embed | NN 3 IE 4 DOM n/a
The embed object reflects the embed element. Although the embed object is losing favor to the object element in recent browser generations, scripts in browsers such as Navigator 3, Navigator 4, and IE 4/Windows can control media players that load into a page in response to the embed element's pointer to a media file on the server. Properties and methods exposed by the player pass through the embed object so that scripts treat the embed object as if its list of scriptable powers is extended. Properties listed here are the properties that the element object, rather than an external controller, exposes to scripts.
Note that IE 5 for the Macintosh treats the embed object more like the object object, and exposes properties more closely aligned with an object or applet than an embed object. It's of little consequence, however, because through Version 5.1, IE/Mac does not let scripts communicate with external players or controllers.
HTML Equivalent
    <embed>
Object Model Reference
    [window.]document.getElementById("elementID")
    [window.]document.embeds[i]
Object-Specific Properties
align | height | hidden | name | palette
pluginspage | src | type | units | width
Object-Specific Methods
None.
Object-Specific Event Handler Properties
None.

accessKey | NN n/a IE 4 DOM 1
| Read/Write
This is single character key that either gives focus to an element (in some browsers) or activates a form control or link action. The browser and operating system determine if the user must press a modifier key (e.g., Ctrl, Alt, or Command) with the access key to activate the link. In Windows versions of IE 5 and later and Netscape 6, the Alt key is required and the key is not case-sensitive. For Macintosh versions of IE 5 and later and Netscape 6, the Ctrl modifier key is required to effect the action.
Although listed here as a widely shared property, that isn't strictly the case across all implementations. Netscape 6 (per the W3C DOM) recognizes this property only for the following elements: a, area, button, input, label, legend, and textarea. To this list, IE 4 adds applet, body, div, embed, isindex, marquee, object, select, span, table, and td (but removes label and legend). IE 5 adds every other renderable element, but with a caution. Except for input and other form-related elements, you must also assign a tabindex attribute or tabIndex property value to the IE 5 and later element (even if it's simply a value of zero for all) to let the accelerator key combination bring focus to the element. As of Version 7, Netscape does not alter UI behavior if a script changes the property's value.
Example
    document.links[3].accessKey = "n";
Value
Single alphanumeric (and punctuation) keyboard character.
Default
Empty string.

align | NN 6 IE 5(Mac) DOM n/a
| Read/Write
Defines the alignment of the element within its surrounding container. See the Section 8.1.5 at the beginning of Chapter 8 for the various meanings that different values bring to this property.
Example
    document.getElementById("audioPlayer").align = "center";
Value
Any of the alignment constants: absbottom | absmiddle | baseline | bottom | left | middle | right | texttop | top.
Default
left

blur( ) | NN 2 IE 3 DOM 1
Removes focus from the current object, at which time the object's onblur event fires. Note that the range of elements capable of focus and blur (both the event and method) is limited in all browsers except for more recent versions of IE (see the shared tabindex attribute in Chapter 8). Most reliably for backward compatibility, apply the blur( ) method to blatantly focusable elements, such as text input and textarea elements. Assigning the attribute onfocus="this.blur( );" to a text input element, for instance, is a crude but effective backward-compatible way to largely disable a field for browsers that do not provide genuine element disabling.
Use blur( ) and focus( ) methods in moderation on the same page. You can inadvertently trigger endless loops of blurring and focusing if alert dialog boxes are involved along the way. Moreover, be aware that when you invoke the blur( ) method on one object, some other object (perhaps the window object) receives an onfocus event.
Parameters
None.
Returned Value
None.

