Re: Html Question/suggestion

"Daly, Paul" wrote:
> 
> Will there be any control over the refresh of documents? This may be a
> browser issue but, I am trying to develop Intranet web applications that
> function more like traditional applications. In doing so I am doing back end
> processing in a hidden frame. Any page reloading can stop the process before
> it has completed.
> 
> I can do a work around but was wondering if there might be more control in
> HTML 4.0 that allows for development that resembles traditional
> applications.

Paul,

Refresh is possible by (at least) two techniques I'm aware of
for HTML: META and scripting. 

The META technique is not specified by HTML, and I doubt that
the HTML spec will include informationa about it other than
what is already there [1] in 7.4.4:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
     Note. Some user agents support the use of META to 
     refresh the current page after a specified number 
     of seconds, with the option of replacing it by a 
     different URI. Authors should not use this technique
     to forward users to different pages, as this makes the 
     page inaccessible to some users. Instead, automatic page 
     forwarding should be done using server-side redirects.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

The scripting technique, is not part of HTML either - it's part
of the scripting language. It may be possible, using the DOM,
to control some of what a script does, but I don't think that
the HTML 4 specification will say more about scripts.

Please note, however, that I am not the HTML WG and future versions
of HTML may include different forms of refresh control. I suspect,
however, that that control should reside in HTTP rather than HTML.

 -Ian

[1]
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/struct/global.html#h-7.4.4.2


-- 
Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel/Fax:                     +1 212 684-1814
Cell:                        +1 917 450-8783

Received on Monday, 17 January 2000 18:10:29 UTC