About FAE: Pre-1.0 Versions

Under Development

  1. Converting FAE front-end to Django/Python.
  2. The default report title was changed to 'Untitled Report'.

Version 0.9.3 (2007/04/26)

  1. The Sitewide Report now provides information for each test result indicating which pages passed or failed.
  2. In both the Page and Sitewide Reports, rules are stated more succinctly and independently of numerical results.
  3. A 'Rules Summary' page is now provided in 'About FAE', which lists the Best Practices and associated criteria used in FAE tests.
  4. The HTML Standards test for the character encoding declaration now evaluates only to 'pass' or 'warn'.
  5. A problem was fixed with the test for data tables relating to the number of rows and columns required.
  6. The evaluation criteria associated with the test for proper nesting of heading elements was updated: the null result is now triggered simply when there are no 'h1' elements.

Version 0.9.2 (2007/01/12)

  1. Filtering was added to the Archived Reports list so that only those reports created by the registered user are displayed.
  2. Fixed problems with character encodings and special characters. HTML content stored in the results file (currently the title content) is assumed to be ISO-8859-1 and all named character entities defined for XHTML 1.0 are recognized. Subsequent output, both XML and HTML, is encoded as UTF-8.
  3. A problem was fixed with proper escaping of ampersand ('&') characters in URLs.
  4. Fixed problem with the test for form controls and labels. FAE now additionally detects 'input' elements with 'type' attribute value of 'checkbox' or 'radio'.
  5. A problem in wget was fixed that prevented page requisites such as images from being downloaded and analyzed when 'Follow links in next-level subdomains' was selected.
  6. Added favicon image for all FAE pages.

Version 0.9.1 (2006/12/08)

  1. User accounts have been added. Registration for an account is performed in two steps: (1) Choose username and password and enter valid e-mail address. (2) Select the confirmation link in the 'Welcome' e-mail. Users are able to modify their account information, change password and request a new password if the old one has been forgotten.
  2. Two different forms are now available for running FAE, depending on user type: (1) Registered users, once logged in, have access to all of the parameters previously provided. (2) Guests, i.e., users who are not logged in, may only evaluate a single URL with 'Depth of Evaluation' defaulting to 'Top-level page only'.
  3. The Scripting test for Dynamic Content, which detects the use of the JavaScript functions document.write and document.writeln, has been removed.
  4. The Navigation & Orientation/Navigation Bars test, which detects whether a header element immediately precedes a list of links, has been modified such that any result less than 100% is now a warning.
  5. Functionality has been added for evaluating frames as multiple pages from the Mozilla/Firefox Accessibility Extension.
  6. All web resources (either downloaded or sent by the Firefox Extension) are deleted immediately after the evaluation reports have been generated.

Version 0.9.0 (2006/09/29)

  1. The names of pages evaluated are now based on their actual URLs, due to the use of a customized version of the wget utility, modified by Dan Linder, that more accurately detects MIME types.
  2. The decorative images test in the Styling section of Sitewide and Page Reports has been reinstated, which reports on images having a width or height dimension of less than 4 pixels.
  3. For Page Reports, the page URL in the report header is now displayed as an external link to the page that was evaluated.
  4. The sidebar menu now includes 'Previous' and 'Next' links for navigating through Page Reports.
  5. When more than 5 URLs are specified, only the first 5 are displayed in the report header, followed by a link to View All URLs.
  6. The analysis and evaluation results data file is now validated upon creation using a RELAX NG schema.

Version 0.8.9 (2006/09/06)

  1. Renamed some of the FAE URLs. The URL for linking directly to FAE for single page evaluation was changed to http://fae.cita.uiuc.edu/report.php?mode=link.
  2. Updated the navigation menus: (a) The 'Page Reports' item was renamed 'List of Pages: n', where n is the number of pages; (b) A new menu item, 'Page Report: m' where m is the number of the report (out of n reports), is displayed after a page report is selected from the list of pages; (c) When an evaluation results in only one page report, the menu displays only the 'Summary Report' and 'Page Report' items, allowing direct access to either report.
  3. Updated links in the Summary Report: when there is more than one page report, the links access sections in the 'Sitewide Report', otherwise they access sections in the 'Page Report'.
  4. The report section menu that provides access to the Sitewide and Page Report sections such as 'Navigation & Orientation', etc., now maintains its context. E.g., when a section is selected for the Sitewide Report, and then a Page Report is selected, the same report section for that report will be displayed, and likewise for other page reports until another section is chosen.
  5. The 'List of Pages' table now indicates through visual highlighting which 'Page Report' is currently selected.
  6. In addition to the report 'Title' and 'URL', the report context header now includes 'Date', 'Pages', 'Depth' and 'Span'. Note that 'Pages' and 'Depth' info is displayed only when there is more than one page report, and 'Span' info only when 'Next-level subdomains' was selected.
  7. Updated styling of report titles: 'Sitewide Report' and 'Page Report' (or 'Page Report: n') are now more prominently displayed on the page.
  8. Added 'FAE Check' link in the footer of each FAE page to allow direct evaluation of the page (using, of course, FAE).
  9. Changed menu item label and page name from 'Archive' to 'Archived Reports'. Added text on 'Run FAE' page to explain that generated reports are temporarily saved and linked from the 'Archived Reports' page.
  10. In page report header, handle display of urls of arbitrary length by forcing line breaks.
  11. Stripped leading '/' from page url for simplified display in 'List of Pages'.

