Re: AccProbe release v0.4.2

From: Michael A Squillace <masquill@us.ibm.com> · Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2008 14:31:25 -0500

All:

It is important to note that the Eclipse Accessibility Tools Framework
(ACTF) project is in an incubation phase. This means that it is not a
full-fledged Eclipse project and is subject to regular reviews by the
Eclipse Foundation with regard to its success. Success is measured by the
extent to which tools and componentry are being consumed by users, the
number of bugs filed and resolved in bugzilla, the growth and active
members in the community, mailing list activity, and a host of other
factors.

For this reason, I strongly encourage you to support this project by:
1) downloading and using AccProbe (see below) as well as other ACTF
componentry
2) sending mail to the mailing list (actf-dev@eclipse.org) and/or
subscribing to the mailing list
(https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/actf-dev)
3) providing notes on defects and requests for enhancements in bug reports
(see note below)

The Eclipse Foundation and, in particular, our parent project, the
Technology project, is becoming more stringent about the survival of
incubation projects. Without your support, ACTF may face termination and
the variety of free, open-source tooling that has already been made public
will no longer be available.

Thank you in advance for your support.

--> Mike Squillace
IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center
Accessibility Tools Framework (ACTF) co-technical lead
http://www.eclipse.org/actf

W:512.823.7423
M:512.970.0066

External: http://www.ibm.com/able
Internal: http://w3.ibm.com/able

             Michael A                                                     
             Squillace/Austin/                                             
             IBM                                                        To 
                                       AccProbe-External                   
             09/18/2008 02:23                                           cc 
             PM                                                            
                                                                   Subject 
                                       AccProbe release v0.4.2             

All:
I am pleased to announce the release of Accessibility Probe (AccProbe)
v0.4.2. AccProbe is an Eclipse RCP-based stand-alone Java aplication that
combines inspection, event-monitoring, and hierarchical viewing of
accessible objects and their properties. It is currently only available for
the Windows platform but does support both MSAA- and IAccessible2-enabled
aplications. It is, so far as I know, the only game in town for
IAccessible2 inspection and event-monitoring, which also means that it can
be used to verify ARIA-enabled web applications in Firefox 2.x and above.

You can learn more about AccProbe and download release v0.4.2 at:

http://www.eclipse.org/actf/downloads/tools/accprobe/index.php

Enhancements in the latest release include:

1) Naming convention for accessible properties (
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=238660)
The new look of the Accessibility Properties View will present a new
top-level set of nodes, called "property groups."  We'll have the following
property groups:
- accservice: for all accessibility service properties (derived from
IAccessibleElement and IAccessibleElement2, part of the ACTF Accessibility
Service API)
- msaa: for all properties derived from the underlying MSAA accessibility
architecture
- ia2: for all properties derived from the underlying IAccessible2
architecture
Within each property group, you will find the properties and their values.
Thus, you may see 'accessibleRole' under the accservice property group
node, 'accRole' under the MSAA property group node, and 'role' under the
ia2 property group node. Of course, the latter two properties may have
different values in IA2-enabled applications.  All the displayed property
groups will be expanded by default. Property filter functionality is
re-written to accommodate top level property groups. If a property group is
unchecked, all the properties in that group will be greyed in the property
filter dialog.

2) Error Codes for IA2 interfaces
As of now, the HRESULT error codes are only displayed for MsaaAccessible
and IAccessible elements. This functionality has been extended to all other
IA2 interfaces such as IA2AccessibleText.
3) Timer functionality has been added to all keyboard-focus and
mouse-cursor tracking events which reduces the crashes during rapid
keyboard or mouse movements. The properties view is not updated until after
about 300ms after a keyboard or mouse event.
4) Accprobe will not track the keyboard or mouse movements during task
switching process which makes the global tracking much more accessible.
5) Caret tracking will focus and expand the IAccessibleText property in
"ia2" property group instead of IAccessibleElement's "accessibleText"
property.

We certainly invite your feedback and requests for enhancements or bug
fixes. To file a bug or request an enhancement, go to:

http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs

Once you've created a bugzilla account:
1. Select either 'Report a new bug' or 'Enter an enhancement/feature
request'.
2. If you select to report a bug, select ACTF as the product; if you chose
to report a feature request, select the Technology classification, then
select ACTF as the product.
3. Fill out the resulting bug form. Please enter my user name as the
assignee, masquill@us.ibm.com.

We also invite you to subscribe to the ACTF developers mailing list to keep
up-to-date on all of the latest news surrounding ACTF. The list has light
traffic and typically is used for feedback on componentry, announcements of
monthly conference calls, and new releases of ACTF componentry and tools.
You can subscribe at:

https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/actf-dev

Thank you for trying AccProbe and we look forward to your feedback and
suggestions.

--> Mike Squillace
IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center
Accessibility Tools Framework (ACTF) co-technical lead
http://www.eclipse.org/actf

W:512.823.7423
M:512.970.0066

External: http://www.ibm.com/able
Internal: http://w3.ibm.com/able

Attachments