About the Widget.
Glide Panel Magic is a PVII Widget that lets you present some or all of your Web page content in a logically structured, engaging, and compact format. You can, for instance, display product facts, multi-part forms, or multi-step tutorials, in logical chunks—and in a unique and visually engaging way. The Glide Panel Magic navigation bar quickly identifies major sections and minimizes page scrolling by keeping more information above the fold.
Your information is presented in a search engine-friendly, standards-based (x)html structure that's accessible to all users at all times, even when JavaScript is not available. Navigation links are keyboard accessible and act as ordinary named anchors when JavaScript is not available, to deliver users straight to the relevant content.
Source: Project Seven Web Site. External Link.
Code Generation Performance of the Widget.
The Glide Panel Magic widget renders flawlessly in any Web content page regardless of MIME content type or DTD. It conforms to full W3C standards based upon the content page's DTD.
The CSS created by the extension and for the widget conforms to full W3C CSS standards and validates, accordingly.
Since the widget's JavaScript produces content for either the text/html or application/xhtml+xml MIME content type based upon the DTD of the content page, Glide Panel Magic performs flawlessly within ASP.NET code and is rendered XHTML compliant by the .NET framework for browsers that support true XHTML.
Disclaimer.
This is an evaluation of a beta of the Glide Panel Magic widget by Project Seven. This testing is for content generation, standards compliance and accessibility compliance, only.
The widget is supplied as an Adobe Dreamweaver extension. Performance of the widget within Dreamweaver and its content development environment are beyond the scope of this test.
HTTP Header.
Major browsers include development tool add–ons that allow views of various aspects of the Web page's DOM. A view of this Web page's HTTP Header information is shown in the image in the left sidebar.
The pertinent information of this image is that it shows this specific page is delivered and parsed by the browser with a MIME content–type of text/html.
The W3C Validation Service can be used for further verification of the content–type [EXT] that is delivered to the Web browser.
Summary.
The Project Seven Glide Panel Magic widget meets any level of Web standards and best practice technical specification and consideration.
Its CSS based design is highly configurable that enables the widget to accommodate any sound HTML design. Multiple widgets can exist on the same content page. The widget's menu structure can be horizontal or vertical and can be located separate from the content that the widget controls. The CSS degrades gracefully in older browsers. It can be adjusted to accommodate and/or coexist with external style sheets that control primary content for all devices that support CSS and supported CSS media types.
The JavaScript is clean and succinct. For devices and user agents that do not support JavaScript or for Web visitors who disable JavaScript, the widget content is highly structured and usable.
It is how and in the manner which the JavaScript for this widget has been coded that allows the JavaScript to impact the DOM of any modern Web browser regardless of the Web page's recognized MIME type. It further allows the script to make the required adjustments to the DOM prior to the Web page being parsed. This allows the content page to successfully render within the browser for either of the MIME types of text/html or application/xhtml+xml.
The DTDs Used for Tests.
These tests are based upon performance, parsing and rendering of these pages that use the various XHTML DTDs.
Performance is not an issue in pages that do not specify a DTD or use a malformed DTD. Use of such is not recommended. However, when it happens, as in the creation of much of the hobby and do–it–yourself Web content, browsers will render that content in their Quirks mode. The widget will function correctly in such environments.
Tests were not necessary for determination of performance of content with a MIME type of text/html that use HTML DTDs. It would have been a redundant series of tests.
The Content's Logical Structure and Use of the tabindex Element.
Logical structure of Web content is a critical accessibility issue. It is also important to efficiency of the Web content's presentation. With this type of widget, logical tab order becomes important particularly when content is present within the sidebar.
Logical Structure and Use of the Appropriate header Element.
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Use of the tabindex Element and Logical Tab Order.
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Additional Structure and Content Recommendations.
Additional requirement of use of the noscript element and inclusion of a named anchor link add usability and accessibility compliance to the content whenever the widget is used.
Use of the noscript Element.
This widget is dependent upon client–side JavaScript. It is strongly recommended to include a noscript element whenever client-side JavaScript is used. This includes its use for improvements and feature additions to usability of any Web content.
Use of the Internal Page Link.
Dependent upon the type of content that is used with this widget, a named anchor link that will navigate to the beginning of the widget's content is recommended.
As used on this content page wherein information is presented and folded by the widget, a the named anchor link of top of page is used. Its use adds function and purpose for the ‘un–folded’ content when the content is presented without use of the widget's associated JavaScript.
Accessibility.
Content and developer skill dependent, this widget meets all levels of the WCAG version 1.0 as published by the W3C As I said, it meets all levels: Priority One, Priority Two and Priority Three. This includes the United States Americans with Disabilities Act Section 508 Accessibility Guidelines.
This content page has been machine validated against the WCAG 1.0 standard using Hiawatha's AccVerify and Watchfire's WebXact products. No errors are reported at Priority 1, Priority 2 or Priority 3 levels.
SEO Performance.
The content within the widget is exposed fully to search engines provided that the specific content is not excluded by technique, e.g. robot text file exclusion.
This ability is superior over standard AJAX techniques that are used to present content within a collapsible content ‘fold’.
Exposing content to search engines and having the content conveniently available to users via ‘click through’ of the search engine link are distinct and separate issues. The Web developer must be cognizant of these issues. Specific technique and suggestions are provided within the Application Test content page of this Web site and address these issues.
