Re: popups to provide more information

There is another difference between links and buttons though.

Links don't accept the space bar to activate them. Buttons do.

Yes semantically they're similar and one could inherit from the other in 
the wairole hierarchy, but it needs it's own role.

- Aaron

Aaron Leventhal
IBM web accessibility architect
Voice: 781-583-4083
Tie line: 364-5945
http://www.mozilla.org/access




"T.V Raman" <raman@google.com> 
Sent by: wai-xtech-request@w3.org
02/22/2007 07:03 PM

To
gez.lemon@gmail.com
cc
Becky_Gibson@notesdev.ibm.com, wai-xtech@w3.org
Subject
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

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