Version 0.8.8 (2006/08/10)

  1. Modified unique titles test: Changed comparison base from total title elements found to total pages.
  2. Fixed problem with navigation menus test to exclude ol/ul lists with no list items.
  3. Fixed problem with title text and ampersand ('&') characters. Until we incorporate a character encoding translator, this workaround involves simple substitution of '&' with '&'.
  4. Modified the Run FAE form so that values for URLs, Report Title and Depth of Evaluation persist in the form fields from one invocation to the next for the duration of the browsing session. Text values are selected by default to enable 'type-over' replacement when desired.
  5. Modified the Archive page to display the number of pages analyzed and the Depth of Evaluation, in addition to previously displayed Date/Time and Report Title/URLs for each report.
  6. Fixed problem with test that compares content of h1 elements to title content: trim and normalize spaces in both the h1 and title content strings before comparing.
  7. Added capability of linking directly to FAE and triggering an evaluation of the referring page by using http://fae.cita.uiuc.edu/index.php?section=report&mode=link as the href value.
  8. Added "Follow Links in" radio buttons to the Run FAE form to enable choosing between following links only in the specified domain, or those in next-level subdomains.

Version 0.8.7 (2006/05/18)

  1. Modified test for navigation menus: Identification of menus is now recursive, i.e., a navigation menu list item can contain either a single link, or a link followed by a nested navigation menu.
  2. Added the same percentage rounding algorithm in the Summary Report stylesheet as in the FAE analysis engine, so that 0% and 100% are never reported due to rounding down or up, respectively.

Version 0.8.6 (2006/05/04)

  1. Added Summary Report, and made it the default page after running FAE or selecting a report from the Archive page.
  2. Added a report navigation menu with links to the new Summary Report, the Sitewide Report and the list of Page Reports.
  3. Added alphabetical sorting of Page Reports list.
  4. Changed Archive sort order to descending by date (most recent at top).
  5. Added the following tests:
    • Each page should have one and only one title element (page and site).
    • Counts and total number of header elements (site).
    • Number of img elements with alt attribute (page and site).
    • Number of img elements with alt attribute that have alt text (page and site).
  6. Modified the following tests:
    • Navigation bars and menus: Changed requirement from "must have title attribute" to "must be immediately preceded by a header element". Added identification of navigation menus as ol or ul elements with all, or all but one, of their li elements meeting the following condition: it contains an a element (link), and all text content of the li element is contained within the a element.
    • Number of h1 elements per page: Changed requirement from "one and only one" to "at least one and no more than two".
    • Is h1 text content a substring of title content: now required of each h1 element; added trimming of leading and trailing spaces from h1 text before comparison.
    • Header density: changed criteria.
    • Proper nesting of header elements: now based on last h1 element; test fails if page is missing an h1 element but has other (h2..h6) header elements.
    • Number of img elements with alt text: moved to Styling section.
    • Default language: test now accepts both lang and xml:lang attributes.
  7. Added Disclaimer page, linked from footer of each page.
  8. Updated About FAE: Overview page.

Version 0.8.5 (2006/03/16)

  1. Modified the 'Run FAE' form to handle multiple URLs. When multiple URLs are specified, the 'Depth of Evaluation' parameter is set to 'Top-level page only' for each URL.
  2. Added 'Report Title' to the 'Run FAE' form, which is displayed at the top of each report page.
  3. Converted the 'Archive' (saved reports list) to XML format to enable
    • multiple URLs feature
    • creation of administrative tools
  4. Created administrative tools that simplify the removal of outdated reports from the FAE Archive.
  5. Updated pass/warn criteria of Navigation Bars test for title attribute on ol and ul elements.
  6. Added code for maintaining the report context when navigating to 'About FAE' pages, and for displaying the current context on the 'Report Menu' page.
  7. Added code to handle a wget-related problem with assumptions regarding the types of downloaded files. FAE now excludes files from the analysis that are recognized as GIF, JPEG, PNG or TIFF by the Unix 'file' command.

