As mentioned in commit 5214d89c8, using the `change` event of a `select`
field to automatically change location is really annoying for keyboard
users, since the event will trigger when pressing the down key to
navigate through the options or when typing a key to start searching for
an option. This might cause a lot of frustration.
Most multilanguage CONSUL sites enable between 2 and 4 languages. In
these cases, it's easier to just display the list of languages to
simplify the selection.
This way in this situation we also make it clear which languages are
available. If we use a `<select>` tag, users will have to open it in
order to check whether the site is available in their preferred
language.
This is also useful when the current language uses characters users
don't recognize; users will recognize their own language in the list of
available languages, while it might be harder to recognize the language
selector allows them to switch to a different language.
In this case, we're also hiding the label because a list of links with
language names is usually self explanatory for sighted users. We're
still providing it for screen reader users so they immediately know the
list allows them to change the language and if they don't need to do so
they can quickly skip it.
Note that in order to simplify the component tests (which for some
reason seem to be whitespace-sensitive), we have to omit whitespace
characters inside the `<option>` tags.
Also note we're simplifying the test with a missing language name; since
a component test doesn't involve a whole request, we don't need a
complex setup (I'm not sure we even need it in system tests).
Since we're simplifying the main method, we can use a view file instead
of the `call` method. This way we make the code more consistent with the
rest of our components, since we always use a separate file.
Doing so generates an extra newline at the end of the generated HTML, so
we need to change a couple of tests a little bit.
This way it's easier to refactor it and/or change it.
Back in commit c156621a4 I wrote:
> Generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of helpers, but there are
> methods which IMHO qualify as helpers when (...) many Rails helpers,
> like `tag`, follow these principles.
It's time to modify these criteria a little bit. In some situations,
it's great to have a helper method so it can be easily used in view
(like `link_to`). However, from the maintenance point of view, helper
methods are usually messy because extracting methods requires making
sure there isn't another helper method with that name.
So we can use the best part of these worlds and provide a helper so it
can be easily called from the view, but internally make that helper
render a component and enjoy the advantages associated with using an
isolated Ruby class.
As mentioned in commit 5214d89c8, using a `<select>` tag which
automatically submits a form on change has a few accessibility issues,
particularly for keyboard users who might accidentally submit the form
while browsing the options.
So we're adding a submit button and removing the "submit on change"
behavior.
Note that, while `<select>` tags have their own usability issues,
alternatives in this case are not obvious because the number of existing
polls could be very low (zero, for instance) or very high (dozens, if
the application has been used for years).
I thought of using a `<datalist>` tag with a regular text input. The
problem here is we don't want to send the name of the poll to the server
(as we would with a `<datalist>` tag); we want to send the ID of the
poll.
Maybe we could add an automplete field instead, providing a similar
funcionality. However, for now we're keeping it simple. This poll
questions page isn't even accessible through the admin menu since commit
83e8d603, so right now anything we change here will be pretty much
useless.
We were defining campaigns with `let`. That meant they weren't created
until these methods were used in the tests.
For the test "Do not track erroneous track_ids", that meant the line
`expect(page).not_to have_content campaign2.name.to_s` wasn't really
testing anything, since before this line is executed, the campaign2
wasn't in the database at all, and so obviously its name wouldn't be on
the stats page.
For the test "Track email templates", it meant we were creating the
campaign2 record after visiting the campaign1 page with the browser.
Creating records in the tests after starting the browser might be the
reason why this test has recenty failed in our CI [1]:
1) Email campaigns Track email templates
Failure/Error: ds.add params[:event].titleize, Ahoy::Event.where(
name: params[:event]).group_by_day(:time).count
ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid:
PG::ProtocolViolation: ERROR: bind message supplies 0
parameters, but prepared statement "" requires 1
# ./app/controllers/admin/api/stats_controller.rb:13:in `show'
Using `let!` to create the campaings before the browser starts improves
the situation.
[1] https://github.com/consul/consul/runs/2952333023
The word "budget" in the "Preview budget" link is redundant.
On the other hand, the words "Manage", Edit" and "Admin" are not
really necessary in my humble opinion. Just like in the admin
navigation menu we use "Participatory budgets" instead of "Manage
Participatory budgets", the fact that we're going to manage or
admin or edit something can be deduced from the fact that we're in
the admin section.
