Ran Shalom

Ran,

> My question to you is if you can confirm that Mini-Opera does not support
> this basic functionality???

Opera Mini does not support much interaction after the page has loaded, since
the client itself has no scripting engine or HTTP engine - these are all
handled on the server (which uses Opera's rendering engine, so it has most
of Opera's normal capabilities). It only reacts to basic events, such as
clicking links or buttons, or onclick and onchange event handlers.

It is very easy to provide a simple link that they can use:
<a href="currentpage.html">Reload page</a>
This will serve _all_ browsers that cannot use automatic reloads, not just
Opera Mini. However, since users can always reload using their browser's
menus anyway, there is no need for a link, or a meta/scripted refresh.

I am not trying to make excuses here, but generally, setting an automatic
reload on a page is extremely irritating anyway. I do not allow pages to
automatically reload in my browser, for example. On a mobile, this is
especially important, since browsing on a mobile is already very slow, you
might have only just found the part that you want to read in a minute, at
which point the reload kicks in and you lose everything.

No page should ever rely on meta refreshes or scripting to be usable. That's
the bottom line.


Mark 'Tarquin' Wilton-Jones - author of http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/

Ran,

> The essence of the site I'm running is to provide real-time stock quotes.

Yep, I took a look.

> The auto-refresh (every 1-2 minutes) is a fundamental requirement for such
> a service.

That's fine. If you deem that a requirement then no, Opera Mini does not
fulfill it. Normal Opera Mobile _can_ do both the scripting and meta
refreshes. Opera Mini cannot.

Personally, I find your page perfectly usable without it, and less
irritating (and expensive) too. I prefer to tell it when I want it to
reload, disrupt my UI, and use my bandwidth. But it is your choice, since it
is your site. However, do not assume that your users will all want the same
things as you. If they are using Opera Mini, then you can assume they do not
need that functionality, since they are getting by on the rest of the Web
without it.

You recommending (or not recommending) a browser is not going to make much
(if any) difference. Users will continue to use what they want to, not what
you want them to. If you try telling them to use something they do not have,
they will just go to another Web site.

Good Web sites work in all browsers. Yours already works in them, including
in Opera Mini (albeit without the refresh, but as I said, I prefer it that
way), so I do not see why you need to recommend any specific browsers at
all. You are just going out of your way to make life harder for yourself by
having to maintain an unnecessary list of browsers.

My 2c :)

Tarquin