object

DITA's <object> element corresponds to the HTML <object> element. The <object> element allows authors to include animated images, applets, plug-ins, ActiveX controls, video clips, and other multimedia objects in a topic for rendering after transformation to HTML.

Contains

( (desc) (optional) then (param) (any number) )

Contained by

body, section, example, p, note, lq, li, itemgroup, dd, fig, stentry, draft-comment, fn, entry, conbody, prereq, context, info, tutorialinfo, stepxmp, choice, choptionhd, chdeschd, choption, chdesc, stepresult, result, postreq, refsyn, proptypehd, propvaluehd, propdeschd, pd

Inheritance

topic/object

Attributes

Name Description Data Type Default Value Required?
declare When this attribute is set to declare, the current object definition is a declaration only. The object must be instantiated by a later nested object definition referring to this declaration. No
classid Contains a URL that specifies the location of an object's implementation. It can be used together with the data attribute which is specified relative to the value of the codebase attribute. CDATA #IMPLIED No
codebase Specifies the base path (a URL) used for resolving the URL values given for classid, data, and archive attributes. If codebase is not set, the default is the base URL of the current document. CDATA #IMPLIED No
data Contains a reference to the location of an object's data. If this attribute is a URL, it is specified relative to the value of the codebase attribute. If this attribute is set, the type attribute should also be set. CDATA #IMPLIED No
type Indicates the content type for the data specified by the data attribute. This attribute should be set when the data attribute is set to avoid loading unsupported content types. CDATA #IMPLIED (No default type) No
codetype Indicates the content type for the data specified by the classid attribute. This attribute should be set when the classid attribute is set to avoid loading unsupported content types. If this attribute value is not set, the default is the value of the type attribute. CDATA #IMPLIED No
archive Specifies a space-separated list of URLs indicating resources needed by the object. These resources may include those URLs specified by the classid and data attributes. Preloading these resources usually results in faster loadtimes for objects. The URLs in the list should be relative to the URL specified in the codebase attribute. CDATA #IMPLIED No
standby Contains a message to be displayed while an object is loading. CDATA #IMPLIED No
height Indicates the maximum height of an image. NMTOKEN #IMPLIED No
width Indicates the maximum width of an image. NMTOKEN #IMPLIED No
usemap Indicates that a client-side image map is to be used. An image map specifies active geometric regions of an included object and assigns a link to each region. When a link is selected, a document may be retrieved or a program may run on the server. CDATA #IMPLIED No
name Submit the object as part of a form. CDATA #REQUIRED Yes
tabindex Position the object in tabbing order. NMTOKEN #IMPLIED No
longdescref A reference to a textual description of the graphic. This attribute supports creating accessible content. CDATA #IMPLIED No
%univ-atts; (%select-atts;, %id-atts;, translate, xml:lang) A set of related attributes, described at %univ-atts; parameter entity PE not applicable Not applicable
%global-atts; (xtrf, xtrc) A set of related attributes, described at %global-atts; parameter entity PE not applicable Not applicable
class, outputclass Common attributes described in Other common DITA attributes

Example

Output processors may need to modify data to enable compatible function across various browsers, so these examples are only representative:
<p>Cutting the keys from the system unit:</p>
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
 codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/
flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0"
 data="cutkey370.swf"
 type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
 height="280"
 width="370"
 id="cutkey370">
 <desc>A description of the task</desc>
 <param name="movie" value="cutkey370.swf"/>
 <param name="quality" value="high"/>
 <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"/>
</object>
<p>What's EIM?</p>
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
 codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/
flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0"
 data="eim.swf"
 height="400"
 width="500"
 id="eim">
 <desc>Some great, glorious info</desc>
 <param name="movie" value="eim.swf"/>
 <param name="quality" value="high"/>
 <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"/>
 <param name="pluginspace"
 value="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"/>
</object>

OASIS DITA Language Specification v1.0 -- 09 May 2005
Copyright (c) OASIS Open 2005. All Rights Reserved.