Firefox hide embeded object bug workaround?

Question

There is a well documented bug in firefox(since version 0.9!) where hiding a flash, java applet, quicktime... really anything you can put in a "embed" or "object" tag makes the embedded content be restarted/reloaded when shown back again.

It seems to occur when modifying any display related attribute on css. Normally this wouldn't be a problem until you start doing complex things like adding a tabbed control to your site with different flash objects on each tab. where you need to jump from tab to tab and keep your state on the flash objects.

Has anyone found a workaround? I've tried hiding the content using the following css, but firefox still renders the flash object while hiding the parent:

.hideme {
  padding: 0 !important;
  margin: 0 !important;
  display: block !important;
  height: 0 !important;
  width: 0 !important;
  border: none !important;
  visibility: hidden !important;
}

while this stops the flash object from reloading... it is still rendered on the page behind other flash objects when switching tabs.

Here is the bug report on bugzilla

Answer 1

Have you tried positioning the Flash off the page instead of hiding it?

.hideme{
  left: -3000px;
}