db25dc13e1
We were using Foundation's accordion menu to open/close nested lists of
links. Unfortunately, Foundation's accordion makes it impossible to
access links in nested links using the keyboard [1] (note the issue is
closed, but in the latest version of Foundation, 6.8.1, it's still
present, and Foundation's development is mostly discontinued).
Furtheremore, it adds the `menuitem` role to links, but ARIA menus are
not ment for navigation but for application behavior and, since it
doesn't add the `menubar` or `menu` roles to the parent elements, it
results in accessibility issues for people using screen readers (also
reported by the Axe accessibility testing engine).
So we need to implement our own solution. We're using the most commonly
used pattern: a buttton with the `aria-expanded` attribute. And, for
people using browsers where JavaScript hasn't loaded, we're keeping the
submenus open at all times (just like we were doing until now), and
we're disabling the buttons (since they do nothing without JavaScript).
This might not be an ideal solution, but it's probably good enough, and
way better than what we had until now.
We've also considered using the <details> and <summary> elements instead
of using buttons to open/close items on the list. However, these
elements still present some accessibility issues [2], and the transition
between open and closed can't be animated unless we overwrite the
`click` event with JavaScript. The pattern of using these elements to
open/close a nested list of links isn't common either, and some people
using screen readers might get confused when entering/leaving the nested
list.
We tried other approaches to get the animation effect, all of them based
on adding `[aria-expanded="false"]:not([disabled]) + * { display: none;
}` to the CSS file.
Unfortunately, animation using CSS isn't feasible right now because
browsers can't animate a change form `height: 0` to `height: auto`.
There are some hacks like animating the `max-height` or the `flex-grow`
property, but the resulting animation is inconsistent. A perfect
animation can be done using the `grid-template-rows` property [3], but
it requires adding a grid container and only works in Firefox and recent
versions of Chrome and similar browsers.
Getting to a solution with JavaScript was also tricky. With the
following approach, `slideToggle()` opened the menu the first time, even
if it was already open (not sure why):
```
toggle_buttons.on("click", function() {
$(this).attr("aria-expanded", !JSON.parse($(this).attr("aria-expanded")));
$(this).next().slideToggle();
});
```
This made the arrow turn after the menu had slided instead of doing it
at the same time:
```
toggle_buttons.on("click", function() {
var button = $(this);
button.next().slideToggle(function() {
button.attr("aria-expanded",
!JSON.parse(button.attr("aria-expanded")));
});
}
```
With this, everything disappeared quickly:
```
toggle_buttons.on("click", function() {
var expanded = JSON.parse($(this).attr("aria-expanded"));
if (expanded) {
$(this).next().slideUp();
} else {
$(this).next().slideDown();
}
$(this).attr("aria-expanded", !expanded);
}
```
So, in the end, we're hiding the nested link lists with JavaScript
instead of CSS.
[1] Issue 12046 in https://github.com/foundation/foundation-sites
[2] https://www.scottohara.me/blog/2022/09/12/details-summary.html
[3] https://css-tricks.com/css-grid-can-do-auto-height-transitions
CONSUL DEMOCRACY
Citizen Participation and Open Government Application
This is the opensource code repository of the eParticipation website CONSUL DEMOCRACY, originally developed for the Madrid City government eParticipation website, and currently maintained by the open source software community in collaboration with the CONSUL DEMOCRACY Foundation.
Documentation
Check the ongoing documentation to learn more about how to start your own CONSUL DEMOCRACY fork, install it, customize it and learn to use it as an administrator/maintainer.
CONSUL DEMOCRACY Foundation and project website
You can access the main website of the project at http://consuldemocracy.org where you can find information about the use of the platform, the CONSUL DEMOCRACY Foundation, the global community of users and local partners, news, and ways to get more support or get in touch.
Configuration for development and test environments
NOTE: For more detailed instructions check the docs
Prerequisites: install git, Ruby 3.2.3, CMake, pkg-config, shared-mime-info, Node.js 18.18.2 and PostgreSQL (>=9.5).
git clone https://github.com/consuldemocracy/consuldemocracy.git
cd consuldemocracy
bin/setup
bin/rake db:dev_seed
Run the app locally:
bin/rails s
Run the tests with:
bin/rspec
You can use the default admin user from the seeds file:
user: admin@consul.dev pass: 12345678
But for some actions like voting, you will need a verified user, the seeds file also includes one:
user: verified@consul.dev pass: 12345678
Configuration for production environments
See installer
Current state
Development started on 2015 July 15th. Code was deployed to production on 2015 september 7th to decide.madrid.es. Since then new features are added often. You can take a look at the current features at the project's website and future features at the Roadmap and open issues list.
License
Code published under AFFERO GPL v3 (see LICENSE-AGPLv3.txt)
Contributions
See CONTRIBUTING.md