Table of Contents | Appendices

File Formats | QuickTime Compressors | QuickTime Plugin HTML Options



QuickTime Plug-in HTML tags

Embedding a QuickTime movie created with Electrifier is simple. If you are using a visual HTML editor such as PageMill or Cyber Studio, import the QuickTime movie into the page as you would any other element. If you are generating the HTML by hand, using a text editor, you will need to set up the necessary tags for the example you are creating. The necessary HTML code to embed a QuickTime movie on a page is:

<embed src="URL" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" width="h" height="v">
Additional parameters may be added following the height of the movie, as desired. If you don't need to adjust the playback options for your movie, you can omit all the optional parameters.

Required parameters

src="URL"
Specifies the full name of the QuickTime movie to embed in the web page. As with all embedded content, the src pameter can either be a full URL such as http://www.apple.com/quicktime/preview/samp/trans/samplest/explode.mov or a relative URL such as samplest/explode.mov.

pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/"
Specifies the URL from which the user can fetch the necessary plug-in if it is not installed. This parameter is handled by your browser. If your browser cannot find the plug-in when loading your page, it will warn the user and allow them to bring up the specified URL, from which they can download the QuickTime Plug-In. This parameter should be set to http://www.apple.com/quicktime/ which will point to the latest version of the plug-in.

width=h
Specifies the width of the QuickTime movie in pixels. You should never specify a width of less than 2 since this can cause problems with some browsers: if you want to hide the movie, use the hidden tag instead.
Under normal circumstances, the width you specify in the HTML should be the same as the width of the Electrifier movie. If you use a different width and do not use the scale tag, the movie will be cropped or padded to fit the embedded box, as necessary.

height=v
Specifies the height of the embedded document, in pixels.You should never specify a height of less than 2 as this can cause problems with some browsers: if you want to hide the movie, use the hidden tag instead.
Under normal circumstances, the height you specify in the HTML should be the same as the height of the Electrifier movie (plus 16, if you will be showing the controller). If you use a different height and do not use the scale tag, the movie will be cropped or padded to fit the embedded box, as necessary.

Optional parameters

scale=value
Specifies how to scale the movie. Possible values are tofit, aspect, or a number. If tofit is used, the movie is scaled to fit the embedded box as specified by the height and width tags. If aspect is used, the movie will be scaled to fit the embedded box but will maintain its proportioning. If a number is used, the movie will be scaled by that ratio (e.g. 1.5). If you do not specify scale, its default value is 1.

autoplay=value
Specifies whether the movie should start playing as soon as the QuickTime Plug-In estimates that it will be able to play the entire movie without waiting for additional data. Acceptable values for this parameter are true and false.
If you do not specify autoplay, the default is specified by the user setting in the QuickTime Plug-in Preferences.

cache=value
Specifies whether the browser should cache the movie for faster reloading. Possible values are true or false, or simply cache (which implies true).
Note: The functionality of this tag is only supported by Netscape Navigator 3.0 or 4.0. However, the plug-in settings allow the user to always save the movie to disk cache.
If you do not specify cache, it defaults to the setting specified by the user in the Preferences dialog.

hidden
Specifies the visibility of the movie. There are no values to supply for this parameter. If you do not supply hidden, then the movie will be visible. If you supply hidden, the movie will not be visible (this is generally only appropriate for sound-only movies).

volume=value
Specifies the volume of the movie as a percentage of the maximum volume. If you do not specify volume, it defaults to 100.

bgcolor=hexadecimal value
Specifies the background color for any space that is not filled by the movie. This is separate from the Electrifier movie background color, which provides a solid backdrop for the actors within the movie. You can specify the color of the movie background to match either your web page background color or the Electrifier background color. The bgcolor parameter uses the standard web page color description format, and appropriate values can be simply generated using the HTML color picker in Mac OS 8.

controller=value
Specifies the visibility of the movie controller. Acceptable values for this parameter are true and false. If you do not specify controller, the default is true for QuickTime movies. For compatibility with existing web pages, the default is false for QuickTime VR movies.

playeveryframe=value
Specifies whether every frame of the movie should be played even if it is necessary to play at a slower rate to do so. This parameter is particularly useful to play simple animations. Acceptable values for this parameter are true and false . This option is appropriate for QuickTime movies. Note: playeveryframe=true will turn off any audio tracks your movie may have. If you do not specify playeveryframe , the default is false.

Unnecessary parameters

(these duplicate functionality provided in Electrifier Pro)
loop=value
Specifies how the movie behaves when it has finished playing. Acceptable values for this parameter are true, false and palindrome. Setting loop to palindrome causes the movie to play alternately forwards and backwards. If you do not specify loop, the default is false.

href=URL
Specifies the URL to open when the movie is clicked on. This will provide default behaviour for the movie as a whole, but it does not allow you to specify actions for individual actors, so we recommend that you use Electrifier's actions instead of the href parameter for greater control over your movie's interactivity.
Note: if you are using a relative pathname for the href then it should be relative to location of the movie specified in the src parameter. Note that you can additionally specify a target frame with the href parameter.

target="frame_name"
Specifies the name of a valid frame (including _self, _top, _parent, _blank or an explicit frame name) that will be the target of a link specified by the href parameter. Leaving target unspecified will open the new file in the same place as the current movie.
For example, href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" target="_blank" would open the QuickTime home page in a new window when the movie was clicked on.

hotspot n = "url"
The URL to open when the specified VR hotspot is clicked on.

pan=integer
The initial pan angle for a QuickTime VR movie.The possible range of values is 0.0 to 360.0 degrees. If no pan angle is specified, the default is 0. The pan attribute will set default values for the movie, but it does not allow you to set the angle in response to user actions, so we recommend that you use Electrifier's Set Pan Angle action for greater control and flexibility.

tilt=integer
The initial tilt angle for a QuickTime VR movie. The possible range of values is -42.5 to 42.5 degrees. If no value for tilt is specified, the default is 0. The tilt attribute will set default values for the movie, but it does not allow you to set the tilt angle in response to user actions, so we recommend that you use Electrifier's Set Tilt Angle action for greater control and flexibility.

fov=integer
The initial field of view angle for a QuickTime VR movie.The possible range of values is 0 to 85.0 degrees. If no value is specified for fov, the default is 0. The fov attribute will set default values for the movie, but it does not allow you to set the field of view angle in response to user actions, so we recommend that you use Electrifier's Set Field of View action for greater control and flexibility.

node=integer
The initial node for a multi-node VR movie. If no value is specified for node, the default node and view is used. The node attribute will set default values for the movie, but it does not allow you to change the default node in response to user actions, so we recommend that you use Electrifier's Go to Node action for greater control and flexibility.


File Formats | QuickTime Compressors | QuickTime Plugin HTML Options

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