Web Design in a Nutshell

Adding Media Files with <object>

The <object> tag is an all-purpose object-placer. It can be used to place a variety of object types, such as ActiveX controls, plug-in media, Java applets, images, and more. The following shows the syntax of a simple <object> tag:

<OBJECT CLASSID="url" CODEBASE="url" DATA="url" TYPE="mimetype" ID="name">

The classid is the URL of the object’s implementation (the program). It has the same function as the code attribute of the <applet> tag when used for Java applets. When used for a plug-in media type, classid functions like <embed>’s pluginurl attribute, which points to the place where the appropriate plug-in can be found and automatically installed.

Codebase provides the URL for the plug-in and functions, the same as the codebase attribute in the <applet> tag. For plug-ins, codebase is the same as the pluginspage attribute.

The data attribute represents the URL of the object itself. It is equivalent to the src attribute for the <embed> tag. The type attribute provides the MIME type of the media object.

Objects placed with the <object> tag can be positioned with the standard align attribute, which has the same values as for the <img> tag. If the object is a plug-in, the width and height attributes may be required for the plug-in to function.

When using <object> for Java applets, the object tag may contain a number of parameter (<param>) tags, the same as for the <applet> tag. Unfortunately, as of this writing, Netscape 4.0 does not support <param> tags ...