[thelist] object and embed tags and XHTML (2nd try)

John Dowdell jdowdell at macromedia.com
Mon Mar 18 19:49:01 CST 2002


At 2:45 PM 3/17/2, Jonathan Russell wrote:
>Am I mistaken in my belief that the only browsers to accurately load a
>plug-in when using just the OBJECT tag alone are the two latest IE-Win?
>EMBED has never been part of HTML, and XHTML hates it even more. Any
>recommendations on how to embed a sound file and still keep my pages valid?

Yes, you're right, that's mistaken. IE/Win uses an implementation of the
OBJECT tag to call up ActiveX Controls. I don't recall a way it will use a
Netscape Plug-In from anything other than the usual EMBED tag.

(The HTML 4.0 spec recently defined a new use of the OBJECT tag, and their
validators disapprove of pages with rich content. There's a bit of
disconnect between theory and practice here.)

Recap: Want sound to automatically play? Use EMBED and set MIME type and
use proper filename extension.

Sidenote: Watch out that you don't run afoul of the taste validators,
though... people usually prefer to explicitly start a sound themselves,
rather than have it automatically play.

jd




John Dowdell, Macromedia Developer Support, San Francisco CA US
Search technotes: http://www.macromedia.com/support/search/
Offlist email risks capture by the spam filters. I may not see your
email if it's not on the list. Private one-on-one email options are
available via Priority Access: http://www.macromedia.com/support/





More information about the thelist mailing list