NOTE: There is no MIME type web server configuration required for the Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 ActiveX version of Crescendo and Crescendo PLUS!
The basic HTML tag parameters are:
<OBJECT ID=Crescendo
CLASSID="clsid:0FC6BF2B-E16A-11CF-AB2E-0080AD08A326"
HEIGHT=55
WIDTH=200>
<PARAM NAME="Song" VALUE="http://www.website.com/~yourname/yourmidifile.mid">
</OBJECT>
In order to make it compatible with Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0 browsers, you add an EMBED tag as follows:
<OBJECT ID=Crescendo
CLASSID="clsid:0FC6BF2B-E16A-11CF-AB2E-0080AD08A326"
HEIGHT=55
WIDTH=200>
<PARAM NAME="Song" VALUE="http://www.website.com/~yourname/yourmidifile.mid">
<EMBED SRC="yourmidifile.mid"
HEIGHT=55 WIDTH=200>
<BGSOUND SRC="yourmidifile.mid">
</OBJECT>
This works because Netscape doesn't see the <OBJECT...> tag, and Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) 3.0 doesn't see the <EMBED...> tag if it finds the object. If MSIE doesn't find the object, it will see both the <EMBED...> tag and the <BGSOUND...> tag but will only play one as long as the Crescendo MIDI device is set to Midi Mapper.
For more information see the World Wide Web Consortium's Working Draft 22, Inserting objects into HTML.
1. Use of CODEBASE for automatic installation and upgrades
The CODEBASE property may now be specified to cause Crescendo PLUS to be automatically installed or upgraded on the websurfer's PC as shown below:
<!-- Crescendo PLUS ActiveX automatic installation
tag using CODEBASE -->
<OBJECT ID=Crescendo
CLASSID="clsid:0FC6BF2B-E16A-11CF-AB2E-0080AD08A326"
ALIGN="CENTER"
HEIGHT=55
WIDTH=200
CODEBASE="ftp://ftp1.liveupdate.com/labtech/beta/cplus/cres.cab#Version=2,2,0,6">
<PARAM NAME="Song" VALUE="yourmidifile.mid">
<PARAM NAME="Nosave" VALUE="True">
<EMBED src="yourmidifile.mid" height=55 width=200>
</OBJECT>
The ".cab" file contains both the code and an installation script that installs the following files in the Windows System directory (System32 for NT): cres.ocx, cresseq.dll, cres95.dll, and cresnt.dll, and adds the appropriate system registry entries.
Automatic upgrade - The #Version=2,2,0,6 string in CODEBASE specifies the Crescendo / Crescendo PLUS version number that the user's PC should be upgraded to. (The CLASSID for Crescendo and Crescendo PLUS are the same.) Thus, it is now possible to assure that a given HTML page will be viewed with a version that is up to a certain level, allowing use of new Crescendo features without "breaking" the pages for those who have not yet upgraded.
It would certainly be too much to have to change your HTML every time a new version of Crescendo is released. To help avoid this, we will maintain our http://www.liveupdate.com/autoinstall.html page with the latest CODEBASE version number, and links to that can be used to accomplish upgrades to the latest vesion.
2. How to Uninstall
To uninstall the ActiveX version of Crescendo, run the following command from the Start/Run dialog box:
c:\windows\system\regsvr32 /u cres.ocx
Substitute the proper path for your Windows System directory (System32 on NT). To reinstall, run "regsvr32 cres.ocx".
3. Microsoft Internet Explorer behavior with links to midi files
Crescendo PLUS now behaves just as it does in Netscape Navigator 2.x and 3.x.
4. <BGSOUND> inclusion.
At one time there were problems with this tag, but those have been eliminated, as the rare problem where both <BGSOUND> and Crescendo play on top of each other has been cut out in our new versions. For older versions, set the Crescendo MIDI device to MIDI mapper to eliminate the problem.
5. Relative "Song" attribute now supported.
With beta 5, you can use
<PARAM NAME="Song" VALUE="yourmidifile.mid">
instead of
<PARAM NAME="Song" VALUE="http://www.website.com/~yourname/yourmidifile.mid">
(assuming your page is located at http://www.website.com/~yourname).
This should be avoided for a while until most of the clients out there
have been upgraded to beta 5. (Though you can assure this by using the
CODEBASE attribute - see Note 1 above.)
The following applies to both the plug-in (Netscape) and ActiveX (Microsoft) versions:
"Magic" sizes for Crescendo and Crescendo PLUS
The following sizes of Crescendo and Crescendo PLUS have special significance, as follows:
(CD control panel) 
(Crescendo logo and link only) 
(LiveUpdate logo and link only) 
(Note graphic) Optional tag properties (defaults shown):
<PARAM NAME="Autostart" VALUE="true"> - start
automatically
<PARAM NAME="Loop" VALUE="true"> - loop forever
<PARAM NAME="bgcolor" VALUE="#RRGGBB"> - set
background color R, G, B values
<PARAM NAME="txtcolor" VALUE="#RRGGBB"> - set
text color for song counter in upper right
<PARAM NAME="delay" VALUE="1"> - delay the
streaming music by n seconds
(If n is negative, the first n seconds of the piece aren't played.)
