I may have been misunderstood..? You were asking "what things PHP could do that normally JS would do," and I'm saying that, if you're looking at web development from a conventional standpoint, the question would be: "what could JS do that normally PHP would do?" Everything of a functional nature that can be done with JS, can be done with PHP (not vice-versa).
Sorry, I think I wrote it around the wrong way in my original post.
As for Flash, if you have a SWF that simply contains a button which goes to a URL on click, then there's no need for JS. And you can certainly still embed SWFs on a page without JS as well. But calling external JS functions from your SWF, would fail if JS is disabled, yes.
You are wrong there! Javascript for some reason is used by flash to show the buttons on the page amongst other things. I don't know why they included the use of javascript this way because it doesn't appear to be needed.
Edit:
CS2:
See CS3!
CS3:
The following is put in an external *.js file upon publishing the flash file.
//v1.7
// Flash Player Version Detection
// Detect Client Browser type
// Copyright 2005-2007 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.
var isIE = (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE") != -1) ? true : false;
var isWin = (navigator.appVersion.toLowerCase().indexOf("win") != -1) ? true : false;
var isOpera = (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Opera") != -1) ? true : false;
function ControlVersion()
{
var version;
var axo;
var e;
// NOTE : new ActiveXObject(strFoo) throws an exception if strFoo isn't in the registry
try {
// version will be set for 7.X or greater players
axo = new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.7");
version = axo.GetVariable("$version");
} catch (e) {
}
if (!version)
{
try {
// version will be set for 6.X players only
axo = new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.6");
// installed player is some revision of 6.0
// GetVariable("$version") crashes for versions 6.0.22 through 6.0.29,
// so we have to be careful.
// default to the first public version
version = "WIN 6,0,21,0";
// throws if AllowScripAccess does not exist (introduced in 6.0r47)
axo.AllowScriptAccess = "always";
// safe to call for 6.0r47 or greater
version = axo.GetVariable("$version");
} catch (e) {
}
}
if (!version)
{
try {
// version will be set for 4.X or 5.X player
axo = new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.3");
version = axo.GetVariable("$version");
} catch (e) {
}
}
if (!version)
{
try {
// version will be set for 3.X player
axo = new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.3");
version = "WIN 3,0,18,0";
} catch (e) {
}
}
if (!version)
{
try {
// version will be set for 2.X player
axo = new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash");
version = "WIN 2,0,0,11";
} catch (e) {
version = -1;
}
}
return version;
}
// JavaScript helper required to detect Flash Player PlugIn version information
function GetSwfVer(){
// NS/Opera version >= 3 check for Flash plugin in plugin array
var flashVer = -1;
if (navigator.plugins != null && navigator.plugins.length > 0) {
if (navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash 2.0"] || navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash"]) {
var swVer2 = navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash 2.0"] ? " 2.0" : "";
var flashDescription = navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash" + swVer2].description;
var descArray = flashDescription.split(" ");
var tempArrayMajor = descArray[2].split(".");
var versionMajor = tempArrayMajor[0];
var versionMinor = tempArrayMajor[1];
var versionRevision = descArray[3];
if (versionRevision == "") {
versionRevision = descArray[4];
}
if (versionRevision[0] == "d") {
versionRevision = versionRevision.substring(1);
} else if (versionRevision[0] == "r") {
versionRevision = versionRevision.substring(1);
if (versionRevision.indexOf("d") > 0) {
versionRevision = versionRevision.substring(0, versionRevision.indexOf("d"));
}
}
var flashVer = versionMajor + "." + versionMinor + "." + versionRevision;
}
}
// MSN/WebTV 2.6 supports Flash 4
else if (navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf("webtv/2.6") != -1) flashVer = 4;
// WebTV 2.5 supports Flash 3
else if (navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf("webtv/2.5") != -1) flashVer = 3;
// older WebTV supports Flash 2
else if (navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf("webtv") != -1) flashVer = 2;
