Re: XHTML and <embed> tag

Hello,

"Rob Champagne" <circles@visualperception.net> wrote:

> In XHTML transitional there appears to be no support for the <embed> tag.  Is this correct?

Correct.

> I have tried using it to run the Flash plugin for Netscape.  The w3c HTML/XHTML validator says embed is invalid.
> If embed is invalid how are you supposed to run the Flash plugin for browsers which do not support activex modules?

Use the object element.  Typical myth is to consider the object element
as something specific to ActiveX.  It is not.  Another myth is that
the object element doesn't work across browsers.  Nowadays that's not
quite correct, either.

You might get the impression that the classid attribute is neccesary to
run Flash via object, which is unfortunately specific to ActiveX
control, so the object element is only for browsers that support ActiveX.
However, what is more important is to identify the media type correctly,
and so long as the correct media type is specified, most browsers are
able to run Flash via object, without classid.  It should be as simple
as like this:

  <object data="yourFlashContent.swf"
          type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
          ... other attributes as necessary ...>
    <param name="movie" value="yourFlashContent.swf" />
    ... other parameters as necessary ...
      ... fall-back content ...
  </object>

Most browsers recognize the resource through the data attribute on
the object element, but IE6/Win seems to require the param element
to specify it.  That's a bit redundant, but not so complex.  And so
long as an appropriate Flash plugin is available, I was able to run
Flash with this simple code on at least the following platforms/browsers:

MacOS X 10.2.6:
  Camino 0.7 / iCab 2.9.1 / IE:mac 5.2.2 / Mozilla 1.0.2, 1.3.1, 1.4RC2 /
  Mozilla Firebird 0.6 / Netscape 7.02 / Opera 6.02 / Safari 1.0

Windows XP SP1:
  DocZilla 1.0 / IE 6.0SP1 / Mozilla 1.0.2, 1.3.1, 1.4RC2 /
  Mozilla Firebird 0.6 / Netscape 4.8, 6.2.3, 7.02 / Opera 6.06, 7.11

I don't have a Flash plugin for Linux and other platforms, but I suppose
cross-platform browsers would also work with this code.  You don't have
to use embed.

Regards,
-- 
Masayasu Ishikawa / mimasa@w3.org
W3C - World Wide Web Consortium

Received on Tuesday, 24 June 2003 08:52:54 UTC