Facebook comment plugin Angularjs - facebook

I am facing a strange error while adding the facebook comment plugin in my AngularJS app.
The simplified structure of the app page is
<html ng-app="myapp">
<head>
...
</head>
<body>
<div>
...
</div>
<div ng-view></div>
...
</body>
</html>
The page with fb comment box is loaded in ng-view. The structure of page that contains fb comment box is as follows
<div id="fb-comment-box>
<div class="fb-comments" data-href="http://mydomain.com/page/{{ page.id }}" data-numposts="5" data-colorsheme="light"></div>
</div>
The page is angularjs scope variable which comes from controller. When i load this page in browser and do inspect element. It shows the correct page id i.e. data-href is
data-href = "http://mydomain.com/page/2"
But below the fb comment box, Facebook shows following error
Warning: http://mydomain.com/page/%7B%7B%20page.id%7D%7D is
unreachable.
I can see the angularJS scope variable is not binding. Does anyone know how to solve this issue?

This is probably due to the fact that the FB functionality kicks in before Angular is able to change the data-href attribute.
A directive seems like a good choice here:
You basically need to create the comment-box after Angular can provide the correct URL.
Because this involves asynchronous DOM manipulation, you need to use FB.XFBML.parse() to let FB process the comment-box once the data-href attribute is changed.
The directive:
.directive('dynFbCommentBox', function () {
function createHTML(href, numposts, colorscheme) {
return '<div class="fb-comments" ' +
'data-href="' + href + '" ' +
'data-numposts="' + numposts + '" ' +
'data-colorsheme="' + colorscheme + '">' +
'</div>';
}
return {
restrict: 'A',
scope: {},
link: function postLink(scope, elem, attrs) {
attrs.$observe('pageHref', function (newValue) {
var href = newValue;
var numposts = attrs.numposts || 5;
var colorscheme = attrs.colorscheme || 'light';
elem.html(createHTML(href, numposts, colorscheme));
FB.XFBML.parse(elem[0]);
});
}
};
});
The HTML:
<div id="fb-comment-box" dyn-fb-comment-box
page-href="https://example.com/page/{{page.id}}"
numposts="5"
colorscheme="light">
</div>
NOTE:
The directive's scope will constantly watch for changes in the page-href attribute and update the comment-box. You can change this to suit your needs (e.g. also watch for changes in the other attributes or bind it once and stop watching).
See, also, this short demo.

Related

ng-click and ngRouting on mobile devices

I am completely new to Angularjs and haven’t been doing any code for ages. I started setting up my website again with Angularjs. I have a main page and an about page, to which the user gets via ngRoute on ng-click (or hitting space). Once on the about page, the user can go back by clicking somewhere on the page and so on.
App.js
var app = angular.module("MyApp", ["ngRoute"]);
app.config(function($locationProvider, $routeProvider) {
$routeProvider
.when("/teaser", {
controller:"teaserCtrl",
templateUrl:'teaser.html'
})
.when("/about", {
controller:"aboutCtrl",
templateUrl: "about.html"
})
.otherwise({
redirectTo:"/teaser"
})
});
app.controller("mainCtrl", function($scope, $http, $location) {
$scope.v = {
inverted: false,
display: true,
offwhite: true,
}
$scope.$on("space", function() {
if ($scope.v.teaser) {
$location.path("/about")
$scope.v.teaser = false
} else {
$location.path("/teaser")
$scope.v.teaser = true
}
$scope.$apply()
})
$scope.goHome = function(){
$scope.$broadcast("goHome")
}
});
app.directive("ngMobileClick", [function () {
return function (scope, clickElement, attrs) {
clickElement.bind("touchstart click", function (e) {
e.preventDefault();
e.stopPropagation();
scope.$apply(attrs["ngMobileClick"]);
});
}
}])
HTML
<body ng-controller="mainCtrl as main" ng-mobile-click="goHome()" ng-class="{inverted: v.inverted, bg: v.offwhite}" space>
<div class="content" ng-view ng-hide="v.display"></div>
//My body code
<script ng-init="sw = 'some website'; id="about.html" type="text/ng-template">
<div class="about">
<p class="text" ng-click="next(); $event.stopPropagation()">
<p>some text</p>
<br>
<a ng-href="{{mail}}" ng-click="$event.stopPropagation()">some address</a>
</p>
</div>
</script>
</body>
The code for the about page is written into a script and it has hyperlinks (ng-href). Now my issue: As you can see, I changed my ng-click to ng-mobile-click for the body-section. If I also change it in the script for the hyperlinks, something weird is happening which I can’t really figure out (links change to hover color, but still no redirection to the ng-href.
For the desktop version, the click is triggering ngRoute, but I can also click the links. For the mobile version this is not possible any more. Any ideas how I can fix this? I know, there is no hovering possible, but somehow I need to detect the hyperlinks also on mobile devices without being redirected to the main-page.
As I said: this is my first try with Angularjs and I haven’t done any code for a while, please be as clear as possible!
There is another controller for teaser/about which I haven’t put here, as well as the directive for the keyup.
Any ideas or suggestions? Thank you so much in advance!

