View source for title-trigger

=Title trigger=

An alternative to the [[abbr-design-pattern]], to address that pattern's [[accessibility-issues#abbr-design-pattern|accessibility issues]].

==Contributors==
*Author: [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 
*Original idea: Patrick Lauke

==Proposal==

Use a class name; say "ufusetitle" (for "microformat, use title") or something equally unlikely to otherwise occur in the wild, on any element, to trigger the use of that element's <code>title</code> attribute. e.g. 

<pre>
<nowiki>
    <span 
      class="dtstart ufusetitle" 
      title="2007-08-16"
    >

    16th August this year

    </span>
</nowiki>
</pre>

===Conversion===
All existing and new microformats should use this pattern; abbr-design-pattern should be deprecated, but parsers should still be required to recognise it on legacy pages (perhaps for a period of, say, three years)

==Class names==
Other potential class names include:

*hsource
*hvalue
*uftitletrigger
*...

==Advantages==
*Simple
*Works on any element
*Usable on CMSs (e.g. MediaWiki) which do not allow use of <code>abbr</code>
*Easy to learn
*Ease of authoring
*Easy for parsers to adapt

==Issues==

===Semantics===

HTML is a markup language: its elements and attributes are intended to be descriptive. They are descriptors rather than commands. The proposed usage of the <code>class</code> attribute would be an instruction rather than a description (somewhat like the <code>target</code> attribute, now deprecated). This would be an abuse of the semantics of the <code>class</code> attribute. (Comment by [[User:Adactio]])
*Not if the class name is read as "microformat usable title" [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]]

===Parsers===

Existing microformats parsers (such as the Operator extension to Firefox) would need to be updated to handle this proposed alternative to the abbr design pattern. However, this is true of any proposed alternatives.

===Complexity===

No known or perceived issues.

===Assistive technology===

The proposed solution assumes that screen readers don't treat <code>title</code> as a special case on elements other than <code>abbr</code> or <code>acronym</code> (or perhaps <code>a</code> and <code>img</code>, which may need to be excluded from the solution) even so, the use of the special class name would be optional in such cases; and suitable guidance should be given to editors. 

Is this actually the case? Please create a page for [[assistive-technology-title-trigger-results|assistive technology title trigger results]] and add the results of testing there.

===Usage in the wild===

This design pattern is built on the assumption that the eventually- chosen is not widely used, where it used. Please document examples and references here:

==Alternatives==
*[[dfn-design-pattern]]

==See Also==

* [[abbr-design-pattern|abbr design pattern]]
* [[abbr-design-pattern-issues|abbr design pattern issues]]
* [[accessibility-issues#abbr-design-pattern|accessibility issues]]
* [[assistive-technology-abbr-results|assistive technology abbr results]]
* [[datetime-design-pattern|datetime design pattern]]