David Anderson's Unfinished Symphony

Regular visitors to the site should notice quite a radical change of design here which I'm hoping will make it a bit more visually pleasing. When I first started the site it was, almost literally, just thrown together in a hurry and without a finalised design. This was basically because there were a number of people that wanted the blog up and running and, I think, for me to start posting on it. Some of you may still remember the original look of the site, which was far from complete and so a little bit broken to say the least. After a little feedback I decided not to continue working with that design and came up with a working temporary one instead. Even though it provided everything I wanted from it (functionality, flexibility and simplicity) it was a little uninspiring and I was never really happy with it, despite that it managed to survive for a couple of years.

Simplifying the Interface

What I've tried to do with the new design is keep the important concepts intact - it's still, I believe, functional; it's still flexible, though now within a set limit; and, importantly, it's still simple. In fact I've made an effort to simplify it further. I found certain aspects of the old design were slightly cluttered, notably the links sidebar. In order to de-clutter the link heavy sidebar I separated the archives and external links section into their own pages, with them linked via a new primary menu. I've also used a little PHP and hidden the MyBlogLog widget from everyone but myself.

All in all I think the sidebar is cleaner and more useful while still sharing things that I want to share. Also, perhaps the most noticeable change is the dropping of the third column from the front page. My original idea for that was to allow the front page of the site to show the latest post in full whilst also showing the next 5 or 6 most recent posts, but rather than overloading the page with too much content these recent posts would just have excerpts showing on the front. The old design did achieve that fairly well, however the extra column meant that the front page would always seem a little cramped. It's also not necessary to have a third column in order to provide direct access to that content from the front page, so it got dropped.

New Sections

I've added a few extra sections to the site where I can provide supplementary information, such as an accessibility statement and privacy policy, including an about page. At the moment the about page is a bit bare; I do intend to put something in there at some point, hence its inclusion, however I haven't decided on what exactly I want to say. I've also extended the subscription page to include information about my feeds, feed readers and feed aggregators along with the original email subscription option that I've carried over from the previous version. There's also a contact form, just in case.

Ironing out the Issues

As with any project, there have been issues to resolve (I'm talking specifically about coding issues at this point).

PHP Issues

One of the things I wanted was for the archives page to show each category with all the posts for that category, to be able to reorder the categories, to be able to show the date of each post adjacent to the link to the post and to be able to structure markup how I wanted. One of the great things about Wordpress is its ease of templating, and to that end the codex provides details of the variety of template tags available for this, however those available for templating category listings didn't quite meet all of my requirements. This is where Sarah came in with a bit of help, well a lot of help, providing me with the PHP needed to pull the required information from the database in the way that I wanted. She also helped me write the PHP for my contact form, in the process helping me to add in fields checking for spammers, and also code to check that those fields had been completed appropriately.

The site used to use an old version of the Subscribe2 plugin which I held off from upgrading to the amount of work it would have taken to get a newer version to work with the existing theme. A new theme has meant that was no longer a consideration, and so I upgraded to the latest version of Subscribe2. It was only when I uploaded, and set live, the completed theme and upgraded plugins at the weekend that a few issues came to light. Basically the plugin only partially worked on the live site, with new subscribers receiving an email containing a link to confirm the subscription, but the link going to a blank page and the subscription not being confirmed. After a lot of reading through the plugin code, and with Sarah doing a number of tests, we found that there were three functions responsible for the confirmation process - commenting out the call to one of these functions allowed the confirmation to go through and the appropriate confirmation page to display - just in a very broken state as a number of scripted components failed to work on the page. It had, by that time, occurred to us that it was an issue with using customised permalinks on the site along with the way the plugin takes over an existing page that it rewrites with the confirmation - instead of doing this successfully the page was being redirected to the real permalinked page, causing the confirmation to fail. Once we had tested that this was the case, by resetting permalinks to the default method, it didn't take much to discover the real cause - a conflict between Subscribe2 and the Permalink Redirect plugin. This issue hadn't existed with the previous version of Subscribe2 that I'd been using, so something that has changed caused the conflict - the process of taking over an existing page from the database, rather than using its own dedicated one like the old version did. It's probable that the new method makes it easier for the plugin to be integrated with a theme and so it's an acceptable change in the grand scheme of things, but unfortunate that it results in a conflict. To fix it I dropped the other plugin.