Facebook Login Button not appearing in ui-view child

I'm making an AngularJS app with the facebook sdk. The structure comes as follows:
<html xmlns:fb="http://ogp.me/ns/fb#">
<head>
<title>Reportes para Anunciantes</title>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/angular.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/angular-ui-router.min.js"></script>
<!-- more scripts here -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/index.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
FB.init({
appId : 'MYAPPID', //Have an actual app id in my source
cookie : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access
// the session
xfbml : true, // parse social plugins on this page
version : 'v2.0' // use version 2.0
});
angular.bootstrap(document, ['Application']);
};
// Load the SDK asynchronously
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/es_LA/sdk.js";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
</script>
<div id="content" ui-view>
Cargando API de Facebook ...
</div>
</body>
</html>
In the page, I load Angular once the Facebook API is loaded. The site uses xfbml for the login buttons.
The whole angular app is in index.js:
var Application = angular.module(
"Application",
['ui.router'],
['$stateProvider', function($stateProvider){
//$httpProvider.defaults.headers.post['Content-Type'] = 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=utf-8';
$stateProvider
.state('notloggedin', {
templateUrl: 'templates/notloggedin.html',
controller: 'Application.NotLoggedIn'
})
.state('notauthorized', {
templateUrl: 'templates/notauthorized.html',
controller: 'Application.NotAuthorized'
})
.state('inapp', {
templateUrl: 'templates/inapp.html',
controller: 'Application.InApp'
});
}]
);
function FBStatusChecker($state){
this._state = $state;
}
FBStatusChecker.prototype = {
checkAndGo: function(response) { /* omitted - no issue here */ },
/* omitted methods - no issue here */
updateState: function(){
var context = this;
FB.getLoginStatus(function(response) {
context.checkAndGo(response);
})
}
};
Application.StatusChangeService = Application.service('Application.FBStatusChecker', ['$state', FBStatusChecker]);
Application.directive("fbLoginButton", function() {
return {
restrict: 'E',
link: function (scope, iElement, iAttrs) {
console.log("your ass");
if (FB) {
console.log("is broken");
FB.XFBML.parse(iElement[0]);
}
}
}
});
/* omitted controllers - no issue here.
two of them are empty, and one correctly updates the scope
via $scope.$apply(...) for an asynchronous callback */
Application.run(['Application.FBStatusChecker', function(statusChecker){
statusChecker.updateState();
}]);
Let's analyze by parts:
The page uses ui-router to switch between application states. This works as expected. Angular is only loaded (i.e. my module being run) once the FB API was successfully loaded.
The application defines three states, and in run() one of those states is selected.
I omitted the controllers, since two are empty, and the third updates -with no issues- the scope.
I omitted the state-switcher service methods (this has the task to use $state to switch to one of three states depending on facebook state).
There's a directive named fbLoginButton. This directive must be recognized as 'E' (lement), and should match fb:login-button. The directive is successfully matched.
I had no issue generating the button before using AngularJS and ui-router.
Finally, the templates come:
notloggedin.html
<fb:login-button max_rows="1" size="xlarge" show_faces="false" auto_logout_link="false"></fb:login-button>
Debes iniciar sesión en Facebook para continuar.
notauthorized.html
<fb:login-button max_rows="1" size="xlarge" show_faces="false" auto_logout_link="false"></fb:login-button>
Debes autorizar la aplicación para continuar.
inapp.html
<span ng-if="name">
Bienvenido {{ name }}!
</span>
<span ng-if="!name">
Listando ...
</span>
Notes: Also tried HTML5 solution, using div, instead of xfbml.
And my issue is: The facebook buttons are not being shown. Only the corresponding texts are being shown. If i'm logged in Facebook when I hit this page, I get correctly redirected to the expected state, with the {{ name }} being fetched. The same occurs with the other states, so I'm not having issue specificly with graph api, but with xfbml.
And my question is: What am I missing? The directive is being matched but seems that FM.XML.parse has no effect. How can I fix it?
Apparently -discovered it by a lucky mistake- the .parse method ignores the current element, so the parse must start from the parent element. So far, the directive must be changed to:
Application.directive("fbLoginButton", function() {
return {
restrict: 'E',
link: function (scope, iElement, iAttrs) {
if (FB) {
FB.XFBML.parse(iElement[0].parent);
}
}
}
});
which consisted in just adding the .parent property to get the parent DOM node.
However, if two items matched by this directive are siblings (or using another directive with the same functionality), this could be run twice. So recording the element in an array after parsing it, and checking before parsing it, would be a good workaround to avoid doing the parsing twice. Another alternative would be to force a parsing in each state's controller, to the ui-view-holding container. The latter would be implemented like this:
The only directive will be an attribute-based directive, e.g. xfbml-parse in the ui-view element (in my case):
Application.directive("fbLoginButton", function() {
return {
restrict: 'E',
link: function (scope, iElement, iAttrs) {
if (FB) {
FB.XFBML.parse(iElement[0].parent);
}
}
}
});
being no need to implement other directives.
After that, use xfbml-parse directive in the ui-view element. In my case:
<div id="content" ui-view xfbml-parse>
Cargando API de Facebook ...
</div>
which will run the link function every time the state changes.
So: every time the ui-view node renders, the XFBML will be parsed.