Besides, it isn't clear to me why we use "Manage" for projects,
"Edit" for heading groups and "Admin" for ballots. The differences
between these three concepts might be too subtle for me.
The previous paragraphs haven't been corroborated with real users,
though, so I might be mistaken and we might need to revisit these
links in the future.
These actions still take quite a lot of space. Maybe in the future we
could remove the "delete" icon, at least on budgets which cannot be
deleted.
When we see a list of, let's say, banners, and each one has a link to
edit them, the word "banner" in the text "edit banner" is redundant and
adds noise; even for users with cognitive disabilities, it's obvious
that the "edit" link refers to the banner.
In commit 9794ffbbf, we replaced "buttons" with icons in order to make
the admin interface consistent with the planned budget investments
redesign.
However, using icons has some issues. For once, icons like a trash for
the "delete" action might be obvious, but other icons like "confirm
moderation" or "send pending" might be a bit confusing.
It's true that we were adding tooltips on hover. We tried two
approaches: using Foundation's tooltips and using CSS tooltips.
Foundation tooltips are not activated on focus (only on hover), while
CSS tooltips always appear below the icon, which might be a problem when
the icons are at the bottom of the screen (one of our milestone tests
was failing because of that and we can now run it with JavaScript
enabled).
Both Foundation and CSS tooltips have other issues:
* They force users to make an extra step and move the mouse over the
link just to know what the link is about
* They aren't available on touch screens, so these users will have to
memorize what each icon does
* They are not hoverable, and making them hoverable would cause a
different issue because the tooltip might cover links below it, making
it impossible to click these links without moving the mouse away
first
* They are not dismissable, which is considered an accessibility issue
and a requirement in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines [1]
For all these reasons, we're using both texts and icons. As Thomas
Byttebier said "The best icon is a text label [2]". Heydon Pickering
also makes a point towards providing text alongside icons in his book
"Inclusive Components" [3].
Note that, since we're now adding text and some of the colors we use for
actions are hard to read against a white/gray background, we're making a
few colors darker.
With these changes, actions take more space in the admin table compared
to the space they took in version 1.3, but they are more usable and
accessible while they still take less space than they did in version
1.2.
[1] https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/content-on-hover-or-focus
[2] https://thomasbyttebier.be/blog/the-best-icon-is-a-text-label
[3] https://inclusive-components.design/tooltips-toggletips/
As mentioned in commit 5214d89c8, there are several issues with
submitting a form when a `<select>` tag changes. In particular, keyboard
users might accidentally fire the event while browsing the options, and
screen reader users will find a form with no obvious way to submit it.
In this case, there's an extra problem: in commit be8a0dbe8 we added a
second `<select>` field to this form, which also submitted on change.
Sometimes users changed one of the values and wanted to change the other
value as well before submitting the form. However, it wasn't possible,
because we would submit it before they had a chance to change the second
value.
So now we don't submit the form on change and add a submit button. This
is similar to what we do in the "Advanced filters" we use in several
places.
Since forms are landmarks, screen reader users might navigate to the
form. But then they were going to find an empty form with no way to
toggle it.
Moving the button inside the form means screen reader users navigating
to the form will find the button to toggle it.
It also helps us simplifying the code; there's no need to use
data-attributes to communicate whether the form should be visible since
now we can easily use the button `aria-expanded` attribute.
We could further simplify the JavaScript if we used a CSS rule to
show/hide the form fields based on the toggle button `aria-expanded`
attribute. However, implementing the "slide" animation we use when
toggling the form with CSS is difficult and unreliable.
We were using the form and then showing it with JavaScript when advanced
search terms were present. Now we hide it with JavaScript when no
advanced search are present. This means users without JavaScript
(including users with JavaScript enabled but bad internet connections
preventing the JavaScript to load) can now access the form.
The other main difference between the two versions is the way the form
flashes while JavaScript is loading.
Previously, the form would always be hidden when no terms had been
introduced. However, when these terms were present, after submitting the
form it would briefly be hidden and then shown again.
Now the opposite happens. When advanced search terms are present, the
form is shown at all times. However, when they aren't, the form is
briefly shown before it disappears.
Here the previous behavior is arguably better because most of the time
these terms will not be present.
So basically we're significantly improving the experience of some users
at the cost of slightly worsen the experience of other users.
