HTML and CSS [Electronic resources]

Embedding Files Using the

object Element

Another means of providing audio, video, and other multimedia such as Flash animations and Java applets is to embed them directly into the page. This means that the software plug-in automatically loads with the page.

All external files are considered

objects . This includes images as well as multimedia files. In contemporar196 and XHTML specifications, the proper way to include all multimedia is to use the object element to embed a file directly:

<object data="media/video-sample.avi" type="video/avi" />

This results in the player application appearing on the page. The video can then be played (see Figure 3-10).

NOTE

Of course, you can do a lot more in terms of providing advanced settings. To learn more about the many available settings for multimedia, see the excellent tutorial at http://www.w3schools.com/media/default.asp.

In instances with Flash files, you use the object element to achieve inline results, as you can see in Example 3-7.

Example 3-7. Embedding a Flash movie file (SWF) into a page using <object>

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="100" height="100"
 codebase="http://active.macromedia.com/flash6/cabs/ swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0">
<param name="movie" value="media/ava.swf" />
<param name="play" value="true" />
<param name="loop" value="true" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
</object>

In most standards-compliant browsers that also have Flash enabled, the file should play directly upon loading, as shown in Figure 3-11.