When I search drupal.org for "Accessibility," http://drupal.org/project/accessibility (a contributed module) is the first hit. But:
To be fair, I must admit that, if a site is already accessible, stripping it down to a linearized, text-only version can make it a lighter load for assistive technology. If that's what the Accessibility module does, then that's a good thing. But Richard Eriksson's Mobile theme – http://drupal.org/project/mobile — does the same thing and has one official release for D5 and another for D6. And Richard's sample site for the Mobile theme is developed in Acquia Drupal, so it seems to be current.
But, for improved usability, shouldn't the first hit on a search of d.o for "Accessibility" be mgifford's outstanding "Accessibility and Drupal" — http://drupal.org/node/394094? It presents the background, helpful resources, progress in both D6 and D7, and issues remaining to be solved by November 15 for D7.
And shouldn't a module called "Accessibility" be current? (Actually, I'm not sure what such a module should do. To the extent that it can be programmed, accessibility should be native to core, each module, and each theme. But it seems to me that the name should be freed up in case such a module turns out to be needed.)
Finally, shouldn't the Drupal community have some way of periodically cleaning out the pipes by removing d.o projects that have never been finished — especially ones that have been abandoned? If we shouldn't remove them, shouldn't we at least relegate them to a morgue, where they wouldn't appear in general search results? That might make it much easier for people who are looking for modules and themes to find the best available options.
(I hope I've categorized this properly. This is the first time I've posted an issue. At first, I pointed it out to a senior member. He suggested that I post it here so a discussion could begin.)
Comments
Comment #1
gerhard killesreiter commentedThanks for your detailed analysis, but I don't think we are in the business for tweaking the search results for individual search words yet.
I'll leave it to the search team to mark this "won't fix" or suggest a solution.
Comment #2
cliffHow about retiring the module? It's drawing 20 downloads a week while there are no stats on the much better, much more applicable Mobile theme. It looks like its maintainer has left the community. Also, it seems to me that whoever is using that module should instead be directed to the most viable option, which is the Mobile theme.
This is more than just an issue of what the search for one particular term turns up. It's about how the projects on drupal.org are classified and maintained. Why should any module that was last touched 18 months ago and whose developer left the community before finishing even one version continue to clutter up drupal.org for today's users?
Also, if I can filter results of searches on http://drupal.org/project/modules by Drupal version, why can't I also filter by project status? As a relative newbie, I shouldn't have to look through all the development snapshots when I need something I can use right away.
Comment #3
dave reidMoving this to the module's issue queue so we can follow the proper procedure:
As per http://drupal.org/node/251466 I'm officially asking the maintainer if this module is still actively maintained.
Comment #4
cliffThanks, Dave. I wish I had been pointed there first.
How and where should I add a separate request for the feature of being able to filter available themes and modules by status (official release, beta, alpha, and whatever other possibilities exist)?
Comment #5
dave reidWe haven't had any response in over three weeks, so I'm marking the module as abandoned and disabling its releases.
Comment #6
cliffThanks, Dave. I posted issues for two others at the same time: Mobile Devices and Mobit. We have also had no response on those.
Comment #7
avpadernoThe same procedure must be done for each module.
Comment #8
cliffRight, and that's what I did: I posted an issue to each of their queues, separately, asking if they are being maintained. It's going on four weeks and there has been no answer, so what's next? Do I have to post a second issue for each to this queue, too?
And, by the way, in the profile of the former maintainer of the Accessibility module, the link for "My Drupal Site" points to a site that is in WordPress — specifically to a page that tells why he quit Drupal for what he considers to be a better CMS. Do the webmasters ever enforce the statement next to that field in the "Personal" panel of "My Account": Note that if you put in a site not built with Drupal your account can be blocked?
Comment #9
dave reidI removed the WP website from the user's Drupal site profile field. If you haven't received a response from your other maintainership issues, the process says you need to move each of them to the Drupal.org webmasters issue queue, just like was done with this issue.