We're also hiding the button to show the form when JavaScript is
disabled, since in this scenario it's useless. We're using the `hidden`
attribute so hidden buttons can be detected in CSS.
Users (particularly, screen reader users) usually identify links with
things that take you somewhere, and buttons with things that either send
forms or change things on the page.
Using a button we can also use the `aria-expanded` attribute, meaning
screen reader users will know that the button has two states ("expanded"
and "collapsed"), the current state of the button, and will get
immediate feedback when clicking the button because the new state of the
button will be announced.
Thanks to this change, we can also slightly simplify the code; we
obviously have to remove the (useless) `href` attribute, and we don't
have to prevent the default event in JavaScript since there's no default
event for buttons with `type="button"`.
Add link_url presence validation only when link_text is provided only for header cards.
In this case it makes sense to allow creating a "header card" without link_url, since
we can show the header without link text and without link url and it still does its
function.
Currently it is not necessary to include the link_url field.
When we display these cards without link_url, they create an empty link that
redirects to the same page. I understand that this is not a desired behavior, so I
think it is better to add a validation in this case and force administrators to add a
link_url when creating a card.
As mentioned in the previous commits, a `<select>` field which submits
its form on change causes many accessibility and usability issues, so
we're replacing it with the order links we use everywhere else.
Since the links "Id" and "Title" by themselves don't have enough
information to let users know they're used to sort by ID or title, we
have to update them somehow. We could add a "Sort by:" prefix before the
list of links (and associate it with the `aria-labelledby` attribute);
however, we don't do this anywhere else and might look weird depending
on the screen size.
So we're simply adding "Sort by" before each link.
Now that we don't use the `wide_order_selector` partial anymore, we can
remove it alongside the styles for the `select-order` class.
A `<select>` tag here might make more sense than in other similar places
since there are 5 options to choose among, and using links might take
too much screen space.
However, as mentioned in the previous commits, `<select>` tags which
automatically submit a form have many accessibility and usability
issues.
An alternative would be to create a dropdown menu with a button and a
list of links (similar to what Foundation does). I'm keeping the links
for simplicity and because the interface looks a bit more consistent
with the rest of the sections. Before these changes, we had a heading,
then a `<select>` field to choose the filter, and then a button to print
the page. We never use a similar interface, and some people might think
the "Print" button is related to the same form as the `<select>` field.
Now that we don't use the `order_selector` partial anywhere anymore, we
can remove it.
Using order links in this case causes an unusual interface, where we
show filter links, then information about the number of results, and
then order links.
Whether or not this makes sense needs to be confirmed with usability
tests. In any case, this is still way better than using `<select>`
fields which automatically change to a new page, since they cause
problems to keyboard users, are harder to select for touchscreen users,
might confuse screen reader users who will notice a form but no way to
submit it, and are not elements we generally use to let users choose the
order of the records.
For a more detailed explanation of these issues, check the commit
message in the commit "Use order links to sort comments and topics"
(just a few commits ago).
It was a bit frustrating to click on one of the order elements or the
link to the next page and having to scroll down again until reaching the
comments.
We use order links in many places in the web. However, in the comments
section and the list of community topics, we were displaying a
`<select>` element, and changing the location when users select an
option.
This has several disadvantages.
First, and most important, it's terrible for keyboard users. `<select>`
fields allow using the arrow keys to navigate through their options, and
typing a letter will select the first option starting with that letter.
This will trigger the "change" event and so users will navigate through
a new page while they were probably just checking the available options
[1]. For these reasons, WCAG Success Criterion 3.2.2 [2] states:
> Changing the setting of any user interface component does not
> automatically cause a change of context unless the user has been
> advised of the behavior before using the component.
Second, the form didn't have a submit button. This might confuse screen
reader users, who might not know how that form is supposed to be
submitted.
Finally, dropdowns have usability issues of their own [3], particularly
on mobile phones [4]
The easiest solution is to use the same links we generally use to allow
users select an order, so using them here we make the user experience
more consistent. They offer one disadvantage, though; on small screens
and certain languages, these links might take too much space and not
look that great. This issue affects pretty much every place where we use
order or filter links, so we might revisit it in the future.
Note we're moving the links to order comments after the form to add a
new comment. In my opinion, having an element such as a form to add a
new comment between the element to select the desired order of the
comments and the comments themselves is a bit confusing.
