[ckan-dev] CKAN and JavaScript

[Jim Craner]

Hi everyone-

As a newcomer to the CKAN community, I wanted to say that this is
really helpful info -- thanks, Aron!

A couple of questions:

1) Is there a specific team or process or policy in the CKAN dev
community aimed at web accessibility, WAI compliance, etc.?

2) Is there a JavaScript library like jQuery included in CKAN for devs
to build upon, and if not, is this something that has already been
discussed?

Thanks!
-Jim

On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 8:00 AM, Toby Dacre <toby.okfn at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 29 May 2012 15:44, Aron Carroll <aron.carroll at okfn.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I've been asked to summarise the general approach to using JavaScript on
>> CKAN
>> moving forward.
>>
>> As CKAN is a website designed to enable users to find and explore datasets
>> and can be deployed in a wide variety of environments it's very important
>> that
>> the site is usable by as broad an audience as possible.
>>
>> So all key features of the site should be implemented and work without
>> JavaScript. This provides the following benefits.
>>
>> * The site content is indexable and searchable via search engines like
>> Google.
>> * Content is accessible to screen readers and other assistive technology.
>> * The site functions for users without JavaScript enabled, while the
>> scripts load or
>>  if an error occurs breaking the app.
>> * Keeping JavaScript to a minimum reduces load times and keeps page weight
>>  down.
>>
>> It also keeps majority of the application in Python which is the primary
>> language
>> of the CKAN team and reduces the maintenance cost of having large portions
>> of
>> application logic in two places.
>>
>> This means adding using HTML forms that submit to CKAN rather than
>> directly to
>> the API. Providing error messages in the HTML source and ensuring all
>> content
>> is included in the html source on page load. JavaScript can then be used
>> to make
>> features richer and enhance the experience.
>>
>> Some features such as the data previewer are going to require JavaScript.
>> Others
>> are more complicated, for example the search facets. Ideally these would
>> provide
>> the same functionality with or without JavaScript but there is an argument
>> that
>> they provide auxiliary functionality as long as the basic form works on
>> it's own.
>> These should be evaluated and discussed on a feature by feature basis.
>>
>
> Thanks aron looks good.  Maybe this should be commentary for the javascript
> coding standards
>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Aron
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>> ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/ckan-dev
>
>
>
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-- 
-----
Jim Craner, 2012 Fellow
Code for America
jim at codeforamerica.org
(+1) 773-809-4546
http://codeforamerica.org