CSS Issues

While differences in browser rendering continue to exist there are always going to be display issues when switching between those browsers. The star browser was Firefox, getting things right first time and according to standards. Internet Explorer 7 had a few minor issues, and IE 6 a few more, however these were relatively simple to fix with a few changes in margin, width and position settings in their own respective style sheets linked via conditional comments. In Internet Explorer 5.5 it looked like a bomb had hit it; that browser couldn't handle a fair bit of the CSS and rather than spend too much time on an obsolete browser I changed a number of things and fixed the width. I basically just wanted to make sure the site would be usable rather than trying to precisely reproduce the design.

Quite surprisingly I had a few strange problems in Opera 9.20, surprisingly because Opera is at least as standards compliant as Firefox if not more so. However there were several oddities that didn't seem to have an easy fix, or at least not a fix that could be achieved simply by tweaking the CSS without those tweaks affecting other browsers. Those issues included:

• displaying the sponsor links at the correct size until the page finished loading, then the text mysteriously shrinking. As these used the same markup and CSS as the other links in the sidebar there was no easy or logical way to fix the problem without affecting the other links.
• text marked up as paragraphs within the content area would magically jump to the right once the page loaded, leaving a small fragment of text behind (a few characters from the last line of each paragraph, chopped off at the top). Again, there was no simple fix without it affecting the positioning in other browsers.
• text link styles were overridden with the browser default ones, again without any logic that I could see. It's possible that one of the settings in my browser profile caused this issue, but I'm not familiar enough with the browser to track it down - so I needed to find another fix.

It's likely that the first two issues were caused by the combination of scripts used on the page, for example the sponsor links are generated by scripts. However as it wasn't feasible to remove those scripts anyway I decided not to test the theory by disabling them on a live site (the issues weren't apparent in my local testing copy). Due to the prospect of a CSS fix affecting other browsers I had to find a hack or filter for Opera, much as it pains me to use them now that it's clear we can control the real problem browser (Internet Explorer 6 and under) using conditional comments. However these issues needed an Opera specific fix and, after a bit of searching on Google, I found a way using an @media declaration to target Opera:

1. @media all and (min-width:0px) {
2. head~body p {
3. margin-left : 0;
4. }
5. #content a, #content a:link, #content a:visited, #skipper a:link, #skipper a:visited {
6. color : #00303e !important;
7. }
8. #content a:hover, #content a:active, #content a:focus, #skipper a:hover, #skipper a:active, #skipper a:focus {
9. color : #870000 !important;
10. }
11. #sidebar #links55315 a {
12. font-size : 11px;
13. }
14. }

The combination of the "@media all" and the "and (min-width:0px)" in line 1 of the code above targets Opera fairly specifically - apparently it has also been shown to target Pre-release versions of Safari too. I had no way of testing this, however I felt it was safe to use the method as I was just emphasising already existing styles rather than trying to impose different ones. Line 2 very specifically targets all paragraphs, overriding any other rules that may be conflicting. Line 3 sets the left margin for all paragraphs to zero (even though this had already been done in the main style sheets), while Line 4 closes the rule set opened in line 2. A quick test in Opera showed that the method worked successfully. Lines 5, 6 and 7, and lines 8, 9 and 10 were used to fix the link colour change, while 11, 12 and 13 were used to fix the resizing of the sponsor link text - using a pixel unit instead of ems was what was needed there. The final line closes the whole thing. That discovery came courtesy of the Tanrei Software blog where there's a useful article on using media selectors for browser targetting.

Other Issues

Rather than use a mass of extra markup and images I chose to use Alessandro Fulciniti's NiftyCorners Cube script for the curved corners, so users without javascript enabled will see the site with square corners. Users with javascript may also have some issues, there's a slight lag in the page load time as the script runs through the targeted elements in order to set the curved corners. It's also possible that the script contributes to the paragraph jumping in Opera, though I've never seen this happen in other sites that I've used the script on.

I use a plugin that dynamically adds classes to various links in order to add an icon to identify the target type (such as an arrow pointing away from a box to indicate external links). One of the icons used was for links to Wikipedia which consisted of a small icon of the Wikipedia logo. However it was hard to distinguish that icon from the surrounding text, so it was removed.