clientHeight, clientWidth | NN 7 IE 4 DOM n/a
| Read-only
Broadly speaking, these provide the height and width of the element's content, but with minor variations with respect to element padding among various operating system versions of IE and compatibility modes controlled by the DOCTYPE declaration. Not available for all element types in IE for Macintosh. For Netscape 7, values are zero except when an element's content overflows the viewable area, in which case the values reveal the dimensions of the viewable area (e.g., the browser window's content region for the document.body element). See the Section 9.2 at the beginning of this chapter for details.
Example
    var midHeight = document.body.clientHeight/2;
Value
Integer pixel value.
Default
0

clientLeft, clientTop | NN n/a IE 4 DOM n/a
| Read-only
Broadly speaking, these provide the left and top coordinates of the element's content within the box that includes the element's padding, but with minor variations among various operating system versions of IE. Not available for all element types in IE for Macintosh. See the Section 9.2 at the beginning of this chapter for details. More useful information for inline element positioning generally comes from the offsetLeft and offsetTop properties (including Netscape 6). For CSS-positioned elements (including changing an element's position), use style object properties, such as left and top, and (in IE only) pixelLeft and pixelTop.
Value
Integer pixel value.
Default
0

focus( ) | NN 2 IE 3 DOM 1
Gives focus from the current object, at which time the object's onfocus event fires. Note that the range of elements capable of focus and blur (both the event and method) is limited in all browsers except for more recent versions of IE (see the shared tabindex attribute in Chapter 8). Most reliably for backward compatibility, apply the focus( ) method to blatantly focusable elements, such as text input and textarea elements.
To give a text box focus and pre-select all the text in the box, use the sequence of focus( ) and select( ) methods on the element. If this sequence is to occur after windows change (such as after an alert dialog box closes), place the methods in a separate function, and invoke this function through the setTimeout( ) method following the alert( ) method for the dialog. This allows IE/Windows to sequence statement execution correctly.
Parameters
None.
Returned Value
None.

height, width | NN 6 IE 4 DOM n/a
| Read/Write
Provide the height and width in pixels of the element as set by the tag attributes. Changing the values does not necessarily change the actual rectangle of the applet after it has loaded.
Example
    var controllerHeight = document.embeds["audioPlayer"].height;
Value
Integer.
Default
0

hidden | NN n/a IE 4(Win) DOM n/a
| Read/Write
Specifies whether the embedded data's plugin control panel appears on the screen. Changes to this property force the page to reflow its content to make room for the plugin control panel or close up space around a newly hidden panel.
Example
    document.embeds["jukebox"].hidden = true;
Value
Boolean value: true | false.
Default
false

name | NN 6 IE 4 DOM n/a
| Read/Write (IE)
Reflects the name attribute value of the element's tag.
Example
    document.embeds["myEmbed"].name = "tunes";
Value
Case-sensitive identifier that follows the rules of identifier naming: it may contain no whitespace, cannot begin with a numeral, and should avoid punctuation except for the underscore character.
Default
None.

palette | NN n/a IE 4(Win) DOM n/a
| Read-only
Returns the setting of the palette attribute of the embed object.
Value
String.
Default
None.

pluginspage | NN n/a IE 4(Win) DOM n/a
| Read-only
Indicates the URL for downloading and installing the plugin necessary to run the current object's embedded data.
Value
A complete or relative URL as a string.
Default
None returned, but Internet Explorer has its own default URL for plugin information.

readyState | NN n/a IE 4 DOM n/a
| Read-only
Returns the current download status of the object's content. If a script (especially one initiated by a user event) can perform some actions while the document is still loading, but must avoid other actions until the entire page has loaded, this property provides intermediate information about the loading process. You should use its value in condition tests. The value of this property changes during loading as the loading state changes. Each change of the property value fires an onReadyStateChange event (the event does not bubble).
When introduced with IE 4, the property was available for only the document, embed, img, link, object, script, and style objects. IE 5 expanded coverage to all HTML element objects.
Example
    if (document.readyState == "loading") {
    		    //statements for alternate handling while loading
    		}
Value
For all but the object element, one of the following values (as strings): uninitialized | loading | loaded | interactive | complete. Some elements may allow the user to interact with partial content, in which case the property may return interactive until all loading has completed. Not all element types return all values in sequence during the loading process. The object element returns numeric values for these five states. They range from 0 (uninitialized) to 4 (complete).
Default
None.

