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
We were using inline styles and passing local variables around, while
the rule we were following is very simple: it's only hidden if it's a
form to reply to a comment.
We were using a <ul> tag for a single comment, where the first element
of the list was the comment itself and the second element was the list
of replies.
IMHO it makes more sense to have a list of all comments, where every
element is a comment and inside it there's a list of replies.
We're also rendering the list even if it has no children so it's easier
to add comments through JavaScript. Then we use the :empty CSS selector
to hide the list if it's empty. However, since ERB adds whitespace if we
structure our code the usual way and current browsers don't recognize
elements with whitespace as empty, we have to use the `tag` helper so no
whitespace is added.
We were passing around many variables to condition the way we display
the comment. However, in the end we only had one place where these
variables were used: valuation. So we can make everything depend on the
valuation variable.
Sometimes we're interpolating a link inside a translation, and marking
the whole translations as HTML safe.
However, some translations added by admins to the database or through
crowdin are not entirely under our control.
Although AFAIK crowdin checks for potential cross-site scripting
attacks, it's a good practice to sanitize parts of a string potentially
out of our control before marking the string as HTML safe.
How:
Using a local variable at partials to set a hidden true/false value for
`valuation` parameter on the comment creation form.
Allowing that new param at the comment controller and using it when
building a new Comment.
