Re: time is up warnings on web pages:

Hi David

> In section 508, Provision P) calls for a warning when a session is about to
> expire giving the user an opportunity to get more time in the session.  The
> only way I know of to deliver this warning is through js,  Are there other
> ways and how effective are they and how supported are they?

What I am about to say only applies if pages are being generated by a 
script or programme:

If I were being asked to do this, I would probably use a REFRESH in the 
header; this would cause the same page to re-load at a set interval, 
checking on each load how much time is left.  When the critical time 
were reached, I would switch on a warning message when the page is re-drawn.

Possible problems: I don't know how this would work with screen readers.

Another alternative is Server Side Push; I mention this out of interest 
only because I believe that it is only supported by the Netscape browser 
family.

Practical suggestion: rather than warning just before a session is about 
to expire, state somewhere that "your session will expire in xxx minutes 
unless you do xyz."

Cheers

M

-- 
Matthew Smith
IT Consultant - KBC, South Australia
KBC Web Site    http://www.kbc.net.au
PGP Public Key  http://gpg.mss.cx

Received on Thursday, 12 June 2003 09:25:48 UTC