Re: meta refresh (3.7.5.3. Pragma directives)

On Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:18:52 +0200, Ben Boyle <benjamins.boyle@gmail.com>  
wrote:
> http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#refresh
>
> WCAG is very clear that meta@refresh is bad practice. I believe we
> should deprecate this in HTML5 and provide advice that is aligned with
> the W3C accessibility initiative, namely:
>
>    1. Configure the server to use the appropriate HTTP status code
> (301). Using HTTP headers is preferable because it reduces Internet
> traffic and download times, it may be applied to non-HTML documents,
> and it may be used by agents who requested only a HEAD request (e.g.,
> link checkers). Also, status codes of the 30x type provide information
> such as "moved permanently" or "moved temporarily" that cannot be
> given with META refresh.
>    2. Replace the page that would be redirected with a static page
> containing a normal link to the new page.
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-CORE-TECHS/#auto-page-refresh

This addresses redirects, not refreshes. The use cases for refreshes from  
the WHATWG list if I remember correctly are pages to be shown in a kiosk,  
stock pages that don't want to rely on JavaScript being enabled, etc.  
Can't seem to find the discussion in the archives though.


-- 
Anne van Kesteren
<http://annevankesteren.nl/>
<http://www.opera.com/>

Received on Tuesday, 7 August 2007 14:27:48 UTC