. My particular install had gnash installed. As such, no matter how I tried to convince Firefox to use Adobe Flash, Gnash was played irregardless of my choices. So, use the package manager to remove gnash. You can always install it again later if you feel the need, but it may defeat your use of Adobe Flash player. Note: gnash is truly a horrid player. It just does not run correctly with many Flash applets - Just my opinion.
   
7. Start Firefox.
8. Edit Preferences.
9. Choose the Applications tab at the top of the Preferences window.
10. In "Search", type "swf".
11. The content type "SWF file" should display - click the "Action" dropdown and select "Use Shockwave Flash".
12. Close the Preferences window.
13. Restart Firefox.
14. Hit a site with flash running on it and then right-click inside the running applet to see that you are running the Adobe player.
15. Enjoy!