HTML 4.0.1 (fwd)

This was sent directly to me.

Regards,

-- Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett
phone: +44 122 578 2984 (or 2521) +44 385 320 444 (gsm mobile)
World Wide Web Consortium (on assignment from HP Labs)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 12:59:01 -0500 (CDT)
From: Mark Needleman <mneedlem@dra.com>
To: dsr@w3.org
Subject: HTML 4.0.1

Mr Raggett


I was reviewing the HTM 4.0.1 specification that was recently put our for
review. It mentions that the meta autorefresh example was taken out since
its not part of the specification. It suggests server side includes
instead. As far as I can tell this is not exactly the same thing. Perhaps
you could explain how a server side include could do this.

The functionality wanted is to be able to change the page after a defined
time period. For example, the company I work for makes a Web based online
catalog for libraries. It is session oriented and we use the autorefreah
to time out idle sessions after a site time value and take the browser
back to a main welcome screen. So this is not expirying the content or
referring the browser to another page on the initial get request - but
having the browser take action after some elapsed period of time

Expires or Location in HTTP wont do this - expires because it doesnt force
the browser to do anything and location because that would be an immediate
referral

It would be nice to have some standardized mechanism either in HTTP or in
HTML

I realize that just because it was removed from the spec doesnt mean
Browser vendors will stop supporting it - but it would potentially be
easier to count on if there was a standardized mechanism for doing this

Any thoughts or suggestions you have are appreciated

 
Mark H Needleman
Product Development Specialist - Standards
Data Research Associates, Inc.
1276 North Warson Road
P.O. Box 8495
St Louis, MO 63132-1806
USA

Phone: 800 325-0888 (US/Canada)
       314 432-1100 x318
Fax: 314 993-8927
 
Email: mneedleman@dra.com

Received on Wednesday, 1 September 1999 07:17:11 UTC