When clicking on login with facebook/persona button with angularFire v0.5.0 ($firebaseAuth) user gets redirected immediately to '/'.Why?

My problem is simple, everything in this code works as expected except that everytime, I click on login button, I get redirected to '/'. I do not want that. I want the user to stay on login page until they finish authenticating via facebook/persona/twitter and then get redirected to '/content'.
Here is my router/app/controllers:
var app = angular.module("myapp", ["ngRoute","firebase"]);
app.config(['$routeProvider',function($routeProvider){
$routeProvider.when('/',{
templateUrl: 'landing.html',
});
$routeProvider.when('/login',{
templateUrl: 'login.html',
controller: 'controller'
});
$routeProvider.when('/content',{
authRequired: true,
templateUrl: 'content.html',
controller: 'MyController'
});
$routeProvider.otherwise({redirectTo: '/'});
}]);
app.controller('MyController',['$scope', '$firebase','$firebaseAuth',function($scope,$firebase,$firebaseAuth) {
var ref = new Firebase("https://mybase.firebaseio.com/");
$scope.auth = $firebaseAuth(ref,{path: '/'});
$scope.messages = $firebase(ref);
$scope.addMessage = function(e) {
if (e.keyCode != 13) return;
$scope.messages.$add({from: $scope.name, body: $scope.msg});
$scope.msg = "";
};
}]);
app.controller('controller',['$scope','$firebaseAuth',function($scope, $firebaseAuth) {
var ref = new Firebase('https://mybase.firebaseio.com/');
$scope.auth = $firebaseAuth(ref);
}]);
This (my preferred solution) didnt work either:
.controller('LoginCtrl',['$scope','$firebase','$firebaseAuth','$location',function($scope,$firebase,$firebaseAuth,$location, waitForAuth){
var ref = new Firebase('https://myfirebase.firebaseio.com/');
$scope.auth = $firebaseAuth(ref,{path: '/'});
waitForAuth.then(function(user){
$location.path('/content');
})
}])
My div/button looks as follows (I also have similar one but with 'persona'.):
<div ng-controller="controller">
<div class="facebook-login">
<span><i class="fa fa-facebook-square fa-lg"></i> LogIn with Facebook</span>
</div>
<div class="facebook-login">
<span><i class="fa fa-facebook-square fa-lg"></i> LogIn with Persona</span>
</div>
</div>
I have included the following in my html:
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.6/angular.min.js"></script>
<script src="//cdn.firebase.com/v0/firebase.js"></script>
<script src="//cdn.firebase.com/v0/firebase-simple-login.js"></script>
<script src="//cdn.firebase.com/libs/angularfire/0.5.0/angularfire.min.js"></script>
<script src="//code.angularjs.org/1.2.6/angular-route.js"></script>
<script src="js/app.js"></script>
<script src="js/module.waitForAuth.js"></script>
<script src="//login.persona.org/include.js"></script>