I wanted to use an image of an upwards pointing arrow for my back to top links, but without all of the images being background images (otherwise there would have been no actual content for the links). I achieved it using a combination of foreground and background images with the following markup and CSS:

The HTML

1. <div class="up">
2. <a href="#skipper" title="Back to top">
<img src="http://www.ap4a.co.uk/wp-content/themes/mannequin/images/up.png" width="16" height="16" alt="Up arrow" /></a>
3. </div>

The markup simply creates a div as a container element for the image used as the default-state up arrow and the actual link back to the top of the page.

The CSS - part 1

1. div.up {
2. float : right;
3. margin : 5px 10px 0 0;
4. padding : 0;
5. width : 16px;
6. height : 16px;
7. }

The first part of the associated CSS sets the dimensions of the container div to match the size of the image it contains and positions it where I want it on the page (relative to its own container).

The CSS - part 2

1. div.up a, div.up a img {
2. display : block;
3. padding : 0;
4. margin : 0;
5. }

Part 2 of the CSS sets both the image and the anchor around it to be block level. This corrects Internet Explorer 6's behaviour of adding a 3px space beneath inline images (which is the space preserved for text descenders). It also allows the full area taken up by the image to be a clickable part of the link.

The CSS - part 3

1. div.up a {
2. background : url(images/up2.png) no-repeat center bottom;
3. position : relative;
4. width : 100%;
5. height : 100%;
6. text-decoration : none;
7. cursor : pointer;
8. }

This code sets the link to 100% width and height of the container div to complete the process started in the previous rule set, which allows the full area of the image to be clickable. It also sets the positioning to relative to allow the contained image to be absolutely position within it, and the first line sets the background to be the hover state version of the image. The final 2 lines turn off the underline added to links and ensure that the proper cursor style is used.

The CSS - part 4

1. div.up a img {
2. position : absolute;
3. top : -5px;
4. left : -5px;
5. border : none !important;
6. }

Part four positions the foreground image within its containers so that it precisely and completely covers up the background image. It also makes sure that no border is added.

The CSS - part 5

1. div.up a:hover img, div.up a:active img, div.up a:focus img {
2. visibility : hidden;
3. }

The final rule set is responsible for removing the foreground image when the link is hovered over, revealing the hover state background image. It works as intended in Firefox, IE 7 and Opera 9. In IE 5 and 6 the change in state doesn't work, and IE 5 also needs a slight change in the positioning to cover the hover state image.

No doubt there'll be other issues to find, and they'll be fixed when they are. I'm expecting there to be one or two in Mac browsers, but as I haven't been able to test in them (the Mac testing services I normally use have been broken when I've visited recently) I haven't been able to find them. If you're a Mac user and do find issues, please let me know and I'll do my best to resolve them, thanks.

Dustin Diaz has announced the first annual CSS naked day to take place on the 5th of April. I had wanted to announce my participation in the event prior to my CSS turning off, but I didn't get the chance to and now it's gone.

Some of you may be wondering why I started early - well I haven't really. You see I used the PHP function provided by Luke Wertz to disable my CSS automatically and, as mentioned by Dustin, this will turn the CSS off as soon as it is the 5th of April anywhere in the World, and keep it turned off until it's no longer the 5th anywhere. In other words it's an annual CSS 2 naked days.

To find out what it's all about have a read of the announcement, however it's summed up quite well here by Håkon Wium Lie, the creator of CSS:

This is a fun idea, fully in line with the reasons for creating CSS in the first place. While most designers are attracted by the extra presentational capabilities, saving HTML from becoming a presentational language was probably a more important motivation for most people who participated in the beginning.

Håkon has pledged to take part, along with several hundred other mental people

In a little under 48 hours my CSS will return in a blaze of glory, in the meantime you get to see a more attractive ap4a.

In August 2004 Style:Phreak created a demonstration of a standards compliant form marked up with semantic HTML and styled with CSS. I've only recently been introduced to it by an acquaintance from a forum I visit occasionally who uses a version based on it and asked how it could be made more semantic following a brief discussion about it. As a result of that discussion I've taken it upon myself to update it slightly, a possibility brought about due to better support available in current browsers compared to what was available in 2004.

