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Reference this page | 20070926 what is yacs.pdf - 119,256 bytes, 614 downloads |
English « Interactive channels Public events «
Introduction to YACS 7.10, on October 11th
An interactive chat session that has taken place on Thursday Oct-11th
During the conversation key new features have been introduced, plus the correction of salient bugs, and a couple of questions have been answered.
Files
Comments
Bernard - Why? Because this is integrated natively into the web site, because you can share files around, and because you can make a permanent transcript out of it with one click.
Bernard - Don't know, but I will start to show you a couple of things. It is quite usual for such rendez-vous to have late arrivals. People will re-synchronize the thread anyway.
Bernard - First of all, you may want to have a global picture of where we are today. The following file may help.
20070926-what-is-yacs.pdf
Bernard - I will let you read the entire document, yet the most important point with YACS version 7.10 is the introduction of AJAX, with the prototype and script.aculo.us Javascript libraries. YACS has its own Javascript library as well, in file
shared/yacs.js, and this one is expected to grow dramatically over time. Bernard - Yes, but this file also results from a consolidation and rewriting of various Javascript that exist previously.
The conversation we have now is a direct application of the interactivity allowed by AJAX. We are staying at this page for a long time, but content is changing dynamically, and all people looking at the page get the same view synchronously, and can contribute as well.
Interactive conversations are just leveraging existing components of YACS, mainly comments and files. And of course, you can use YACS codes, or post links directly in contributions. For example:
http://www.ngr78.co.uk/
This is quite useful to drive people during a training or so.
Bernard - Yes, that's a challenge, and I am not sure we are at the right level for this now.
Actually the focus has been on performance and response times for a while, because AJAX interactions can turn any powerful box to a sluggish server.
Bernard - Now that we have a workable solution, we can also have a look at usability, etc.
If you want to advise on accessibility, please do not hesitate to do so
NickR - Well without ajax/javascript have to consider HOW it would be possible to maintain the main functionality.
NickR - Maybe the approach should be to write functionality without ajax and then add ajax to enhance it.Progressive Enhancement
Bernard - Nick, I was thinking like this last year. But what you are talking about is not possible anymore, and AJAX gurus now start with AJAX and attempt to degrade gracefully. The next step is, probably, to have Javascript as a pre-requisite to access a site.
Hello Alain, and welcome aboard. Canada, UK, France are well represented today
Bernard - At least, with YACS, when you have finished your chat you can click on the Lock link to turn it to a permanent transcript, and have an accessible page again. A sample in French
Alain, look at http://script.aculo.us/ to get a good idea of the thing.
NickR - Maybe a consideration would be to take the google approach, have a basic interface for non-javascript users ?
Bernard - Yes, we have to think about that, definitely.
Another important feature of YACS 7.10 is the native support of UTF-8 databases.
NickR - Also categorise functionality that is essential and optional ?
Then decide is javascript essential or optional :D
Maybe as a configuration setting...
Bernard - As you know, the software has accepted UTF-8 input for a while, but this was translated to Unicode entities before saving records in the database. Now, YACS checks MySQL parameters, and saves native UTF-8 records where applicable. The improvement is mainly in search requests, since YACS now allows for accented characters in full-text searches...
This full implementation of the UTF-8 standard will help non-English speakers, definitely...
YACS version 7.10 leverages Google Maps and AJAX for interactive geo-encoding. This complements what Nick was talking about previously. When creating a new location object, you have to type explicitly the latitude and longitude. But when Javascript is enabled, you can type a plain address and let Google do the hard job.
Bernard - Hopefully! I have bought an iMac at home, and would like to benefit from her strong experience of these beautiful machines. A win-win situation for her and me...
Lasares - As for UTF-8, what does it imply for existing yacs installations ?
also..."... when Javascript is enabled..." Not having so much exposure as you guys on how others use their computers, I was wondering when and why Javascript would not be "enabled" ?
Bernard - YACS supports the co-existence of Unicode and UTF-8 pages in the same database, so that is not a big deal. Unicode pages are still accessible as usual, and only new or modified pages are turned to UTF-8. This site is now working this way, for example.
Bernard - For javascript, all computers I know have it enabled, but Nick may have a different experience...
NickR - Lasares, in the UK it is a LEGAL requirement to make ANY service accessible.
Anything from a shop to a website.
Bernard - Nick, thank you to outline this constraint, that we don't have in France, yet. Anyway it makes a lot of sense to me to ensure that as many people as possible can access a site, whatever the means they are using, or not. Have you some tests to assess how accessible a site is?
NickR - Though, as to what is considered an accessible website, I do not know
bobby is a tool we use at work.
http://webxact.watchfire.com/
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-accessibility/uk-website-legal-requirements.shtml
Bernard - Another important change in 7.10 is the comprehensive testing of permissions management and cascading. Are you ready for a live test?
Bernard - The first thing to do is to open a second browser window, to preserve your current session at this thread. If you have Firefox, open Internet Explorer, etc.