scrollHeight, scrollWidth | NN 7 IE 4 DOM n/a
| Read-only
Originally implemented in IE 4 for elements that either scrolled or influenced an element's scroll (body, button, caption, div, fieldset, legend, marquee, and textarea), these properties return the pixel dimensions of an element, including elements that are larger than the viewable area in the browser window. This is in contrast to the clientHeight and clientWidth properties for scrollable elements, which return dimensions of only visible portions of the element. IE for the Macintosh, however, interprets the intent of the scroll- properties differently, returning the dimensions of the visible portion.
Starting in IE 5 for Windows, all HTML elements have these properties, and the values for nonscrolling elements are the same as the offsetHeight and offsetWidth properties. Netscape 7 implements these properties for all elements, returning the height and width of the element, whether or not it's in view. The important point is that for key elements, such as the body, the properties mean different things and can disrupt cross-platform operation.
Example
    var midPoint = document.body.scrollHeight/2;
Value
Positive integer or zero.
Default
None.

scrollLeft, scrollTop | NN 7 IE 4 DOM n/a
| Read/Write
Provide the distance in pixels between the actual left or top edge of the element's physical content and the left or top edge of the visible portion of the content. Setting these properties allows you to use a script to adjust the scrolling of content within a scrollable container, such as text in a textarea element or an entire document in the browser window or frame. When the content is not scrolled, both values are zero. Setting the scrollTop property to 15 scrolls the document upward by 15 pixels in the window; the scrollLeft property is unaffected unless explicitly changed. The property values change as the user adjusts the scrollbars. This is important for some event-driven positioning tasks in IE for Windows because the coordinate system for event offset measurements are with respect to the visible area of a page in the browser window. You must add document.body scrolling factors to align event coordinates with body content positions (see the element dragging example in Chapter 6). Starting with IE 5 for Windows, the scrollLeft and scrollTop properties are available for all HTML element objects, but values for unscrollable elements are zero.
Example
    document.body.scrollTop = 40;
Value
Positive integer or zero.
Default
0

src | NN n/a IE 4(Win) DOM n/a
| Read/Write
Indicates URL of the external content file associated with the object. Although some controllers may respond to changes of this attribute, it is more reliable to load a different file into the controller via its own loading method or property.
Example
    document.embeds["myEmbed"].src = "tunes/dannyboy.wav";
Value
Complete or relative URL as a string.
Default
None.

tabIndex | NN 6 IE 4 DOM 1
| Read/Write
This is a number that indicates the sequence of this element within the tabbing order of all focusable elements in the document. Tabbing order follows a strict set of rules. Elements that have values other than zero assigned to their tabIndex properties are first in line when a user starts tabbing in a page. Focus starts with the element with the lowest tabIndex value and proceeds in order to the highest value, regardless of physical location on the page or in the document. If two elements have the same tabIndex values, the element that comes earlier in the document receives focus first. Next come all elements that either don't support the tabIndex property or have the value set to zero. These elements receive focus in the order in which they appear in the document.
The W3C DOM and Netscape 6 limit the tabIndex property to the following element objects: a, area, button, input, object, select, textarea. To this list, IE 4 adds applet, body, div, embed, isindex, marquee, span, table, and td. IE 5 adds every other renderable element. A negative value in IE (only) removes an element from tabbing order entirely.
Links and anchors cannot be tabbed to with the Mac version of IE 4, so the tabIndex property for a element objects is ignored in that version.
Example
    document.getElementById("link3").tabIndex = 6;
Value
Integer.
Default
0

type | NN 6 IE n/a DOM n/a
| Read-only
Indicates the MIME type of the external data assigned to the element's type attribute.
Example
    var dataMIME = document.embeds["myEmbed"].type;
Value
Any valid MIME type name as a quoted string, including the type and subtype portions delimited by a forward slash.
Default
None.

units | NN n/a IE 4(Win) DOM n/a
| Read/Write
Specifies the unit of measure for the height and width dimensions of the element. Internet Explorer appears to treat all settings as pixels.
Example
    document.getElementById("myEmbed").units = "ems";
Value
Any of the following case-insensitive constants (as a string): pixels | px | em.
Default
pixels

width |
See height.