<object>: The External Object element

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The <object> HTML element represents an external resource, which can be treated as an image, a nested browsing context, or a resource to be handled by a plugin.

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Attributes

This element includes the global attributes.

archive

A space-separated list of URIs for archives of resources for the object.

border

The width of a border around the control, in pixels.

classid

The URI of the object's implementation. It can be used together with, or in place of, the data attribute.

codebase

The base path used to resolve relative URIs specified by classid, data, or archive. If not specified, the default is the base URI of the current document.

codetype

The content type of the data specified by classid.

data

The address of the resource as a valid URL. At least one of data and type must be defined.

declare

The presence of this Boolean attribute makes this element a declaration only. The object must be instantiated by a subsequent <object> element. Repeat the <object> element completely each time the resource is reused.

form

The form element, if any, that the object element is associated with (its form owner). The value of the attribute must be an ID of a <form> element in the same document.

height

The height of the displayed resource, in CSS pixels. — (Absolute values only. NO percentages)

name

The name of valid browsing context (HTML5), or the name of the control (HTML 4).

standby

A message that the browser can show while loading the object's implementation and data.

type

The content type of the resource specified by data. At least one of data and type must be defined.

usemap

A hash-name reference to a <map> element; that is a '#' followed by the value of a name of a map element.

width

The width of the display resource, in CSS pixels. — (Absolute values only. NO percentages)

Examples

Embed a video

HTML

html
<object
  type="video/webm"
  data="https://interactive-examples.mdn.mozilla.net/media/cc0-videos/flower.webm"
  width="600"
  height="140">
  <img src="path/image.jpg" alt="useful image description" />
</object>

Result

If the video in the example fails to load, the user will be provided with an image as fallback content. The <img> tag is used to display an image. We include the src attribute set to the path to the image we want to embed. We also include the alt attribute, which provides the image with an accessible name. If the image also fails to load, the content of the alt attribute will be displayed.

Technical summary

Content categories Flow content; phrasing content; embedded content, palpable content; if the element has a usemap attribute, interactive content; listed, submittable form-associated element.
Permitted content zero or more <param> elements, then transparent.
Tag omission None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents Any element that accepts embedded content.
Implicit ARIA role No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles application, document, img
DOM interface HTMLObjectElement

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard
# the-object-element

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also