Re: popups to provide more information

Better yet -- but along the same lines, in the Web context, it
might be useful to think of role:link as a specialized "button".

Button is actually a "trigger" --- a thing that when activated
executes an action.

Links on the Web -- including html:a -- the beloved anchor
element -- are in fact specialized triggers 
that have a default event handler for  event dom:activate; the
event handler follows the link --- and since this is a "builtin"
behavior, devleopers never need write that event handler.

Modeled this way, anchor links whose default behavior gets
overridden by an onclick attribute i.e. the 
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:mumble">click me </a>
also fall into place correctly.

Aside: I still consider the above href="#" an abomination --- but
one that is sadly here to stay.

Gez Lemon writes:
 > 
 > Hi Becky,
 > 
 > > One issue that comes up is should this be implemented as a link or a
 > > button.  The yahoo example implements this as a link. I would surmise that
 > > is done so the link will still work if scripting is not available.  But
 > > the link also has a visual indicator next to it of a small double down
 > > arrow, I assume to indicate that it opens a popup.   My first question is
 > > should this be given a role of link or button?   Using button gives the
 > > opportunity to also include the haspopup property.
 > 
 > I think in this case, a link would be the correct choice. I think
 > buttons should be reserved for explicit commands, such as "Sort",
 > "Search", "Filter", etc, and that links are the correct choice when
 > fetching a resource. Web applications tend to blur this distinction,
 > so although clicking on a link in this example executes the command to
 > gather the collection of related articles, as far as the visitor is
 > concerned, it's fetching a resource (the collection of articles). I
 > favour using a role of link, and allowing the haspopup property on
 > anchor elements.
 > 
 > Best regards,
 > 
 > Gez
 > 
 > On 22/02/07, Becky Gibson <Becky_Gibson@notesdev.ibm.com> wrote:
 > >
 > > I'm going to borrow an example from Yahoo to discuss the appropriate roles
 > > and behavior to use for popups.   Some yahoo pages have a link that will
 > > use Ajax to make a search request for more information and display the
 > > resulting links in a popup on the page.  Find and click on the Iran and
 > > Iraq links in this page:
 > > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070215/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_070215121462.
 > > A popup is displayed that contains more information. Focus is not put into
 > > the popup but with focus on the link that invokes the popup you can tab
 > > into the bottom of the popup by pressing shift-tab.  The popup contains
 > > help and close links at the top of the popup as well as links to more
 > > information and some structural links.
 > >
 > > This is probably a good example for ARIA live regions but since support
 > > for those will not be available until Firefox 3 I would like to consider
 > > implementations that can be used in Firefox today.
 > >
 > > One issue that comes up is should this be implemented as a link or a
 > > button.  The yahoo example implements this as a link. I would surmise that
 > > is done so the link will still work if scripting is not available.  But
 > > the link also has a visual indicator next to it of a small double down
 > > arrow, I assume to indicate that it opens a popup.   My first question is
 > > should this be given a role of link or button?   Using button gives the
 > > opportunity to also include the haspopup property.  Currently haspopup is
 > > only available on buttons and menus.  I think we should encourage ARIA to
 > > allow the haspopup property on any element.
 > >
 > > My other proposed behavior for this type of more information popup is:
 > > 1) the popup should get the role of dialog
 > > 2) focus should be placed into the popup when it is opened
 > > 3) the popup should be made modal via scripting - focus can not leave the
 > > dialog except by clicking another link or closing it
 > > 4) the popup can be closed by pressing escape or via a close button
 > >
 > > thoughts?
 > >
 > > Becky Gibson
 > > Web Accessibility Architect
 > >
 > > IBM Emerging Internet Technologies
 > > 5 Technology Park Drive
 > > Westford, MA 01886
 > > Voice: 978 399-6101; t/l 333-6101
 > > Email: gibsonb@us.ibm.com
 > >
 > >
 > >
 > >
 > 
 > 
 > -- 
 > _____________________________
 > Supplement your vitamins
 > http://juicystudio.com

-- 
Best Regards,
--raman

Title:  Research Scientist      
Email:  raman@google.com
WWW:    http://emacspeak.sf.net/raman/
Google: tv+raman 
GTalk:  raman@google.com, tv.raman.tv@gmail.com
PGP:    http://emacspeak.sf.net/raman/raman-almaden.asc

Received on Friday, 23 February 2007 00:04:42 UTC