[Fwd: FW: Re[2]: Database-driven Web pages]

food for thought and discussion?  we might want to include those in this
thread who are not on the list in the discussions.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: FW: Re[2]: Database-driven Web pages
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 12:21:00 -0400
From: "Barrett, Don" <Don_Barrett@ed.gov>
Reply-To: basr-l@trace.wisc.edu
To: "'basr-l@trace.wisc.edu'" <basr-l@trace.wisc.edu>

If anyone has any thoughts/comments regarding the below messages, please
send them along.

Don Barrett



-----Original Message-----
From: MARC FINK [mailto:MFINK@email.usps.gov]
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2000 11:35 AM
To: Don_Barrett; pat.sheehan; Paul_Schafer; Bruce_Bailey;
shelia_hamblin; Michele_Zozom; Elaine_Goheen; Ron_Luycx
Cc: Gerald_Malitz
Subject: Re[2]: Database-driven Web pages



     Thanks, Don,

     I'm especially interested in what approaches folks have used to
solve
     the following challenges:

     1. When generating a linearized table dynamically, what have you
found
     to be a useful method for generating cell coordinates--in other
words,
     how do you get the column and row headers associated with each cell
     member? Judging from Don's comments below, perhaps it would be
     possible to pass a row header variable to each cell in addition to
the
     column header.

     2. What work-around has anyone found for dealing with session and
     variable ID's which are passed from one page to the next in Web
     applications like e-commerce shopping carts? As you know, these can
be
     very long strings which convey little meaning to screen readers.

     These are sticky technical issues, but I see them as unavoidable
     considering how important database-driven Web content is. This is
     especially true when building pages that serve a search/query
function
     to access large data/information resources in an efficient and
     meaningful way.

     Sincerely,
     Marc Fink


______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: RE: Database-driven Web pages
Author:  Don_Barrett@ed.gov at INTERNET
Date:    10/27/00 8:41 AM


I am forwarding this message to a number of individuals on our team and
on
the Web Development team in the hopes that we can garner some additional
interest/information on the problems raised in Mark's message below.  If
anyone has any thoughts on how we might proceed in framing this
discussion,
please share your thoughts.

For example, here at Education, we have had a high degree of success
with
Cold Fusion, in that the resulting interface is HTML, and all query and
script strings are handled without interfering with the interface.  We
did
have a few applications which involved the use of complex tables which
needed column header identifiers to be read along with cell contents by
the
screen reader in order to make the table intelligible.  This was handled
by
the contractor by modifying the template so that header information
would be
dynamically generated in the table in each cell.  However, this solution
is
not documented as far as I know, and it should be so others facing the
same
problem can rely on this experience for an easy solution.

Thoughts?

Don


-----Original Message-----
From: MARC FINK [mailto:MFINK@email.usps.gov]
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2000 5:31 PM
To: Don_Barrett; pat.sheehan
Subject: Database-driven Web pages



     Dear Pat:

     I recently had the pleasure of meeting and talking with you at the
     IDEAS 2000 conference. (I work with the 508 team at the United
States
     Postal Service.) I talked with you specifically about
     database-generated Web pages and other interactive pages such as
form
     elements and links which are query strings. We agreed that these
are
     areas of great concern but have not really been dealt with in-depth
in
     the present guidelines.

     At the time I offered to pursue this issue further with you. Don
     Barrett, who works periodically here at Postal Headquarters,
expressed
     a similar interest in studying this area in more detail.

     One goal of our mutual collaboration could be to share knowledge of
     different and successful approaches we know of--hopefully saving
     everyone time and money in the long run.

     Let me know what you think, and thank you for your time.

     Marc Fink
     Web Project Manager
     508 Team
     USPS/LittonPRC
     202 268-4716

Received on Friday, 27 October 2000 13:25:34 UTC