[Glastonbury] Javascript

Sean Miller glastonbury at mailman.lug.org.uk
Tue Jul 15 12:17:01 2003


One thing that must always be borne in mind, before building a site that
relies extensively on Javascript, is that not all browsers support
Javascript and most (if not all) of those that do allow the user to switch
it off.

Therefore Javascript can be useful for rollover effects and other "nice to
have" functions, and may also be used to validate form input BUT that
validation, if important to the functionality of the site, must also be
duplicated on the server side otherwise you are providing your visitors
with the perfect opportunity to bypass all your controls and constraints.

Also remember the disabled... remember that blind people may be visiting
your site using reading software... this software will not recognise
Javascript, so by all means create a nice drop down menu system using
Javascript but also remember to present hyperlinks... using something such
as php one could dynamically serve a different page depending on the
users' browser, or could simply duplicate the functionality with
hyperlinks at the bottom of the page (or similar)... also, from a
disability point of view NEVER forget to put 'alt' tags on images that
double up as buttons...

Sean