February 24, 2009 PLEASE FORWARD
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Tips, Tricks, News and Reviews for Web Coders
by Kevin Yank (techtimes@sitepoint.com)
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http://www.sitepoint.com/newsletter/viewissue.php?id=3&issue=229
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INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Are you unknowingly harboring a hypertext criminal in your
projects?
Some of the worst crimes against hypertext were revealed in Tech
Times #223, [1] where Andrew introduced us to some very shady
characters indeed -- such as the vague and lazy Leisure-suit,
the mysterious Middle-man, and the obnoxious pop-up
Telemarketer. Responsible citizens did their part to clean up
the mean streets of the Web by reporting even more of these
petty criminals in their feedback to that issue. This week,
Andrew reveals more infidels -- plus a way to eradicate that
pesky "More >>" from your vocabulary. We'll look at that in just
a moment.
SIMPLY SQL IS HERE!
You might also be interested to know that we've just launched
our first book about SQL, Simply SQL [2].
If you want to use database-driven content in your web site,
then you simply must learn some SQL. Simply SQL is packed with
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in the real world, and it's written by the SitePoint Forums'
resident SQL guru, Rudy Limeback (r937 [3]). You can find out
more about what's inside and read a free sample on our web site
[2].
[1] <http://www.sitepoint.com/newsletter/viewissue.php?id=3&issue=223&format=html>
[2] <http://www.sitepoint.com/books/sql1>
[3] <http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/member.php?u=19900>
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IN THIS ISSUE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- Introduction
- More Crimes Against Hypertext
- New Technical Articles
- Techy Forum Threads
- More Techy Blog Entries
MORE CRIMES AGAINST HYPERTEXT - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
by Andrew Tetlaw
Back in Tech Times #223 [1] I identified several common examples
of poor hyperlinking. It generated an interesting discussion so I
thought I'd write a follow-up, adding a few more examples and
some solutions.
THE LATEST ROGUES
The first newcomer to our rogue's gallery comes courtesy of our
language editor, Kelly. She was mystified by the separate
linking of multiple adjacent words to the same link target,
instead of just joining them together into a single link. She
called it The Doppelganger.
The next one came from bel, a commenter who said:
Camouflaged for ambush, this link looks like its going to open
another web page but instead is actually going to open up a PDF,
DOC, email address, etc. Always when you are in a hurry, quickly
scanning around for what you are looking for, you click one of
these and then BAMM -- you are stuck waiting with your hands
tied while it launches your client software. Oh, the howls of
chagrin heard from my corner when I've stepped on one of
these hyperlink land-mines while in a hurry. "Nooooooo!
OWWooooooo!!"
I call that one, The Saboteur. Raena, SitePoint's other
technical editor, thought this one should be called The Crying
Game. I'll leave it to you to ponder that one.
Finally, from another commenter, Wynnefield, is the link called
The Mime Artist. This is the link that leaves you wanting "More
>>":
<p>It's often taken for granted but the lack of good
hypertext makes reading a web page a generally unpleasant
experience. There are several essential hyperlinking techniques
you should know.</p> <p><a href="/">More >></a></p>
The Mime Artist is so named because it vaguely points in a
meaningless direction, gives you no clues as to where it's
going, and leaves you wishing you could have your money
refunded.
GOOD LINKING PRACTICE
The consensus about good linking practice was that a link should
indicate what the user will find when clicking on it. Link text
should help the user decide whether or not to follow a link.
Some posters suggested I rewrite the good example to link the
intention of the link instead of the name of the target site.
So, instead of this:
For excellent examples of finely crafted hypertext
look no further than <a href="http://kottke.org/"> kottke.org,
the online home of Jason Kottke</a>.
... I'd rewrite the link like this:
For <a href="http://kottke.org/">excellent examples
of finely crafted hypertext</a> look no further than kottke.org,
the online home of Jason Kottke.
Which makes sense to me.
This is supported by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
2.0 [2] , that state the purpose of a link should be able to be
determined from its link text alone, or the context in which it
is placed. In fact, the guidelines describe a failure of
accessibility [3] when:
... links such as "click here" or "more" [that] are used as
anchor elements, where you need to have the surrounding text to
understand their purpose.
So how do we avoid such accessibility problems? Some solutions
after the break.
