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- What is it?
- The Meta element is an extensible mechanism for use in identifying
specialized document meta-information. Each Meta tag specifies a
Name/Value pair. If multiple Meta tags are specified with the same
name, their combined CONTENT sections will be concatenated as a comma
separated list to be associated with the common NAME value.
Current common uses
- Client Pull:
- This use of the META tag causes a document to be automatically loaded
after a specified number of seconds. This form uses the HTTP-EQUIV
attribute as the identifier in the META statement with a value of REFRESH.
The content can be either an integer value [N] representing the number of
seconds to wait before refreshing the current page, or a combination value
separated by a semi-colon representing a time value [N] and a URL page
destination [URL].
Syntax 1: <meta
HTTP-EQUIV="refresh"
CONTENT="[N]">
Syntax 2: <meta
HTTP-EQUIV="refresh"
CONTENT="[N]; URL=[URL]">
- Editor Identification:
- The GENERATOR value for NAME is very commonly inserted into documents
by HTML editor programs. It specifies as a value the editor that
generated the code. Web browsers ignore this META tag usage.
Syntax: <meta
NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="[Editor Name]">
- Search Engine Identification:
- There are two commonly used META tag syntaxes for helping in the
indexing of web documents in popular search engines. The KEYWORDS
value for the NAME attribute is a comma separated list of keywords
relating to the current document, while the DESCRIPTION value for
the NAME attribute represents the current document description
summary. Web browsers ignore this META tag usage but some search
engine robots use it to help index files.
Syntax 1: <meta
NAME="Keywords"
CONTENT="[Search Engine
Keywords]">
Syntax 2: <meta
NAME="Description"
CONTENT="[Search Engine
Description]">
- Browser Cache Override:
- The EXPIRES value for the NAME attribute give as its CONTENT value
a date [Date Value]. The EXPIRES value is used to indicate to a browser when
time-sensitive information becomes old. Browsers must not cache the
requested page beyond the date given. The presence of an EXPIRES
field does not imply that the original resource will change or cease
to exist at, before, or after the time indicated, but does speak to
the expected timeliness of the material.
Syntax 1: <meta
NAME="Expires"
CONTENT="[Date Value]">
- Attributes
- Content
- 2 | 3
| 3.2 | IE2
| M3 | N1.1
- Required? Yes
- Description:
- Specifies the value of the Name/Value pair. The values allowed for
this attribute are dependent on the NAME or HTTP-EQUIV attribute used.
- Values: Alphanumeric string value.
- HTTP-Equiv
- 2 | 3
| 3.2 | IE2
| M3 | N1.1
- Required? No
- Description:
- This attribute binds the Meta CONTENT element to an HTTP header
field. When a browser requests a particular page containing a META
HTTP-Equiv tag from a server, the CONTENT portion of the tag will be attached
to the document header that is passed to the browser before the rest
of the actual document content. The browser or HTTP server may use this
information to process the document. Values are not case sensitive.
- Values: Alphanumeric keyword string value.
- Name
- 2 | 3
| 3.2 | IE2
| M3 | N1.1
- Required? No
- Description:
- An attribute that specifies the name of the Name/Value pair. If not
present, HTTP-EQUIV must be supplied in its place.
- Values: Alphanumeric keyword string value.
- Example
- Client Pull:
- <meta HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="5; URL=http://www.foo.com/foo.html">
- Editor Identification:
- <meta NAME="Generator" CONTENT="Editor Brand X">
- Search Engine ID KEYWORDS:
- <meta
NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="HTML,history,hypertext,tags,reference">
- Search Engine ID DESCRIPTION:
- <meta NAME="Description" CONTENT=
"Index Dot HTML is a complete reference to HTML">
- Browser Cache Override:
- <meta NAME="Expires" CONTENT=
"Mon, 01 Jan 1996 23:59:59 GMT">
- Parent Model
- <head>
- Content Model
- This tag accepts no content.
Tips & Tricks
- To help search engines better index your pages, the KEYWORDS and
DESCRIPTION values are strongly recommended to authors, especially top
level structure pages.
Browser Peculiarities
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