<script src="app.js"></script>
I have enabled facebook login and persona login in my firebase forge. Also I have added my facebook app id and secret too. Everytime I click on the login button I get redirected to '/'. waitforAuth I use is here: https://gist.github.com/katowulf/7328023, but if I use it in my controllers, login with facebook/persona buttons do not work at all. If I use waitForAuth, everytime I click on one of the login buttons I get redirected to '/' immediately instead of login popup.
Anyone? :)
I finally found the solution to my problem. Adding the following stops automatic redirect to '/' before login even takes place:
I just needed to add this:
$scope.$on('$locationChangeStart', function(event) {
event.preventDefault();
});
In here like this:
app.controller('controller',['$scope','$firebaseAuth','$location','$rootScope',function($scope, $firebaseAuth,$location,$rootScope) {
$scope.$on('$locationChangeStart', function(event) {
event.preventDefault();
});
var ref = new Firebase('https://mybase.firebaseio.com/');
$scope.auth = $firebaseAuth(ref);
$rootScope.$on('$firebaseAuth:login', function(){
$location.path('/content');
});
}]);
However, I ran into another problem, because this now doesnt work:
$rootScope.$on('$firebaseAuth:login', function(){
$location.path('/content');
Because after user is finished authenticating they should be redirected to /content (instead of being stuck at login page with login buttons disappearing due to ng-hide (See above)), but it does not matter what I try $location.path('/content') doesnt work.
I tried this:
waitForAuth.then(function(){
console.log('test');
$location.path('/content');
})
But console.log prints out "test" in the console way before user is authenticated, so waitForAuth doesnt seem to work either :/. Somehow waitForAuth fires console.log but it doesnt fire $location.path... Odd.
I even tried doing this (both with waitForAuth and $rootScope.$on:
waitForAuth.then(function(){
console.log('test');
$location.path('/content');
$scope.$apply();
})
But I just get an error that angular $digest is already in progress.
Adding this: ng-click="auth.$login('facebook'); return false;" like that, angular throws me this error :
Error: [$parse:syntax] Syntax Error: Token 'false' is an unexpected token at column 33 of the expression [auth.$login('facebook'); return false;] starting at [false;].
And login buttons become un-clickable... :(
Ohh dear... me :)
I had the same problem where the URL was always reverting back to the homepage. The problem was caused by a simple mistake in the html syntax:
Log out
After I removed # in the href attribute the problem was resolved. Hope this helps others who may experience a similar problem.

