Embed

Embed End Tag: Required Support Key: 2 \| 3 \| 3.2 \| 4 \| IE3B2 \| M \| *N1.1* \| O3	What is it? Attributes Tag Example	Parent/Content Model Tips & Tricks Browser Peculiarities
= Index DOT Html by Brian Wilson [bloo@blooberry.com] =

What is it?: The EMBED element is the method used to integrate Netscape Plug-In technology into a web page. The element has three mandatory attributes [HEIGHT, SRC, and WIDTH] but it is extensible in that it allows any number of additional custom attributes that are dependent on the Plug-In used.

The browser should first try to determine which Plug-In to use based on the file extension of the file in the SRC attribute. If it can not determine what Plug-In to use, it will then query the user to determine what to do.
Note:: There does not appear to be any official references on this element anywhere. I have pieced this page together from many different sources and it may not be complete. Also: Some examples in use that I have seen treat EMBED as a stand-alone element (no closing tag used) but I have seen one or two references to this element needing a closing tag. I treat the EMBED element as a container here in these pages. Keep this ambiguity in mind when authoring and be sure to verify the functionality of your pages when using EMBED.

Common Attributes
%Core%: 2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE4 | M | N | O; Details: TITLE and ID are not supported in IE.
%Events%: 2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE | M | N | O
%Language%: 2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE4 | M | N | O
Specific Attributes
Height
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE3B2 | M | N1.1 | O3: Required? Yes; Description:
Specifies the height of the embedded component on the screen.; Values:
Indicates an absolute pixel size (positive integer values) or a percentage of the screen/window to use.
Src
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE3B2 | M | N1.1 | O3: Required? Yes; Description:
Indicates the URL of the multimedia object file.; Values: Either an absolute or relative URL.
Width
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE3B2 | M | N1.1 | O3: Required? Yes; Description:
Specifies the width of the embedded component on the screen.; Values:
Indicates an absolute pixel size (positive integer values) or a percentage of the screen/window to use.

Example: <embed SRC="audio/realaudioclip.rpm" ALIGN="Bottom" WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=20 CONTROLS=StopButton CONSOLE="SoundClip">
<noembed>
Your browser doesn't support plug-ins! Please <a HREF="audio/realaudioclip.ram">play this sound clip</a> using a helper application instead.
</noembed>
</embed>

Tips & Tricks

Although the EMBED element's primary usage now is to include Netscape plug-ins (support for which began in its 2.0 version), it also has another use that dates back to version 1.1. It can be used to embed other documents in an HTML document, like text files, word processor documents or sound files (sort of like IE's IFRAME element, but without the dynamic interaction capabilities that IFRAME allows.)
Internet Explorer now supports this element for backward compatibility, but suggests using the new OBJECT element (the specification developed by the W3C) instead. Support for OBJECT is lower right now than for EMBED, but OBJECT will soon be the new standard for embedding media in HTML documents. Please keep this in mind when authoring documents.
The attributes listed for this element are the most common. This element allows a way to expand the capabilities of the browser, and the attributes given to a plug-in can vary widely. It would be pointless to list every custom attribute for every Plug-In in existence. If you need this information, contact the plug-in creators or go to their web sites.
It has not been verified if the Height and Width attribute listed above support the screen percentage as a value.

Browser Peculiarities

Reports exist of early implementations in Netscape that would crash the program if the URL in the SRC attribute was invalid.
One author reported an example of an embedded element on their web site expanding to the size of the entire browser window. The problematic embedded object was given small dimension (1-2 pixels height/width) and would be accessed using Netscape's own native audio plug-in that ships with the browser. I verified the behavior on the author's site in Netscape 3.0 and 4.0, but I have not been able reproduce it with an example of my own. The strange behavior may possibly be an odd artifact in a special case, but presumably the plug-in dimensional rendering is done by the browser and not the plug-in - so, this may NOT be an isolated case.