meta refresh gets the popup treatment
It seems that Firefox 3 will include an option to treat meta refreshes much the same way as popups - blocking them and alerting the user what the page wants to do. It's another step forwards in letting the user take control.
Of course, Opera users already have this option; using opera:config#UserPrefs|ClientRefresh. Neat, although an alert would be good; as would site-specific settings. Hopefully the feature will be refined in future versions.
Really though, either way is good as it gives the user a little more control over their browser. Automatic refreshes and redirects break accessibility recommendations. They're one of those things which gets written up as "until browsers provide a way to control...".
As these features become more widespread, the importance of fallback options will become even more critical. Just like scripts need a <noscript>, meta refreshes need a link in the document. Many pages don't have them, though; so no accessibility or SEO juice for them!
It serves as a good reminder that we should provide alternatives any time we modify the behaviour of a page. I have had people say in the past that meta refresh was so simple nothing could go wrong. Well, that assumption will bite them on the arse...! :)
We should always assume that somehow, somewhere such features will be disabled. It's not hard to provide an alternative, so it should remain our habit to do so.
how to disable meta-refresh
- In Opera 9 (Win/Mac): browse to opera:config#UserPrefs|ClientRefresh, then deselect the option and restart Opera.
- Firefox 2 (Win/Mac): install the Web Developer's Toolbar and click Disable → Disable Meta Redirects.
- In Internet Explorer 6 and 7: go to Tools → Internet options → Security tab → Custom Level button → Miscellaneous category → set "Allow META REFRESH" to Disable.
- Safari 2: currently I don't know of a way to disable it in Safari.
Labels: accessibility, browsers, disable, firefox, ie, meta refresh, opera
htaccess redirects... But what to do with the hoster that blocks htaccess use on a Windows server. This is going to pressent another problem requiring a creative workaround.
Well, I, for one, am glad about this. I'm hoping it makes it into SeaMonkey, which I like far better than Firefox (I'm guessing it will, since it's a Gecko feature, right?). But accessibility shmaccesibility... I hate the meta refreshes because they're annoying and slow me down. Sites are like, "I could give you the file to download now, but I'd rather make you wait 30 seconds."
Sorry for the rant.
- php: header("Location: http://example.com/");
- asp.net: Response.AppendHeader("Refresh", "0; url=http://example.com/");
both are accessible and suitable alternatives
@alexanderpas: While those methods are certainly effective in redirecting the user, I wouldn't say they were "accessible" - WCAG accessibility guidelines recommend that you don't automatically forward the user. Not saying there aren't times we need to refresh a page (especially within apps), just that we should be careful with our terminology/reasoning.