Auto complete with multiple keywords

I want . Auto complete text box with multiple keyword. it's from database. if I use jQuery and do operation in client side mean. If the database size is huge, it leads to some issues. I need to know how this is done on the server side and get proper result.
I have already seen this topic but the operation is done on the client side. I need it from the database directly.
<html>
<head>
<title>Testing</title>
<link href="css/jquery-ui-1.10.3.custom.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<style type="text/css">
.srchHilite { background: yellow; }
</style>
<script src="scripts/jquery-1.9.1.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="scripts/jquery-ui-1.10.3.custom.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {
NewAuto();
});
function NewAuto() {
var availableTags = ["win the day", "win the heart of", "win the heart of someone"];
alert(availableTags); // alert = win the day,win the heart of,win the heart of someone
$("#tags").autocomplete({
source: function(requestObj, responseFunc) {
var matchArry = availableTags.slice(); // Copy the array
var srchTerms = $.trim(requestObj.term).split(/\s+/);
// For each search term, remove non-matches.
$.each(srchTerms, function(J, term) {
var regX = new RegExp(term, "i");
matchArry = $.map(matchArry, function(item) {
return regX.test(item) ? item : null;
});
});
// Return the match results.
responseFunc(matchArry);
},
open: function(event, ui) {
// This function provides no hooks to the results list, so we have to trust the selector, for now.
var resultsList = $("ul.ui-autocomplete > li.ui-menu-item > a");
var srchTerm = $.trim($("#tags").val()).split(/\s+/).join('|');
// Loop through the results list and highlight the terms.
resultsList.each(function() {
var jThis = $(this);
var regX = new RegExp('(' + srchTerm + ')', "ig");
var oldTxt = jThis.text();
jThis.html(oldTxt.replace(regX, '<span class="srchHilite">$1</span>'));
});
}
});
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div>
<label for="tags">
Multi-word search:
</label>
<input type="text" id="tags" />
</div>
</body>
</html>
take a look to Select2 it may help you.
Select2 is a jQuery based replacement for select boxes. It supports
searching, remote data sets, and infinite scrolling of results.
link
In your code, you have provided source as array. As you mentioned in comments, problem is how to get the data to source in jquery.
To make this work,
You need to do following
load jquery in header, which is you have already done.
Provid array,string or function for the source tag. [See api for
the source tag][1]
[1]: http://api.jqueryui.com/autocomplete/#option-source
In your serverside script, provid Jason encoded string.
If you check the API, you can see they have clear mentioned this.
Here is the jquery code
$(function() {
$( "#option_val" ).autocomplete({
dataType: "json",
source: 'search.php',
minLength: 1,
select: function( event, ui ) {
log( ui.item ?
"Selected: " + ui.item.value + " aka " + ui.item.id :
"Nothing selected, input was " + this.value );
}
});
});
</script>
Here is the php code, Sorry if you use differnt serverside script language.
<?php
// Create connection
$con=mysqli_connect("localhost","wordpress","password","wordpress");
// Check connection
if (mysqli_connect_errno($con))
{
echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . mysqli_connect_error();
}
$result=mysqli_query($con,"select * from wp_users");
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
{
$results[] = array('label' => $row['user_login']);
}
echo json_encode($results);
mysqli_close($con);
?>

Errors in IE 8 from connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js caused by credits callback

