[TYPO3-hci] My 4.1 proposal - again

[JoH asenau]

> Lets assume we made the menu accessible without JavaScript, would
> that make the backend accessible or even close to be? If not, then
> lets forget it for version 4.x
>
> So, we had lots of suggestions for menus and what tags to use etc.
>
> Did anyone actually look at my code and point out things that are
> really bad?
>
> Did you all consider that this is more than a menu? That any item in
> the menu bar should be able to open a layer beneath it which can
> contain menu items but could as well be a nice search box or a
> calendar or an IM window?
>
> Did you consider the clock application where menu items are NOT just
> a URL call but an AJAX call which requires an onclick action which in
> turn requires JS and makes an accessible approach impossible?
>
> If people are gifted with a screenreader of Lynx; does it make any
> sense at all to present to them more than the menu and a few other
> important things like a logout button? The clock would be irrelevant.
> An IM application would be as well. The icon bar with shortcuts is
> obsolete and module sensitive options and tabs are irrelevant. To me
> this looks like an argument for "alt_main_accessible_backend.php"
> which would use the same libraries to get all modules but wrap them
> in <ul><li> instead.

Well - my experience is that the capabilities of blind users are almost
underestimated .
Recently I have been talking to a guy who told me about a blind client who
installed the current version of TYPO3 and was able to use most of the BE
functions without any problems and without any help.

So the current BE accessibility can't be that bad.

But I got some major problems with your solution since sometimes it hangs in
IE, it flickers and it is sloooow. So I just made some test with a solution
for a basic layermenu.
Don't know if it can be used as another approach for a BE menu, but I think
at least it could be a replacement for the current TMENU/GMENU_LAYERS
approach with it's huge JS-overkill.

http://www.4any1.de/fileadmin/layermenutest.html

It has been tested with IE6, FF 1.5, Opera 8 and 9 all Win.
The JS code is ready to trigger UL or DIV containers, so you can use it as
pure layer-menu or together with some tooltips.

The basic idea is, that the item that is triggered onmouseover will always
be the tag that is the next sibling of the triggering link. So it can be
both another UL or a DIV containing other stuff.

The JS code is as lean as possible and hiding the items is based on a
timeout that is triggered onmouseout. If you move your mouse over an item
before the timeout, it's simply killed so the layer is still visible. A nice
side effect is, that sublayers might keep their last state if you move
around quickly, so the menu kind of "remembers" where you've been.

Since this is just a very basic proof of concept without any additional
triggering icons or a cool design, I just would like to know if this is
working flickerfree and fast on other browser/os combinations and if you
think this could be worth to be developed further, be it as a BE menu or a
replacement for the xMENU_LAYERS.

Good night

Joey

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