License changed from GPLv3 to Apache 2.0

Version 1.3, and all future versions, of the Project metalmouth extension will now be licensed under an Apache 2.0 License.

This change has been made in order to clarify Project metalmouth's position with regard to accepting patches and contributions - hopefully making it as easy as possible!

What's coming next, and in what order...

A couple of days again I had a chance to bring together the "What's Coming Next" document for Project metalmouth. After completing the "Tidy up" part which, I'm sure, is a re-occuring activity in most projects it is now time to move on - in fact I called it "Moving toward a more complete off-screen model...".

However, the thought struck me today that it would be most useful to implement the next items in the off-screen model in a sequence which would benefit actual users the most - but how?

It will need a lot more thinking about...

As always, if you are using the extension or just like the intensions behind the project (I already like you and think your wonderful) I would ask you to get involved in the project (especially user testing, feature requests, etc...) - otherwise, maybe just providing a link to the project website (http://code.google.com/p/metalmouth/) so that others may more easily find it.

Unstoppable META Re-direct

A frustrating day was spent yesterday trying to stop a page with a META tag (like the one show in the code below) from redirecting the Chrome browser to another location.

<meta equiv="Refresh" content="10; url=http://www.test.com">

With regard to Project metalmouth, the reasons for trying to stop the auto-redirect relate directly to user experience. What if a user is starting to listen to a page being read out, only to have the experience terminate abruptly and the same or another page start to be read out instead? If it were me I think I would be annoyed...

Unfortunately I have to report that all my efforts were in vain.

Apparently the redirect count-down starts as soon as the META element appears in the page, so removing it from the DOM or resetting its attribute values after page load does nothing.

I tried to inject an anonymous function to try and alter the contents of the HEAD element as the code loaded but to no useful effect. Injecting document.documentElement.firstChild.innerHTML = "" via an anonymous function in the page does have an effect - the redirect is stopped as two empty head elements appear and two body elements (one empty) - however, although this is interesting, it was not so useful as the page is effectively destroyed.

I went on to look at the possibility of providing a warning that the page was going to redirect... But, with regard to user experience I came to the conclusion that this would be just as bad - with the reasonable question "if the Project metalmouth extension knows the page is going to redirect why can't it prevent it?"

So, in the end I decided that the best possible solution for everyone might be if a user could elect to permanently stop all refreshes / redirects (via META elements) via a setting in the Chrome browser. With a bit more research, this apparently seems to be the approach other main stream browsers have adopted as well.

To this end I have added a post to an existing request for this functionality to the Chromium Project (http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=63107) - so, let's keep our fingers crossed.

As always, if you are using the extension or just like the intensions behind the project (I already like you and think your wonderful) I would ask you to get involved in the project (especially user testing, feature requests, etc...) - otherwise, maybe just providing a link to the project website (http://code.google.com/p/metalmouth/) so that others may more easily find it.