Variations in this version:

• The wrapping of label/input pairs within divs has been dropped as this was only used to allow styling effects to be done to them - those effects are possible without needing to add the extra markup.
• The div surrounding the radio buttons has been replaced with a fieldset, which is more semantic, though it's responsible for the minor issue in Opera 7.23 outlined below.
• Although a tabindex could have been added one hasn't been - as this isn't an active form I decided against this. In a real form one would possibly have been used. Also the erroneous inclusion of one empty tabindex attribute in the original has been omitted here.
• The statement, in the style:phreak original, that fields marked in bold are required is reliant on presentation and would mean that screenreader users won't get the message, this has been replaced with the comment that those marked with a * are required.
• As * marked fields are required it is important that all users get to see it, so it's important that it isn't included via the CSS content property, as per the original.
• As the contents of the "required fields" paragraph contains essential information relating to the form it's more meaningful to include it within the form, so that's done too.
• The script used to toggle the optional fields on and off has been removed in this version, however a script to correct a win IE bug has been included in order to prevent the resetting of select fields when their label is clicked.

This version has been tested and works as intended in the following current Windows browser versions: Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 1.5.0.1 and Opera 8.52. It has also been tested in Opera 7.23 (the lowest version I care about supporting) and found to work with only one error - where the fieldset surrounding the radio buttons is surrounded by a border despite the CSS rule setting it to none. In IE 5.02 and IE 5.5 for Windows it works as intended apart from a misplacement of the textarea and its label, and the wrapping of the label for the input above it on to two lines - I could have corrected this with an IE 5 only stylesheet or a hack, I didn't care enough to try to.

This version, as with Style:Phreak's original is released under a creative commons licence.

View the updated form here.

Most developers are, I would hope, aware of alt attributes, and hopefully how to use them correctly. It seems, however, that longdesc is a bit of a mystery even to some of the more experienced and knowledgeable amongst us.

With an image's alt attribute we're able to insert a small segment of text that provides an alternative if, for whatever reason, the image is unable to be displayed. It may be something simple, such as "my company logo" to replace your logo when it doesn't open up. With more complex images, and images that convey very important information such as charts and diagrams, a more detailed description is required - not in case the image doesn't display, but to provide an alternative means of providing the detailed information the image contains. In this case the alt attribute just isn't enough. It isn't viable to describe a graph of medical results, for example, in the few words that alt attributes allow us. For circumstances such as in our medical chart example we have been provided a more powerful method with the longdesc attribute. However, due to the mysterious nature of longdesc it seems that many of us are incorrectly using it in the same way as we use alt attributes. To illustrate the point, consider the markup for an embedded image with alt attribute:

1. <img src="image.gif" alt="my company logo" />

As the above example shows, alt attributes contain our alternative text enclosed between quotation marks and within our image tag. Longdesc attributes, however, don't enclose the long description within the confines of its quotation marks, instead longdesc contains a link to another web page where we would describe in detail the image in question. Nor would our longdesc attribute be used to replace our alt attribute - instead we would use both; for example:

1. <img src="compleximage.gif" alt="Results graph of medical data" longdesc="/clinicalresults.html" />

Rather than being a more detailed, and direct, replacement for alt attributes the longdesc attribute, and associated descriptive web page, is intended to be used in conjunction with alts in order to enable us to provide our visitors with as much information as they might require about the imagery used.

Visit most blogs, including those of accessibility minded web designers, and at some point you'll stumble upon a "more" link. These are links to the full version of excerpted posts which allow bloggers to reduce the volume of text on their home pages. In theory they're a great idea, in practice though they're poorly implemented from an accessibility standpoint. The WAI's guidelines state that link text should be meaningful enough to make sense when read out of context, clearly something that "more" fails to do. Also, as is mentioned in the WCAG recommended techniques for writing link text, if more than one link on a page shares the same link text, all those links should point to the same resource - once again, something that "more" generally fails to do.

The problem is, though, that these links and their associated link text are added by the blog software rather than the blogger, and the code running behind the scenes that makes this happen is very often a mystery to the average blogger. Considering the current trend for focusing on accessibility it may be worthwhile for blog software developers to modify this feature. In the case of wordpress, the software used on this site, it was quite easy to adapt the feature to use more appropriate link text than its version of "more" - thanks to a helping hand from Sarah who analysed the template functions files and found a way to achieve what I wanted - which was to have the "more" link include the article's title in the link text.

If this is something that you'd like to implement on your own wordpress blog you need to edit the template-functions-post.php file located in the wp-includes directory. To do so you need to locate line 86 and replace the existing code found there with the following:

1. $output.='<a href="'. get_permalink().
2. "#more-$id\">$more_link_text". get_the_title()."</a>";