Comment #10
cliffOh... so I would open the same issue and then change "Project" to "Drupal.org webmasters"?
Comment #11
dave reidCorrect and change component to 'Project ownership'. I already took care of two of the other issues I saw you posted.
Comment #12
cliffI saw that. Thanks very much, Dave, for taking care of them and for taking time to explain the process. Those were the only two. And now that a "mobile" category has been created for themes, it will be great to not have inactive, unsupported ones show up.
Comment #13
Anonymous (not verified) commentedIt was a good module, am still using it on gaultmillau.be to serve different themes based on mobile browser capabilities, integrating well with the WURFL library. The big difference with the project/mobile (which is just a theme) is that this module allows to specifically target different themes to different devices. It recognizes differences between desktop, iMode, WAP, Nokia 95 XHTML and iPhone Full Html browsers. And then serves pre-set tempaltes, e.g. an xhtml tempalte for N95, a WAP tempalte for old Nokias etc.
Integrated with WURLF you can even break down to functionality level, e.g. whether or not the device can play flash, javascript or even how many bits for color images...
If I ever need this kind of device-detection functionality in D6 or D7 again, then Ill definitely sign up to bring this back to life. I dont think there exists a good device-by-theme detection module for Drupal yet, other than this one.
Comment #14
dave reid@mxistence: The project page of Mobile tools clearly shows: "Automatic theme switching, based on device type (iphone, android, blackberry, ... ) "
Comment #16
gagarine commentedCan we delete this module so I can have is namespace? I want to switch it as a sandbox too for the moment...
The description of my project
"
Some experiments around WAI-ARIA and Drupal 7.
Two things
- A out-of-the-box js solution to make drupal WAI-ARIA ready with any theme and the base admin theme
- A faste keyboard navigation on top of the WAI-ARIA implemented in JS.
A html5 base theme than directly implement WAI-ARIA and works with the keyboard navigation (in an other project) will also be developed.
On the IRC discussion is in #drupal-accessibility.
#Literature
http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/
http://test.cita.illinois.edu/aria/index.php
http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2009/redesigning-with-html-5-wai-aria/
http://drupal.org/node/471444
http://drupal.org/node/394094
http://www.standards-schmandards.com/2009/wai-aria-landmark-role-patterns/
"
Comment #17
avpadernoProjects are not deleted if not in specific cases. If you want to re-use the namespace, you need to take over the project.
Comment #18
gagarine commentedok but this project didn't move the last 3 years, has no mainteneur and use an confusing name (is a theme switcher for mobile device).
Nobody is never going to take over this project because http://drupal.org/project/mobile_tools is better and supported.
This is make a "specific cases"? If I take over the project can I go in a complete different direction not related with the initial project?
Comment #19
dcmouyard commented@gagarine
I think you should follow the process to become the maintainer of this module. Once you're the maintainer, you can scrap the current code and build your vision.
Comment #20
avpadernoComment #21
tim.plunkett@gagarine, please open a sandbox with the code you plan to use, then post a link to it here and mark this issue back to "active". Thanks!
Comment #22
tim.plunkettMarking back to fixed from #5.
Comment #24
jessebeach commentedSince DrupalCon Portland 2013, there has been a lot of momentum in the Drupal Accessibility community to bring automated accessibility testing to Drupal core.
https://groups.drupal.org/accessibility
@kevee has been working on a sandboxed module that intergrates the QUAIL testing library with the TestSwarm module.
We would like to combine this work with the Accessible content module into a well-named module that best represents the functionality, namely the Accessibility module. kevee would be made maintainer of this module.
We want to defrag the current accessibility module ecosystem so that Drupal has one place to go for accessibility conformance testing.
Comment #25
Anonymous (not verified) commentedThere is now a sandbox module that merges the work we have been doing in Accessible Content and TestSwarm into a single framework at this sandbox project. This sandbox is at a good point to move into a full project.
Comment #26
sreynen commentedI changed the project owner to kevee.
Comment #27
jessebeach commentedThank you @sreynen!