Before learning how to use WML tags in unconventional ways, first let's take a look at what they do. This will provide you with a good basis from which to play with some tag combinations and their advanced features.
The <refresh> Tag
The <refresh> tag is pretty straightforward. Its main objective is to refresh specified card variables (the programmatic variables used on each card to contain values). That is, if there are variables on a page, this tag (more specifically, task) will update those variables. If any one of those variables is displayed on the screen, it will also refresh the screen.
Usually this task is associated with an anchor (the tag used to assign a function to a soft button on the phone), so that you can update the content manually on any specific card whenever you desire. This functionality is designed primarily to support pages with information on it, such as the time of day, that can change during a user's session.
The <timer> Tag
Timers do pretty much what you'd expect. You can specify an "ontimer" parameter with the <card> tag. This provides the location or task that will be executed when the timer expires. The actual <timer> tag sets the amount of time that the task specified in the original tag is executed or the specified new "URL" is shown.
The integer value associated with this tag represents one-tenth of a second. In the example I'm going to show you in this 10-Minute Solution, I set the timer value to 30 to allow for a three-second delay before the ontimer event is triggered.
