IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR WEB DEVELOPERS & WEBMASTERS
Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows, versions 5.5 SP2 and 6.0 (soon
to be released) no longer support Netscape-style plug-ins, such as the
plug-in installed as part of QuickTime 5.0.2 and earlier versions. Consequently,
Windows customers using these versions of Explorer who visit your site
may be unable to view QuickTime content in the browser. To mitigate
this problem and to ensure a positive experience for your Web site visitors,
you should add to your site the HTML code that makes available the new
ActiveX control for QuickTime, as described below.
BACKGROUND
QuickTime uses a plug-in mechanism to display movies from your Web page
in the user's browser. Before, you would use an EMBED element alone
to display QuickTime content within the browser, much like in the example
below:
For this mechanism to work, the user must have the QuickTime plug-in
installed on his or her system. If the appropriate QuickTime plug-in
is not installed, when your HTML page with QuickTime content is loaded
into the user's browser, the movie is not visible. Instead, the browser
replaces it with a "broken plug-in icon" and attempts to assist the
user in obtaining the required software. An unfortunate side effect
of this approach is that the user is directed away from your site and
is distracted by the installation process.
THE ISSUE
Until recently, the plug-in installed as part of QuickTime worked for
both Netscape browsers and Microsoft Internet Explorer on both Windows
and Mac OS. Now Windows users who try to play a QuickTime movie in Internet
Explorer version 5.5 SP2 or later will encounter the "broken plug-in
icon" until they install the new QuickTime ActiveX control from Apple
in addition to the QuickTime plug-in. Users of other browsers on either
Windows or Mac OS are unaffected--they can continue to use the plug-in
installed with QuickTime and do not need to get the new QuickTime ActiveX
control.
Once users have the new ActiveX control installed, they are also unaffected;
they can also view existing pages.
THE SOLUTION
When authoring web pages, you can easily prevent this problem by authoring
your HTML to check that the required ActiveX control is installed wherever
you have QuickTime content embedded. This HTML change will result in
web pages compatible with Netscape and Internet Explorer browsers on
both Mac and Windows systems (see below for more information).
The required code consists of an HTML OBJECT element with an enclosed
EMBED element as in the following example:
<OBJECT CLASSID="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
WIDTH="160"
HEIGHT="144" CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<PARAM name="SRC" VALUE="sample.mov">
<PARAM name="AUTOPLAY" VALUE="true">
<PARAM name="CONTROLLER" VALUE="false">
<EMBED SRC="sample.mov" WIDTH="160" HEIGHT="144"
AUTOPLAY="true"
CONTROLLER="false"
PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>
CLASSID must always equal:
clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B
CODEBASE must always equal:
http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab
PLUGINSPAGE must always equal:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
The other attributes should be customized to your web page. You need
to substitute "sample.mov" (in both SRC attribute elements) with the
URL of the actual movie to be played. You should also change the HEIGHT
and WIDTH parameters to match the height and width of the movie (in
pixels).
If you already have EMBED elements for the QuickTime plug-in on the
relevant pages, you need to enclose each of them in an OBJECT element
with CLASSID and CODEBASE parameter values as shown above and with SRC
and other parameter values to match those in your existing EMBED element.
The OBJECT element can use any EMBED attributes QuickTime understands.
Visit http://www.apple.com/quicktime/authoring/embed.html
for more information.
For existing web pages, it may be sufficient to add such an OBJECT
element to the "front door" page of your site. Once the OBJECT element
on the "front door" page has caused the user to install the ActiveX
control, all subsequent pages with the original EMBED elements will
work properly. In cases where you cannot be certain that the "front
door" page is always visited, then all your pages should be revised
to use these OBJECT elements.
HOW IT WORKS
The OBJECT element is used by Internet Explorer on Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP
platforms and by other browsers that support the QuickTime ActiveX control.
The enclosed EMBED element is used by Netscape browsers, Internet Explorer
for the Mac, and other browsers that support the "Netscape style" QuickTime
plug-in. Browsers that understand the OBJECT element ignore the EMBED
element; those that don't understand the OBJECT element use the EMBED
element.
Within the OBJECT element, the CLASSID parameter uniquely identifies
which ActiveX control to use. A CLASSID parameter with the value "clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
tells Internet Explorer to use the QuickTime ActiveX control. (You must
use exactly this value; it is the only value that identifies the QuickTime
ActiveX control). If the user does not already have the ActiveX control
installed on his or her system, the CODEBASE parameter tells the browser
where to find it for downloading. Internet Explorer will automatically
offer to download and install the ActiveX control for the user, after
which the movie can be played without restarting the browser, or, if
QuickTime is not already installed, will prompt the user to download
and install QuickTime. You must always use "http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab"
for the CODEBASE URL. This URL will always have the latest version of
the QuickTime ActiveX control.
Because a browser will use either the OBJECT element or the EMBED element,
but not both, most of the element attributes must be included in each.
Note that in the example above the EMBED element has autoplay="true"
and the OBJECT element has , so the
movie will begin to play automatically whether it is loaded with the
QuickTime ActiveX control or the QuickTime plug-in. The only attributes
that should not be duplicated are CLASSID, CODEBASE, and PLUGINSPAGE.
CLASSID and CODEBASE are specific to the OBJECT element. PLUGINSPAGE
is specific to the EMBED element. Although Windows Internet Explorer
5.5 SP2 and 6.0 will no longer use the QuickTime plug-in, once the QuickTime
ActiveX control has been installed on a user's system, these versions
of Internet Explorer will use the installed ActiveX control to satisfy
a properly coded EMBED element.
ADDITIONAL READING
For more information on the OBJECT element, see:
* The W3C Web site at
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/objects.html#edef-OBJECT
For more information on HTML in general, see:
* HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide 4th Edition, by Chuck Musciano
& Bill Kennedy, published by O'Reilly.
* Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference, by Danny Goodman, published
by O'Reilly.
For more information about QuickTime on Web sites, see: QuickTime for
the Web, published by Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/quicktime/qtdevdocs/QT4WebPage/QT4WebBook.htm
For more information on Internet development, see: http://developer.apple.com/internet/
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