[1] <http://www.sitepoint.com/newsletter/viewissue.php?id=3&issue=223&format=html>
[2] <http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/navigation-mechanisms-refs.html>
[3] <http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20081211/F84>
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SOLUTIONS
There are many proponents of using the phrase "click here" --
the Tautology link -- as a call to action so that more readers
will click on the link. I understand the need for a call to
action, so I'd be likely to investigate alternatives before
resorting to "click here." For example, you might see:
To see how you can improve your hypertext
today, <a href="/">click here</a>.
I'd first consider changing the language like so:
<a href="/">See how you can improve your
hypertext today!</a>
But if the client demands the "click here" signpost, I'd
suggest:
<a href="/">Click here to see how you can
improve your hypertext today!</a>
Regarding the Mime Artist link, if you have to implement a link
that uses the word "more" as link text, the guidelines also
offer a simple solution [1] (this is echoed on the Max Design
[2] web site and many others): Use CSS to hide the portion of
the link text you want to keep unseen.
Let's reuse some of the previous markup but add a span that
encloses some extra text:
<p>It's often taken for granted but the lack of good
hypertext makes reading a web page a generally unpleasant
experience. There are several essential hyperlinking techniques
you should know.</p> <p><a href="/">More<span> about
creating quality hypertext</span></a></p>
You then use CSS to move the text within the span element off
the screen. The two solutions (linked above) use absolute
positioning to move the text, but do it slightly differently
from each other. They are worth a look.
The result of either solution is to make only the desired link
text visible while making available extended link text for
screen readers and search engines.
Leave your comments on the blog entry:
Web Tech Blog: Technically Speaking
by Andrew Tetlaw
More Crimes Against Hypertext [3]
[1] <http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20081211/C7>
[2] <http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/more-links/>
[3] <http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/02/24/more-crimes-against-hypertext/>
SPONSOR'S MESSAGE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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cross-platform desktop applications using only HTML, CSS and
JavaScript.
Why should C programmers have all the fun?
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http://www.sitepoint.com/launch/adda5e
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Kevin Yank is still working hard on his book, but if you're
missing your weekly dose of Kevin, you could check out the
SitePoint Podcast [1]. In the last episode [2], Kevin, Brad,
Patrick, and Stephan talked about Chrome plugins, devious
Twitter clickjacking, how to attend the best parties at South by
Southwest Interactive, and more. It's a great way to get your
techie fix on the go!
See you next week for another Tech Times.
Raena Jackson Armitage
techtimes@sitepoint.com
Technical Editor, SitePoint
PS: If you follow us on Twitter, you get to find out about new
posts, articles, podcasts, and the coolest forum threads as soon
as they happen. You'll find us there as @sitepointdotcom [3].
Sure, there are real human beings behind it -- I'm one!
[1] <http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/category/podcast/>
[2] <http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/02/20/sitepoint-podcast-9-sitepoint-at-sxswi/>
[3] <http://twitter.com/sitepointdotcom>
NEW TECHNICAL ARTICLES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Introducing Joomla
by Andrew Eddie
Joomla is one of the most popular open source content management
systems that exist today. In this step by step tutorial, Andrew
demonstrates how easy it is to get started.
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/1707
Simply SQL: The FROM Clause
by Rudy Limeback
Have trouble remembering your right outer joins from your left?
In this sample chapter from the SitePoint book, Simply SQL, Rudy
makes the inner workings of the SQL FROM clause easy to
understand, including joins, subqueries, and views.
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/1704
TECHY FORUM THREADS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CSS - Test Your CSS Skills Number 15 :
<http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=601564>
Web Design V Web DEVELOPMENT: Any definitions?
<http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=601468>
Building a shopping cart...from scratch...
<http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=601386>
Argh. She wants me to design the site in FrontPage.
<http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=601282>
Norway sites tell IE6 users to upgrade
<http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=601038>
MORE TECHY BLOG ENTRIES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
News & Trends Blog: INDUSTRY NEWS FOR WEB PROFESSIONALS
The 5 Most Under-Used HTML Tags (21 comments)
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/02/24/five-under-used-html-tags/
Enterprise SaaS and the Coghead Lesson (15 comments)
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/02/21/coghead-lesson/
Podcast Blog: THE SITEPOINT PODCAST
SitePoint Podcast #9: SitePoint at SXSWi (6 comments)
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/02/20/sitepoint-podcast-9-sitepoint-at-sxswi/
Web Tech Blog: TECHNICALLY SPEAKING
Learn SQL -- The EASY Way! (3 comments)
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/02/18/learn-sql-the-easy-way/
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