Setup:
Got a working facebook app and am correctly setup for facebook credits transactions (i.e. everything on the serverside is working fine).
In Firefox and chrome transactions complete without issue, however in IE8 the callback upon completing/closing the purchase dialog throws the following errors:
Error 1:
Line: 52 Error: Object doesn't support this property or method
Object doesn't support this property or method JScript - script block, line 52 character 37
Where the function it points to is:
ui: function( params )
{
obj = FB.JSON.parse( params );
method = obj.method;
cb = function( response ) { FBAS.getSwf().uiResponse( FB.JSON.stringify( response ), method ); }
FB.ui( obj, cb );
},
Specifically highlighting this bit:
FBAS.getSwf().uiResponse( FB.JSON.stringify( response ), method )
in the http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js file
Error 2:
Line: 65 Error: Object doesn't support this action
Object doesn't support this action all.js, line 65 character 2198
[The line it points to is a stupidly long unformatted unreadable mess so I'll omit it unless requested]
Specifically highlighting this bit:
delete d._old_visibility
again in the http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js file
The html I'm using (with the app identifying stuffs removed) is as follows:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:fb="https://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<meta http-equiv="Expires" content ="0" />
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content ="no-cache" />
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content ="no-cache" />
<title>[ APP NAME ]</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.2/swfobject.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready
(
function()
{
var appId = [ APP ID ];
var host = [ APP HOST ];
// If the user did not grant the app authorization go ahead and
// tell them that. Stop code execution.
if (0 <= window.location.href.indexOf ("error_reason"))
{
$(document.body).append ("<p>Authorization denied!</p>");
return;
}
// Loads the Facebook SDK script.
(function(d)
{
var js, id = 'facebook-jssdk'; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}
js = d.createElement('script'); js.id = id; js.async = true;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js";
d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(js);
}(document));
// When the Facebook SDK script has finished loading init the
// SDK and then get the login status of the user. The status is
// reported in the handler.
window.fbAsyncInit = function()
{
//debugger;
FB.init(
{
appId : appId,
status : true,
cookie : true,
oauth : true,
});
FB.getLoginStatus (onCheckLoginStatus);
};
// Handles the response from getting the user's login status.
// If the user is logged in and the app is authorized go ahead
// and start running the application. If they are not logged in
// then redirect to the auth dialog.
function onCheckLoginStatus (response)
{
if (response.status != "connected")
{
top.location.href = "https://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?client_id=" + appId + "&redirect_uri=" + encodeURIComponent (host+"[ RELATIVE APP PATH ]") + "&scope=publish_stream,user_about_me,read_friendlists,user_photos";
}
else
{
// Start the application
loadGame();
}
}
}
);
function loadGame()
{
var flashvars = {};
var params = {};
var attributes = {};
params.allowscriptaccess = "always";
attributes.id = 'flashContent';
attributes.name = 'flashContent';
swfobject.embedSWF("[ APP SWF ]?"+Math.floor(Math.random()*10000), "flashContent", "100%", "99%", "10.0", null, flashvars, params, attributes);
}
</script>
<div id="flashContent" >
Loading...
</div>
</body>
This is just a problem for IE 8 but is stopping the app going live since a significant number of users transactions would fail (or rather would complete, be charged and not take effect due to the failed callback).
For the past few days I've been searching for others with this or a similar problem but to no avail.
I've seen some similar issues where people are warned about javascript variables being created globally and causing interfereance or variables being names using keywords reserved in IE but as far as I can tell neither is the case here. The facebook javascript code is fairly boilerplate stuff lifted from facebook dev pages and reliable sources. It may be JQuery (which I have little experience with), however, again, this is lifted from working examples and if there is a problem I can't see it.
Can anyone help?
SOLVED
I won't accept this answer because I honestly don't think the question was answerable/solvable with the info provided and feel it would be bad form. But I want to leave this here for anyone that might be looking for a solution.
Cause of the error
The problem is the result of the combination of facebook hiding the app during 'normal' facebook actions (in this case, displaying the pay prompt) and external interface calls not working in Internet explorer when the app is hidden/not visible.
Solution
Found at http://flassari.is/2012/02/external-interface-error-object-expected/#comment-1743
All of these steps may not be neccessary but in the end what I did was:
Stop facebook hiding the app by overriding the visibility using
<style>
#[ ID OF THE FLASH OBJECT]
{
visibility: visible !important;
}
</style>
Adding wmode = "opaque"; to the swfobject params
Using the optional flash_hide_callback by adding hideFlashCallback:"OnHideFlash" to the FB.init options in the actionscript to move/hide the app instead, where OnHideFlash is a javascript function:
function OnHideFlash(params)
{
if (params.state == 'opened')
{
getSwf().style.top = '-10000px';
} else
{
getSwf().style.top = '';
}
}
Where getSwf() is your prefered method of getting the flash app object.
Hopefully this will save some people the suffering of pouring through the endless 'reasons that XYXY doesn't work in IE' questions and solutions that has been my last few days.
I suggest putting your code through a JavaScript Lint tool and correcting any errors you find. IE8 is extremely picky about how JavaScript is coded, while Firefox and Chrome are ok with minor mistakes. If your code is error free (after linting), it should work properly.