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Asked: 2026-05-21T12:39:27+00:00

I’m trying to create Dynamic SVG graphics, it is my understanding that the only

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I’m trying to create Dynamic SVG graphics, it is my understanding that the only way to create dynamic SVG is to use a scripting language, so I have a few questions, basically I’d like to load or embed the SVG to a HTML web page and control the graphics using Inputs in the web page, rather than hardcoding the ECMAscript in the SVG file. I’m not entirely sure if I should use the embed tag or an iframe for displaying the SVG here are my doubts regarding SVG and scripting:

  1. Whats the difference (in terms of scripting) in using an <iframe> or and <embed> tag for accessing the SVG elements?, maybe someone can include simple examples.
  2. Can SVG evaluate math expressions in element attributes(just to be sure)?
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  1. Editorial Team

    Don’t use either <iframe> or <embed>. Instead, embed your SVG directly in XHTML like so:
    http://phrogz.net/svg/svg_in_xhtml5.xhtml

    With that, you have full access to the SVG DOM as part of your document. As shown in that example, you simply need to be certain to create SVG elements (but not attributes) using the SVG namespace. You must also ensure that your web host is sending the content type for xhtml as application/xhtml+xml or text/xml, not text/html.

    phrogz$ curl --silent -I http://phrogz.net/svg/svg_in_xhtml5.xhtml | grep "Type"
Content-Type: application/xhtml+xml

    For more examples of JavaScript manipulating SVG mixed with HTML, see the various .xhtml files in that same directory. A particularly compelling example is this one, which dynamically creates hundreds of small SVG files as inline elements flowing like text.

    And to your question:

    Can SVG evaluate math expressions in element attributes(just to be sure)?

    Not in general, no. However, the usage of SMIL Animation does allow you to specify various interpolation methods of properties over time.

    Finally, note that you don’t have to put SVG in HTML to make it dynamic. You can script SVG with JavaScript directly. For example, see this test file (press the green button to start simulation):
    http://phrogz.net/svg/SpringzTest.svg

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