Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Embedded Media

Images aren’t the only things that can be displayed as part of a web page. You can also include content such as QuickTime movies, interactive Flash files, all manner of Java applets, and more. The browser renders embedded media files using the provided self-contained code (as in the case of an applet), using its built-in display devices (as for GIF or JPEG images), or by taking advantage of a plug-in or helper application (as for Windows Media or Flash).

The elements that embed media in (X)HTML are:

object

The W3C recommended element for all media

applet

For Java applets; deprecated in HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0

There is a third nonstandard (and therefore, nonvalidating) element for embedding media that is still used by browsers that use Netscape’s plug-in architecture:

embed

For plug-in dependent media; not part of any HTML Recommendation

Now, take a closer look at each of these elements and their uses.