# Ripping my hair out with ExternalInterface

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/ripping-my-hair-out-with-externalinterface/178998>\
**Category:** flash\
**Created:** [February 15, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/ripping-my-hair-out-with-externalinterface/178998 "2006-02-15T23:25:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![necrotic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@necrotic](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/necrotic)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/ripping-my-hair-out-with-externalinterface/178998/1 "2006-02-15T23:25:04Z")

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I’ve been trying for the past 3 hours to get Flash 8’s ExternalInterface to do what I need.

It’s making me mad, because if I simply do ExternalInterface.call(“alert”,“HEY”); it works. But if I do what I need to (document.getElementById(‘DiaryFrame’).style.display=‘block’) it doesn’t work. I’ve tried creating a function as well, even with just a simple alert in it. So for some reason, ExternalInterface isn’t working with anything BUT alert().

Any ideas?

[http://girsbrain.org/JLS/Javascript/diary.html](http://girsbrain.org/JLS/Javascript/diary.html) Page in question  
[http://girsbrain.org/JLS/Javascript/diary.fla](http://girsbrain.org/JLS/Javascript/diary.fla)

Any tips would be GREATLY appreciated, I’m at my whits end.