launchpad-dev team mailing list archive

[Robert Collins <robertc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 8:18 AM, Marc Tardif <marc.tardif@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Regarding the Template/API service part of the ServiceRoadmap wiki
> page, if I understand correctly, the solution proposed by Gary at the
> Epic would consist of mostly serving static pages where the content
> would be dynamically retrieved by JavaScript.

Thats a separate (but interesting discussion). Our use cases for
statically rendered pages are:
 - logging in sufficiently to trigger bug filing on servers with apport
 - logging in sufficiently to do the OAuth dance for API support on servers
 - google indexing

These three things are not equivalent to each other, and a solution to
one doesn't imply a solution to the other two.

The template/API service in the roadmap is our *existing* templates
and launchpadlib API extracted from our business logic and persistence
engines. Nothing more, nothing less. We can certainly consider doing
refactorings first (for instance along Gary's proposed direction)
which might make the extraction easier / change the shape of it - but
don't /have to/.

> This is something I
> considered myself until I came across the concept of Progressive
> enhancement [1] which proposes first making the site compatible with
> the lowest common denominator. Then, while maintaining compatibility,
> adding functionality with technologies like CSS and JavaScript. This is
> important for accessibility reasons because some users still need to use
> Lynx. I would be curious to know how providing content with JavaScript
> might conform to the various levels of accessibility on W3C's three-level
> scale...

I think progress enhancement is a good solution for content sites
(static content, little interaction). Launchpad is not one of those
sites. We care about accessibility, but we don't particularly care
about access from mobile devices or non-javascript browsers. Imagine
using gmail with a non-js browser.

If a user using Lynx wants to use Launchpad in any non-trivial way,
they have a fair chunk of development to do to bring Lynx up to modern
web standards.

-Rob