[1] https://webaim.org/techniques/forms/controls#javascript
[2] https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/on-input.html
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUkMCQR4TpY
[4] https://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1950
It looks like this bug was introduced in commit 7ca55c4. Before that
commit, a message saying "You added a new related content" was shown,
but (as expected) the related content wasn't added twice.
We now check this case and add a slightly clearer message.
We've had an accessibility error reported by the Spanish "Portal
Administración electrónica" (PAe). While I can't find any accessibility
rule saying empty lists should be avoided, it looks like some screen
readers report finding lists with 0 items, which is annoying.
We've had an accessibility error reported by the Spanish "Portal
Administración electrónica" (PAe). While I can't find any accessibility
rule saying empty lists should be avoided, it looks like some screen
readers report finding lists with 0 items, which is annoying.
We could also do it with CSS using `ul:empty { display: none}`. However,
at the time of writing no browser supports this rule when the tag
contains whitespace.
Some CONSUL installations might want to customize their URLs. For
instance, Spanish institutions might want to use "/propuestas" instead
of "/proposals". In that case, it would be impossible to add proposals
as related content because the related contents controller assumed the
name of the model was part of the URL.
Using `recognize_path` instead of manually analyzing the URL solves the
issue.
Now that we don't call the `constantize` method on an empty string as we
previously did, we can be more specific in the `rescue` block and point
out that the only exception we expect is the one where users enter a
route which isn't recognized.
Although it wasn't a real security concern because we were only calling
a `find_by` method based on the user input, it's a good practice to
avoid using constants based on user parameters.
Since we don't use the `find_by` method anymore but we still need to
check the associated record exists, we're changing the validations in
the `RelatedContent` model to do exactly that.
We were manually checking validation rules (like both relationable
objects are present, or they're both the same object) in the controller
and then using the `save!` method.
However, we usually use the `save` method (which checks all validations)
in a condition, and proceed depending on the result.
Now we're taking the same approach here. This means introducing a new
validation rule in the model to check whether both relationable objects
are the same, which is more robust than checking a condition in the
controller.
We were only showing these actions to users with small screens and to
mouse users on hover. Keyboard users or users with a touch screen of a
medium or large size could never find out the actions were there.
It didn't have a `for` attribute and so it wasn't correctly associated
with its input. That means clicking on / touching the label didn't have
the effect of focusing on the field, and screen readers wouldn't
announce the label.
The button was announced as expanded when the form was hidden and as
collapsed when the form was shown.
This is because Foundation sets the expanded attribute based on whether
the class to toggle already exists. Since initially the form had the
"hide" class and the button toggled that class, Foundation checked that
the class was already present and so set the button as expanded.
So we're changing the toggler class for a class we don't use at all,
just so Foundation initiall sets `aria-expanded=false` and then changes
it to `aria-expanded=true` after the button is clicked. Then we're
ignoring this class completely and are styling this form with CSS
instead.
We could also use a toggler class like "visible" and write something
like:
```
.add-related-content + form:not(.visible) {
display: none;
}
```
However, using ARIA attributes is more robust as it guarantees the
styles will always be in sync with what screen reader users experience.
And we could also remove all the Foundation toggler functionality and
use our own JavaScript to handle the button state. We might do so in the
future.
We're removing the parenthesis after page expectations (as we do almost
everywhere) and we're replacing `have_selector` with `have_css`, since
on that file we were using `have_css` everywhere except in one place.
Using placeholders having similar (or identical) text as already present
as a label has a few issues.
First, it's a distraction. Reading the same information twice is
useless, requires an extra effort, and might even frustrate users.
Second, if users start typing before reading the placeholder and see it
disappear, they might think they're missing relevant information,
delete what they typed, and read the placeholder. That will get them
nowhere.
Finally, we display placeholders using a text offering very low contrast
against the background, so users don't think the placeholder is an
actual value entered in the field. Using such low contrast makes the
text hard to read, particularly for users with visual impairments.
So we're removing these placeholders.
This commit only deals with placeholder texts with similar (or
identical) texts as the label text. There might be other places where we
should replace placeholder texts with labels, but that's a different
topic.
A button cannot be inside an anchor tag, and it might confuse some
browsers or screen readers.
We're also making it clear in the tests that the intention is to use a
button there by using `click_button` instead of `click_on` since the
latter also clicks on links.