Version 0.8.4 (2006/02/28)

  1. Renamed application from Web Accessibility Management Tool (WAMT) to Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE).
  2. Reworked navigation scheme so that all menu items related to running the tool and browsing reports are in the left-hand vertical menu, and information about the tool itself is located under the 'About FAE' link on the right-hand side of the horizontal bar at top.
  3. 'About FAE' section now includes the following pages:
    • Overview
    • Who Should Use FAE
    • Future Plans for FAE
    • Version History
  4. Reformatted header and footer: header now includes U of I logo, footer includes new e-mail address for user feedback.
  5. Fixed problem that was causing FAE to place a report item in the Archive list when 0 pages were analyzed.
  6. Fixed problems with maintaining report context after submitting form with empty or invalid URL.
  7. Fixed problem with page-level test for header nesting: added fail message and updated criteria.

Version 0.8.3 (2006/02/14)

  1. Changed format of analysis results file to include only structured numerical data. This allows separate storage and maintenance of all message text used to display results, which, in turn, facilitates internationalization.
  2. Added evaluations to the page- and site-level test results. Each test is evaluated as 'Pass', 'Warn', 'Fail' or 'N/A', based on criteria defined in a separate XML file.
  3. Converted all site-level tests to utilize data aggregated from page-level test results , which improves processing speed and creates opportunities for better memory utilization in future releases.
  4. Added page- and site-level tests in cases where the corresponding page- or site-level tests already existed. These include:
    • one and only one h1
    • DOCTYPE declaration
    • default language declaration
    • character encoding declaration
    • calls to document.write & document.writeln
    • decorative images
    • inline style elements
    • color attribute
  5. The presentation layer (PHP) now uses XSLT to process test results data and display page- and site-level reports. Consequently, opening an archived report is significantly faster, especially when it includes more than 50 pages. Due to the use of XSLT, FAE now requires PHP 5.x.
  6. Selecting 'Best Practices' and 'Visualizer' links from FAE report pages now opens a new browser window, which is reused and given focus on subsequent selections of these link types.
  7. Default value for 'Depth of Search' changed back to 'Top-level page only'.

Version 0.8.2 (2005/12/05)

  1. Fixed problem relating to the way in which wget retrieves files to be analyzed: FAE now analyzes .htm files as well as .html files.
  2. Updated Visualizer links with new URL and values for VIEW argument.
  3. Removed display of Visualizer links from site-level results. On page-level results, moved links from individual tests to results subsection wherever possible.
  4. Reworked navigation scheme to simplify choices and make Report Menu available from any page after a report has been selected (either from the Archive or by default as a result of running FAE).
  5. Focus is now set by default to the URL input field when 'Run FAE' is selected.
  6. Default value for 'Depth of Search' changed to 'Include all second-level pages'.
  7. Tests:
    • Navigation & Orientation / Document Title
      • Modified test that compares h1 content to title content: now tests that h1 content is a substring of title (case-insensitive).
    • Automation / Device Independence
      • Fixed problem with onmouseover/onfocus test
      • Changed wording of both onmouseover and onmouseout tests
    • Style / Text Styling
      • Added logic in color attribute test so that output message varies with singular or plural results

Version 0.8.1 (2005/11/02)

  1. Added page test for reporting number of inline style tags found (b, basefont, blink, center, font, i, marquee, strike, u).
  2. Added page test for reporting number of elements found with color attribute.
  3. Added page test for reporting on section headings: how many h1 elements were found; are subheaders properly nested.
  4. Changed wording of form controls tests, both page- and site-level .
  5. Changed wording of page-level accesskey tests.
  6. Moved version number from footer_inc.php to header_inc.php for improved visibility.
  7. Added README file that includes installation instructions and release notes.
  8. Added wamt_config script as part of installation procedure.

Version 0.8.0 (2005/10/20)

  1. Added page test for number of header elements (broken down by h1..h6).
  2. Fixed problem with calculating ratio of ul and ol elements with title attribute, which corrected both page and site tests
  3. Removed hardcoding of directory paths in PHP files.
  4. Added version number in footer_inc.php.