When users see a label saying "With the text" and an input field, they
don't usually need a placeholder saying "Write the text". On the
contrary, this text adds noise and is hard to read due to the low
contrast between the color of the placeholder and the color of the
field, making the text an unnecessary distraction.
User testing has shown this filter isn't really useful and sometimes
makes users wonder what it's about. This is particularly true in CONSUL
installations which don't change the default values (most of them),
since users will see a filter with options like "Official position 1".
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"`.
Having the date at the beginning makes it less weird to select a custom
date now that we don't have enough space to display the "from" and "to"
date selectors in different columns.
