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Thread: Redirect without browser interaction
Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)
From: julian.rickards@ndm.gov.on.ca
Date: Tue, Mar 09 2004 8:19AM
Subject: Redirect without browser interaction
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Hi:
This is a question that may require someone with ASP or PHP experience and
also HTTP knowledge.
Regarding WCAG Checkpoint 7.5 "Until user agents provide the ability to stop
auto-redirect, do not use markup to redirect pages automatically. Instead,
configure the server to perform redirects."
We, at work, have our default pages named default_e.asp because at the
Ontario (Canada) government, both English and French are official languages
and our web master has decided that English pages end in _e.asp and French
_f.asp. Because the Web server is configured to use default.asp as the
default page (don't bother suggesting that we change it - another department
of the government has a titanium/cobalt-enhanced grip on the servers), our
web master created for us the file called default.asp which contains only <%
Response.redirect "default_e.asp" %>. He did this because of 7.5 above but I
just learned that Response.redirect sends HTTP 302 (temporary move) code to
the browser which then requests the identified file/page. My question is:
does the browser's response to HTTP 302 code contravene checkpoint 7.5 or is
7.5 specifically refering to (pardon any syntax errors) <meta
http-equiv="refresh" content="url: time in seconds">. I was also informed
that PHP's equivalent header("Location: index.php") also sends the 302 code.
Thanks,
Jules
---------------------------------------------------------
Julian Rickards
Digital Publications Distribution Coordinator
Publications Services Section
Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines
Phone: (705) 670-5608
Fax: (705) 670-5690
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From: John Hamman
Date: Tue, Mar 09 2004 8:26AM
Subject: RE: Redirect without browser interaction
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Hi Julian, It's my understanding that it's a safe way to redirect. I think
it falls under a server redirect.
John Hamman
-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 10:05 AM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: Redirect without browser interaction
Hi:
This is a question that may require someone with ASP or PHP experience and
also HTTP knowledge.
Regarding WCAG Checkpoint 7.5 "Until user agents provide the ability to stop
auto-redirect, do not use markup to redirect pages automatically. Instead,
configure the server to perform redirects."
We, at work, have our default pages named default_e.asp because at the
Ontario (Canada) government, both English and French are official languages
and our web master has decided that English pages end in _e.asp and French
_f.asp. Because the Web server is configured to use default.asp as the
default page (don't bother suggesting that we change it - another department
of the government has a titanium/cobalt-enhanced grip on the servers), our
web master created for us the file called default.asp which contains only <%
Response.redirect "default_e.asp" %>. He did this because of 7.5 above but I
just learned that Response.redirect sends HTTP 302 (temporary move) code to
the browser which then requests the identified file/page. My question is:
does the browser's response to HTTP 302 code contravene checkpoint 7.5 or is
7.5 specifically refering to (pardon any syntax errors) <meta
http-equiv="refresh" content="url: time in seconds">. I was also informed
that PHP's equivalent header("Location: index.php") also sends the 302 code.
Thanks,
Jules
---------------------------------------------------------
Julian Rickards
Digital Publications Distribution Coordinator
Publications Services Section
Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines
Phone: (705) 670-5608
Fax: (705) 670-5690
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From: Ezra Freelove
Date: Tue, Mar 09 2004 9:13AM
Subject: RE: Redirect without browser interaction
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Tag-based redirects are clunky and given the proper timing require skilled
mouse usage to move backwards. That is what this checkpoint wishes for you
to avoid. As a broader interpretation, any redirecting technology which
makes it difficult for users to nagivate backwards should be avoided.
Server-based redirections are more seamless in that the "bad" page is never
loaded by the web browser. Should the user use the back button, then they
could go back a page. From my experience with Perl, it also appropriately
redirects without caching the middle man page.
Seems to me it would be more efficient to use the power of ASP or PHP to
detect the language used by the browser and pull the appropriate content. In
effect the web page becomes simply a framework of the overall design. The
appropriate content is delivered from HTML chunks. The appropriate chunks
could also be reused on multiple pages simplifying maintenance.
Also, have links available to allow the person to switch as appropriate.
While someone may have a computer set to default to English, they may prefer
to read it in French?
Ezra S Freelove
Computer Support Specialist, Webmaster
Microcomputing and System Support, Web Services
Information Technology
Valdosta State University | Ph 229-333-5974
http://www.valdosta.edu/~esfreelo/ | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
Subject: Redirect without browser interaction
<snipped> My question is:
does the browser's response to HTTP 302 code contravene checkpoint 7.5 or is
7.5 specifically refering to (pardon any syntax errors) <meta
http-equiv="refresh" content="url: time in seconds">. I was also informed
that PHP's equivalent header("Location: index.php") also sends the 302 code.
Thanks,
Jules
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From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Tue, Mar 09 2004 9:30AM
Subject: Re: Redirect without browser interaction
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On Tue, 9 Mar 2004 = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = wrote:
> Regarding WCAG Checkpoint 7.5 "Until user agents provide the ability to stop
> auto-redirect, do not use markup to redirect pages automatically. Instead,
> configure the server to perform redirects."
It refers to markup, and this in practice can only mean <meta> tags.
> Because the Web server is configured to use default.asp as the
> default page (don't bother suggesting that we change it - another department
> of the government has a titanium/cobalt-enhanced grip on the servers), our
> web master created for us the file called default.asp which contains only <%
> Response.redirect "default_e.asp" %>.
This does not violate checkpoint 7.5, since the server performs the
redirect. There are other aspects, though, like sending 302 instead of
301, but this is mainly an efficiency issue (the browser is required to
keep using the default.asp address instead of optimizing further
references) and, more importantly, not using automated language
negotiation, which is a fairly advanced topic but worth a look in a
bilingual country, see http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/multi/
(but this is just marginally related to accessibility).
--
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
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From: Jens Meiert
Date: Wed, Mar 10 2004 2:54AM
Subject: Re: Redirect without browser interaction
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> > Regarding WCAG Checkpoint 7.5 " [...]
>
> It refers to markup, and this in practice can only mean <meta> tags.
...and e.g. ECMAScript redirects.
Best regards,
Jens.
--
Jens Meiert
Interface Architect
http://meiert.com/
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From: julian.rickards@ndm.gov.on.ca
Date: Wed, Mar 10 2004 6:50AM
Subject: RE: Redirect without browser interaction
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jens Meiert
> > > Regarding WCAG Checkpoint 7.5 " [...]
> >
> > It refers to markup, and this in practice can only mean <meta> tags.
>
> ...and e.g. ECMAScript redirects.
touch