WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Popup Window idea

for

From: Christian Heilmann
Date: Jul 24, 2005 1:29PM

http://www.wait-till-i.com/index.php?p=130

As some might know, I am currently writing a chapter for "Constructing
Accessible Web Sites" by Apress / Friends of Ed.

As an example, I am writing a script to allow for "accessible" pop-up
windows. I had an idea I hadn't seen yet before and wondered if I
should pursue with it.

Here's the deal:

* We cannot assume that the user agent allows for popup windows
* When we use HTML and the target attribute, we can open a window, but
cannot "style" it or close it with a link
* When we have JavaScript enabled and we have a window.opener, we can
assume that the window was opened and we can add window.close() links.

Therefore I considered using link relationships in conjunction with a
script to make the whole process failsafe:
<a href="popup.html" rel="popup">popup</a>

would be changed by the script to a link opening the new window and
get a message attached that it does so.
<a href="parent.html" rev="popuptrigger">back</a>

would get a close.window() attached and the text changed to "close window".

Any comments why that is a bad idea and what would be a better one?
Yes, I will point out that popups should be avoided.

--
Chris Heilmann
Blog: http://www.wait-till-i.com
Writing: http://icant.co.uk/
Binaries: http://www.onlinetools.org/