else if ( isIE && isWin && !isOpera ) {
flashVer = ControlVersion();
}
return flashVer;
}
// When called with reqMajorVer, reqMinorVer, reqRevision returns true if that version or greater is available
function DetectFlashVer(reqMajorVer, reqMinorVer, reqRevision)
{
versionStr = GetSwfVer();
if (versionStr == -1 ) {
return false;
} else if (versionStr != 0) {
if(isIE && isWin && !isOpera) {
// Given "WIN 2,0,0,11"
tempArray = versionStr.split(" "); // ["WIN", "2,0,0,11"]
tempString = tempArray[1]; // "2,0,0,11"
versionArray = tempString.split(","); // ['2', '0', '0', '11']
} else {
versionArray = versionStr.split(".");
}
var versionMajor = versionArray[0];
var versionMinor = versionArray[1];
var versionRevision = versionArray[2];
// is the major.revision >= requested major.revision AND the minor version >= requested minor
if (versionMajor > parseFloat(reqMajorVer)) {
return true;
} else if (versionMajor == parseFloat(reqMajorVer)) {
if (versionMinor > parseFloat(reqMinorVer))
return true;
else if (versionMinor == parseFloat(reqMinorVer)) {
if (versionRevision >= parseFloat(reqRevision))
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
}
function AC_AddExtension(src, ext)
{
if (src.indexOf('?') != -1)
return src.replace(/\?/, ext+'?');
else
return src + ext;
}
function AC_Generateobj(objAttrs, params, embedAttrs)
{
var str = '';
if (isIE && isWin && !isOpera)
{
str += '<object ';
for (var i in objAttrs)
{
str += i + '="' + objAttrs[i] + '" ';
}
str += '>';
for (var i in params)
{
str += '<param name="' + i + '" value="' + params[i] + '" /> ';
}
str += '</object>';
}
else
{
str += '<embed ';
for (var i in embedAttrs)
{
str += i + '="' + embedAttrs[i] + '" ';
}
str += '> </embed>';
}
document.write(str);
}
function AC_FL_RunContent(){
var ret =
AC_GetArgs
( arguments, ".swf", "movie", "clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"
, "application/x-shockwave-flash"
);
AC_Generateobj(ret.objAttrs, ret.params, ret.embedAttrs);
}
function AC_SW_RunContent(){
var ret =
AC_GetArgs
( arguments, ".dcr", "src", "clsid:166B1BCA-3F9C-11CF-8075-444553540000"
, null
);
AC_Generateobj(ret.objAttrs, ret.params, ret.embedAttrs);
}
function AC_GetArgs(args, ext, srcParamName, classid, mimeType){
var ret = new Object();
ret.embedAttrs = new Object();
ret.params = new Object();
ret.objAttrs = new Object();
for (var i=0; i < args.length; i=i+2){
var currArg = args[i].toLowerCase();
switch (currArg){
case "classid":
break;
case "pluginspage":
ret.embedAttrs[args[i]] = args[i+1];
break;
case "src":
case "movie":
args[i+1] = AC_AddExtension(args[i+1], ext);
ret.embedAttrs["src"] = args[i+1];
ret.params[srcParamName] = args[i+1];
break;
case "onafterupdate":
case "onbeforeupdate":
case "onblur":
case "oncellchange":
case "onclick":
case "ondblclick":
case "ondrag":
case "ondragend":
case "ondragenter":
case "ondragleave":
case "ondragover":
case "ondrop":
case "onfinish":
case "onfocus":
case "onhelp":
case "onmousedown":
case "onmouseup":
case "onmouseover":
case "onmousemove":
case "onmouseout":
case "onkeypress":
case "onkeydown":
case "onkeyup":
case "onload":
case "onlosecapture":
case "onpropertychange":
case "onreadystatechange":
case "onrowsdelete":
case "onrowenter":
case "onrowexit":
case "onrowsinserted":
case "onstart":
case "onscroll":
case "onbeforeeditfocus":
case "onactivate":
case "onbeforedeactivate":
case "ondeactivate":
case "type":
case "codebase":
case "id":
ret.objAttrs[args[i]] = args[i+1];
break;
case "width":
case "height":
case "align":
case "vspace":
case "hspace":
case "class":
case "title":
case "accesskey":
case "name":
case "tabindex":
ret.embedAttrs[args[i]] = ret.objAttrs[args[i]] = args[i+1];
break;
default:
ret.embedAttrs[args[i]] = ret.params[args[i]] = args[i+1];
}
}
ret.objAttrs["classid"] = classid;
if (mimeType) ret.embedAttrs["type"] = mimeType;
return ret;
}
CS4:
This javascript code is put in the published html file:
It appears that the only reason that javascript is needed by flash is for the different versions of flash player.
The ideal way to deal with your scenario - a set of link buttons in Flash that won't work without JS enabled - is to set up a div with your links in plain HTML, and then have JS replace the content of the div with your Flash. That way, if JS is disabled, the links that were originally in the div will remain visible, and if JS is enabled, they'll be replaced with your Flash content instead.
Yes, that is how I have been designing the navigation for my site where I use flash.