Dowling's JS Kvetch (was Re: JavaScript question)

[Thomas Dowling]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Luck, Deanne" <LuckDL at apsu.edu>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 5:13 PM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] JavaScript question


> Our recently redesigned home page (http://library.apsu.edu) includes a
drop
> down "jumpbox" for quick access to our databases.  I borrowed a
javascript
> program for this which has always worked nicely for us.

May I gently suggest that you can improve upon this approach?

The JavaScript-only solution you have in place has at least three and a
half problems:  the lack of an action attribute in the form element
makes it invalid HTML; it makes the forms on your home page totally
inaccessible to people who turn off javascript (this is the big one);
and by extension that means your page cannot comply with the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines at any level--in some states and in the federal
government, WCAG compliance or very similar guidelines are being written
into regulatory rules. In addition, you lose any opportunity to log how
often your home page is used to jump to your databases.

You can avoid all these problems by having the form point at a very
simple CGI script and making your "Go" buttons real submit inputs.  If
you're happy with putting the destination URL in the form itself, you
can do the whole thing in about 10 lines of Perl, including some error
handling. Contact me off-list if you want an example.

Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu