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CMS and WAI

Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:47 am
by alex.barylski
CSS doesn't have the flexability I need to create fluid designs...

For instance, my current web site has 4 columns
- Left hand side gutter (22px)
- Left hand side navigation menu (180px)
- Content area (100%)
- Right hand side gutter (22px)

With a footer which spanned 100%

This design proved to difficult for me to be done in CSS alone so I used a TABLE layout...

Which doesn't conform to WAI standards :(

Ah well...

Anyways, the point is...I have my own little CMS which I built to manage the content on my site...not the greatest but it works and uses TinyMCE as an editor...

Like many other CMS's when I need to adjust the layout of my content I again have to use tables as all CMS I have seen don't allow anything but, as the WYSIWYG editors written in JS don't allow for much more...

How would you go about designing a CMS so it was more WAI friendly???

For instance, images...there is no way to force a user to enter an ALT value unless you use an image uploader, etc...which I don't...

I'm thinking of starting work on my next CMS which I will strive to make conform to CSS designs and WAI, etc...

Ideas, comments, opinions, etc???

Cheers :)

Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 12:33 pm
by Gambler
How would you go about designing a CMS so it was more WAI friendly???
Either I would make 2 separate designs, or I would simplify layout as much as possible. Yours doesn't sound so bad. It's 2-column design.
http://accessat.c-net.us/test/template-2col.html
or instance, images...there is no way to force a user to enter an ALT value unless you use an image uploader
You can enter alt values at run-time. Simply scan src fields, and strip extensions. But that would be costly, so users should be able to disable that option.

Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 1:56 pm
by alex.barylski
Either I would make 2 separate designs, or I would simplify layout as much as possible. Yours doesn't sound so bad. It's 2-column design.
:P

I actually meant the system output, not the system itself...how could you design a CMS so it output WAI compliant code...
You can enter alt values at run-time. Simply scan src fields, and strip extensions. But that would be costly, so users should be able to disable that option.
I dunno about that one :?

What if JS is disabled???

That wouldn't pass with w3c validation service either...

Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 1:57 pm
by alex.barylski
I appreciate the 3 column table layout exmaple though thanks :)

Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 2:47 pm
by Gambler
What if JS is disabled???
It can be done on the server side with output buffering and a complicated regular expression (or XML parser).

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 2:26 am
by matthijs
hockey, may I look at your site then? css layouts can sometimes take a little tweaking to work fully cross-browser. but i can't imagine the layout you describe is not possible. maybe we might help?

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 2:32 am
by John Cartwright
matthijs wrote:hockey, may I look at your site then? css layouts can sometimes take a little tweaking to work fully cross-browser. but i can't imagine the layout you describe is not possible. maybe we might help?
<off topic troll> Hockey, you would be amazed as to what can be accomplished using CSS.. have you seen the house completely rendered in CSS? </off topic troll>

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 11:03 am
by alex.barylski
Jcart wrote:
matthijs wrote:hockey, may I look at your site then? css layouts can sometimes take a little tweaking to work fully cross-browser. but i can't imagine the layout you describe is not possible. maybe we might help?
<off topic troll> Hockey, you would be amazed as to what can be accomplished using CSS.. have you seen the house completely rendered in CSS? </off topic troll>
I've seen that house...it's neat...