MEME2

id (document-wide identifiers) PARAM elements specify a set of values that may be required by an object at run-time.

Any number of PARAM elements may appear in the content of an OBJECT or APPLET element, in any order, but must be placed at the start of the content of the enclosing OBJECT or APPLET element.

The syntax of names and values is assumed to be understood by the object's implementation. This document does not specify how user agents should retrieve name/value pairs nor how they should interpret parameter names that appear twice.

We return to the clock example to illustrate the use of PARAM: suppose that the applet is able to handle two run-time parameters that define its initial height and width. We can set the initial dimensions to 40x40 pixels with two PARAM elements. <P><OBJECT classid=""> <PARAM name="height" value="40" valuetype="data"> <PARAM name="width" value="40" valuetype="data"> This user agent cannot render Python applications. </OBJECT> In the following example, run-time data for the object's "Init_values" parameter is specified as an external resource (a GIF file). The value of the valuetype attribute is thus set to "ref" and the value is a URI designating the resource. <P><OBJECT classid="" standby="Loading Elvis..."> <PARAM name="Init_values" value="./images/elvis.gif"> valuetype="ref"> </OBJECT> Note that we have also set the standby attribute so that the user agent may display a message while the rendering mechanism loads.

When an OBJECT element is rendered, user agents must search the content for only those PARAM elements that are direct children and "feed" them to the OBJECT. Thus, in the following example, if "obj1" is rendered, "param1" applies to "obj1" (and not "obj2"). If "obj1" is not rendered and "obj2" is, "param1" is ignored, and "param2" applies to "obj2". If neither OBJECT is rendered, neither PARAM applies. <P> <OBJECT id="obj1"> <PARAM name="param1"> <OBJECT id="obj2"> <PARAM name="param2"> </OBJECT>