Category Archives: Front-end code

CMS editable Flash

The Defacto-CMS website carousel widget.With all the fuss over AJAX and Flash accessibility you get, I thought it might be worth outlining the process we used to create a Flash/AJAX widget and highlight one of the advantages you get with this method. It also means that the use of Flash has no impact on your Search Engine Optimisation.

@media 2007

I’m just back from @media, and thought I’d post up brief notes (such as they are) for my own reference and anyone else’s gain. Obviously, I will only comment on the presentations I saw, and it’s all from my own particular perspective.

Jesse James Garrett – Beyond AJAX

Jesse James Garrett presents the keynote on Beyond AJAX.I didn’t …

Tabindex for keyboard accessibility

Steve Falkner did a good presentation to the WSG last week, outlining how and why AJAX can work with screen readers. One tiny little point I wanted to pick up on was whether it was a waste of time to update AJAX content if you've attached an event to an element that isn't a link or form control.

SharePoint 2007 accessibility

Sharepoint screen shotI attend my first Microsoft (MS) oriented user group meeting yesterday, the SharePoint User Group on search and accessibility. Unfortunately our developers werre either too busy or on holiday, so I got volunteered.

Dissecting CSS Polygons

Screen shot of IE/Mac showing a large circle, produced by CSS. I've been meaning to sit down and take apart Tantek's polygons for a while, partly because it looks impossible, and partly because it might be useful. Five years later and today was the day, although it turns out that the usefulness has some limits.

Elastic layout – wrong term?

Screen shot of this site at two different sizes.This post is far too late, I really should have said this earlier, but the terms being used for various layout types are confusing. The top articles for "Elastic Design" on Google refer to elastic as being a a font-based layout. I think elastic is the wrong term for what the layouts achieve. Also, there is an assumption that these layouts are good for accessibility.

Depricate the address element?

Now that the web standards 'battle' is being won, and web developers are taking more care with their markup, a regular question is "should I use the address tag?". This questions comes in various guises, but the fundamental problem is that the address element doesn't have the meaning that people think it does.

WYSIWYG editor spec – layouts

Interface example of a JavaScript based editor.Having cut down what authors can use, they can just about edit regular text articles. However, I haven't met many clients who would be happy with just that! There are certain things that require the addition of code, this is how to do it.

WYSIWYG editor spec – Tables

Interface example of a JavaScript based editor. Each of the editors I've been looking at allows the addition of tables, but none of them allow the easy insertion & manipulation of a data table, i.e. one with headings. I deal with data tables quite a lot for windsurfing results, and the only program I've found for decent table editing is Dreamweaver.

Using label for phishing

Generally I delete phishing emails without a second glance, but this one caught my eye for being so realistic, and using a interesting method intended for accessibility to disguise a fraudulent link.