A message to the QuickTime Developer mailing list confirms earlier reports that Apple has developed a workaround for users of Internet Explorer on Windows systems to combat issues where IE 5.5SP2 and IE 6.0 do display QuickTime content in the browser.

Windows Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2 and 6.0 with QuickTime

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.



NOTE: THIS ISSUE AFFECTS ONLY USERS OF INTERNET EXPLORER ON WINDOWS.



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:

















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/

by MacNN Staff