A need to expand meta http-equiv attributes.

by **wgabrie** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:03 pm

I used the (X)HTML5 conformance checking tool on a page that has a meta experation date.

Code: Select all: <meta http-equiv="Expires" content="Sat, 28 Apr 2007 21:00:00 GMT">

The conformance checker says:

http-equiv is only allowed when it is used for declaring the character encoding.

I think that meta http-equiv should be expanded to support previous functions.

by **zcorpan** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:05 am

wgabrie wrote:I think that meta http-equiv should be expanded to support previous functions.

Why? What are "previous functions"? What do you mean with "support" (be conforming for authors to use or be something that UAs have to implement)?

by **wgabrie** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:07 am

I want to use meta tags to make a page expire on the date I choose. Supporting User Agents will refresh their cache after that date.

The HTTP-EQUIV is/was used to process a webpage with these values: content-type, expires, refresh, set-cookie. I don't know the state of Metadata and UAs, but, I think UA support is stalled to whatever point it's at now.

I'm not saying UAs should support Metadata they don't understand. I do think they should keep the meta knowledge they know now.

by **zcorpan** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:19 am

wgabrie wrote:I want to use meta tags to make a page expire on the date I choose.

Why can't you use real HTTP headers (i.e. configure the server or use a server-side programming language)? Proxies etc. don't pay attention to HTML <meta>, but they do pay attention to HTTP headers.

wgabrie wrote:Supporting User Agents will refresh their cache after that date.

The HTTP-EQUIV is/was used to process a webpage with these values: content-type, expires, refresh, set-cookie.

According to which spec? (Per HTML4, <meta http-equiv> was intended to be processed by the server so that it could send the appropriate headers. In practise no server did this but instead browsers payed attention to it.)

wgabrie wrote:I don't know the state of Metadata and UAs, but, I think UA support is stalled to whatever point it's at now.

I'm not saying UAs should support Metadata they don't understand. I do think they should keep the meta knowledge they know now.

I agree that UAs should continue to support what they already support (and it might have to get specced, but that is unrelated to document conformance).

by **wgabrie** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:05 am

I don't know how to use real http headers or have enough experiance with server-side scripts to work around it. My page is basicly plain html.

by **sfraser** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 2:32 am

Diid you receive any other error messages? Other than the http-equiv.

by **wgabrie** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:26 pm

I also recieved an error for not including a character encoding. I don't know if that is what triggered the error. I haven't desided on an encoding yet.

by **wgabrie** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:26 pm

Just to be clear, I started webcaptions.org. I am creating pages that contain copywrite sensitive information. These pages are in hidden directories for the source author to review before I get permission to make them availible to the public.

I'm afraid that someone determined will stumble onto a hidden folder and find information before I recieve permission to make it public. That's why I want to include a temporary expire meta tag. Then when the page expires, I can remove or update the page. Then, unless a hacker has saved the page it will be updated or removed without a browser cache backup.

by **Cerbera** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 12:54 pm

Your server setup should enable you to password-protect whole directories (including subdirectories). There are standardised methods for doing this which are well supported. Once the document has been approved, you would move it to an appropriate, publicly available directory.

I've been playing with HTTP headers now and then for a couple of months. The Expires header seems to have very good support, as do many of the other HTTP caching headers. If you want your pages to be cached effectively, learning to do it with proper HTTP headers is worth the effort.

by **sfraser** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:38 am

I also recieved an error for not including a character encoding. I don't know if that is what triggered the error. I haven't desided on an encoding yet.

You should have received an error for the

Code: Select all: http-equiv

not being the Character Set. Presently, Character Set is the only

Code: Select all: http-equiv

allowed in the specification.

If that was the only error, I would be very pleased.

As has been written before, HTTP header elements should be the preferred method over Meta Data.