Joomla! Discussion Forums

Is there a guide in English to what the 508 hack actually does to the site, regarding changes?

I installed it on a site, and for some reason it adds a . to the end of each list item, which is pretty annoying. Can someone tell me the reason for this, and if there is a guide available, as i want to change a few other hacks as well.?

Hi,

the . is for screenreaders. Some of them read links without a break.The point let them stop for a while and you (if you can't see the site) can keep apart the links.

you could use this css-code



The answer for the other question is no. We haven't a quide in english nor in an other language.

ok many thanks for that, i actually removed it from the code, but i like the CSS hack better.
Never thought of the screen reader issue, i was in 'getting it finished' mode.

One other thing I have noticed, is that the ability to give a menu item an image is still available but it doesnt show up in the parameters for the modules.

Whats the best way to add a menu image with the 508 hack, i have the css to control it, i just want it to show up first.

thnx

I don't know what the main goal is to have a menu image, but I guess two ways are possible.

CSS: background-image for the ul or li tag
patTemplate change the file ./modules/tmpl/mod_mainmenu.html 

Yeah the CSS option is possible, but may require a little bit of custom code, as I want the images to be specifically related to the content.

I wonder why the images were removed from the menu modules, i may see if its possible to put those sections back.

Thanks for helping me brainstorm.

[Edit]
Thinking about this, if i hack the pattemplate file it will effect all menus, and I only want it to affect one. Grrrrr. I need to get a switch into it somehow.

please send a link to your page and I will take a look what the best solution for your problem is (hmmm, is this correct grammer)

I had a play

This is what I ended up doing.

First I created a parameter in the menu modules.
Open mod_mainmenu.xml and change this

to this


Next I had to modify the template to show my image code, but only for the menu where image_menu was selected.

So I opened up ./modules/tmpl/mod_mainmenu.html  and changed


to

a Few things to note in here, firstly i had to hard code the images directory, because i dont know if its a 1.07 bug or a 508 bug or something else, but with SEO urls on it added the url to the end of whatever page it was on, which was a pain in the ar**. Secondly to get each image unique, it pulls the ITEM_ID. So i could then click on the link and see what the id was, and rename all the images to suit. Which is a lot easier than it sounds.

Lastly I had to make a change to the mod_mainmenu.class.php file.  change this


to this



You will notice that the normal 508 code produces a normal list item, by doing the above it puts the image within that list item, this is acceptable but a lot of people might not like it. It products list items like this (i abbreviated it slightly to make it easier on the eyes)


You can see it in action at http://www.aainternational.co.uk
Just a few minor things that need clearing up, like the lists on category pages and the print/pdf icons.

Also i notice none of the mosimage tags are replaced with images. Its getting to be that this 508 hack is more hassle than its worth, especially if you dont know whats it changed. I mean why no images showing up?

thnx
Paul

For what it's worth, adding a period at the end of a link in a LIST is completely unecessary.  Some older screen readers are not able to process contiguous links, however, the mere fact that they are in a list is sufficient to "break" it.

This technique is just adding extra weight to the page unecessarily.

If you had two adjacent links that were not within lists, then, yes, it becomes important.

However, even with that, some of the same screen reader that have a problem with adjacent links understand the display:none; css declaration, which means if you're using the period to separate the links, but using css to visually hide it, you may end up with screen readers going straight through it anyway.  So, either way you "look" at it, this technique is not appropriate and doesn't do what it's supposed to do, i.e. increase accessibility and usability.

Cool, i will remove it from the template then.

We have discussed this many times, I think it is useful. It is not mandatory to reach a consensus on about that, anyone can do it as he like. Change the patTemplate and all is fine.



Normaly the dot have a position beside the viewpoint.

Yes, we have discussed this many times.  We'll have to agree to disagree, obviously.

I just hope it doesn't make it in whatever the U&A team is "cooking up" for accessibility.  It's extra code that just clutters the page.

But obviously, I've lost any right to argue the case since I resigned from the core...