Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Tue May 11 21:24:43 CDT 2010
Hi Karen: Thanks a lot for the comments. I have not used frames in years as most developers do like them and in many cases I have ended up following some pre-designed web sites and have been only requested to maintain the existing structure. I use JQuery and JSON extensively as most of my work is database related and I need a reliable structure (translation; accommodate IEs various idiosyncrasies) and has features that produce all those nice transitions. (Fade-in and out, shrink and grow, drift and scroll etc...) then there is AJAX features which poll data from various data sources and keeps the displays synced in almost real-time. Seeing my business is so dependant on above functionality it would be impossible to abandon... What I tend to do is monitor and use inline event handlers 'click' and 'onfocus" etc. rather than buttons as some buttons can be over-looked and a large dark or changed area is impossible to miss. ASIDE: I have a philosophy of making my systems as distributive as possible. That means moving as much processing to the client computer and leaving the data servers to do what they do best...validate and mange data. It has the benefit of keeping the over all performance fast and costs down. (This method seems to be in direct design conflict with the .Net philosophy which is just to increase bandwidth and add more servers.) I have been given the tentative go ahead to build a true HTML5, internal and employee external business web site. The site will of course block IE and older browsers so there will not be any display issues. I am still investigating IE9 but have not decided whether it is worth accommodating. (http://live.visitmix.com/MIX10/Sessions/CL27) I think a polite message like; "Please select a modern browser before attempting to access this site.", would be appropriate. Thanks again for the links. I will scan through the info... any more suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciated. Jim -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Karen Rosenstiel Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 5:32 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] Web pages See inline Regards, Karen Rosenstiel Seattle WA USA -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Lawrence Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 10:01 AM To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues'; 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: [AccessD] Web pages Hi All: For all you web designer and programmers out there I have a question about web paging. What is the best method for paging through a web site? There is of course the rudimentary method of going from page to page... clicking on some object and the window is refreshed with a new html page. This has its benefits as it is simple to manage and design. The other common methods that I have used are the InnerHTML, the IFrame and the Switch Off and On method. 1. The InnerHTML method: I use this traditionally when retrieving data from various sources, re-formatting it and then pushing update between a couple of DIV tags. Its good for allowing great flexibility but it can eat the cycles. +++++++ Go easy on the Javascript and make sure it is 100% accessible. The purpose of Javascript is to make changes on the screen. For lots of things it won't matter to a visually impaired person if an URL turns bright orange on mouseover with javascript or something silly like that. But other changes require input from the user, and that can be problematic. Here's some tips on accessible innerHTML and jquery. http://www.alistapart.com/articles/prettyaccessibleforms/ 2. The Iframe method: This seems to work best when retrieving a fairly static page and then presenting it with the Iframe box. It is good for allowing whole page to be presented within a single square but it is difficult to allow the passing of parameters from the inner to outer parts of the window. ++++++ Usually a bad idea -- not accessible. However, here are some hints and sample code for accessible iframes: http://www.webaim.org/techniques/frames/ 3. The Switch Off and On method: The display data is hidden on the current page but by clicking on an object its display can be turned off or on. This method is good for fast popup type displays but it does make the page large and therefore slower to download. There may be other methods or variation on a theme and techniques that I am unaware of. All comments, suggestions and observation would be appreciated MTIA Jim -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com