Refresh tag patch...
Last Spring we deployed Dillo 7.2 for use in library lookup stations at a local elementary school. Dillo ran beautifully in our LTSP lab and on 4 CD booted, diskless P-120's with 64 megabytes of ram: http://otero.harrison.k12.co.us/Linux/lab.html For catalog searches, the librarians, teachers and kids love Dillo and prefer it to Mozilla on Linux or IE on Win98. We would like to install diskless Linux lookup stations in all the school libraries... which would replace 200+ Windows 98 installs. The *only* problem is that the card catalog server (Accent) uses sessions that require periodic client refresh. If the sessions time out, the server produces an error message that confuses the kids and frequently requires teacher intervention. I understand and respect the reasons for not supporting the refresh tag... but I was wondering if someone may have had this problem and developed a patch or some other technique to make it work. Best regards, Tom Lisjac http://theseus.sourceforge.net
Tom,
Last Spring we deployed Dillo 7.2 for use in library lookup stations at a local elementary school. Dillo ran beautifully in our LTSP lab and on 4 CD booted, diskless P-120's with 64 megabytes of ram:
Great! It is excellent news to know you have deployed dillo in an heterogeneous environment successfully.
For catalog searches, the librarians, teachers and kids love Dillo and prefer it to Mozilla on Linux or IE on Win98.
This is very significative and encouraging: different kinds of users, with varying degrees of expertise had a choice in your lab, and they preferred Dillo!
We would like to install diskless Linux lookup stations in all the school libraries... which would replace 200+ Windows 98 installs.
Sounds perfect!
The *only* problem is that the card catalog server (Accent) uses sessions that require periodic client refresh. If the sessions time out, the server produces an error message that confuses the kids and frequently requires teacher intervention.
I understand and respect the reasons for not supporting the refresh tag... but I was wondering if someone may have had this problem and developed a patch or some other technique to make it work.
Let's see: "sessions that require periodic client refresh" It sounds more like cookie sessions combined with cache control directives than HTML-embedded meta refresh tags. (if you can see our custom warning msg, it's a meta-refresh) AFAICS It'd be rare for a server to send a meta-refresh tags because it can generate the page itself. Although I also see that if the resource is elsewhere it can try to redirect the browser, but again HTTP does it better. In anycase, please explain me in more detail what the desired functionality is, to study how to make it happen for you. If it is a cache issue, Madis Janson has a patch for that (only half reviewed by me, but with a good chance to make it into the official tree). I hope this to be the case. ... and if it is the propietary meta-refresh tag, considering that it'll be deployed as a kiosk, a private patch can cut it, but let's hope that's not the case! Cheers Jorge.-
On Fri, 2003-08-08 at 09:16, Jorge Arellano Cid wrote:
For catalog searches, the librarians, teachers and kids love Dillo and prefer it to Mozilla on Linux or IE on Win98.
This is very significative and encouraging: different kinds of users, with varying degrees of expertise had a choice in your lab, and they preferred Dillo!
Yes! I think it's also worth mentioning that Dillo's performance and small footprint made it possible to build these workstations from older equipment that the school was preparing to throw away! Many more Linux boxes have been made available to the kids as a result! :)
The *only* problem is that the card catalog server (Accent) uses sessions that require periodic client refresh.
AFAICS It'd be rare for a server to send a meta-refresh tags because it can generate the page itself. Although I also see that if the resource is elsewhere it can try to redirect the browser, but again HTTP does it better.
The server embeds a meta-refresh tag to re-home the lookup station after a search. Typically, students will do their card catalog queries, get the results and then walk away from the terminal. The refresh tag works well here because it will automatically reset the station back to the main search page for the next user. The librarians said that doing these resets manually was a source of distraction for them last Spring.
In anycase, please explain me in more detail what the desired functionality is, to study how to make it happen for you.
If it is a cache issue, Madis Janson has a patch for that (only half reviewed by me, but with a good chance to make it into the official tree). I hope this to be the case.
Madis and a number of others were kind enough to point me at the patch. It provides meta-refresh along with a number of other nice features. One of the goals for this application, however, is to minimized the screen complexity and number of buttons that the bright and curious 8 years olds can push... so I'm trying to extract the meta-refresh code from the patch and apply it separately. Since C is not my first language, this is proving to be something of a challenge! :) Thanks and best regards, -Tom Lisjac http://theseus.sourceforge.net
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Jorge Arellano Cid -
Tom Lisjac