Sun Web Application Guidelines - Version 4.0

Developers.sun.com

How To Use These Guidelines - An Introduction

3 Windows and Content Pages

3.1 Main Browser Windows

3.2 Pop-Up Windows

3.3 JavaScript Windows

3.4 Pop-up and JavaScript Windows: Advantages and Disadvantages

3.5 Window Title Bars

3.6 Masthead and Top-Level Navigation

3.7 Primary-Content Pages

3.8 Secondary-Content Pages

About Revisions for Windows and Content Pages
The format for this chapter has been revised. The new organization is a proposal for a standard way to present subsequent chapters in the Web Application Guidelines. Some of the changes include:

"Required" and "Advised" guidelines are separated into their own sections.
Icons followed by a numbering scheme are used to distinguish and track Required and Advised guidelines:

R1, R2 ...
A1, A2 ...

Implementation Tips are also marked with an icon and follow related Required and Advised guidelines.
Subsections are arranged in separate pages which contain links that go back to the main chapter page. To print this chapter or its subsections, print the individual pages from your browser.

Comments and feedback on this proposed organization are welcome. Please click the 'Feedback' link in the masthead of any page in these guidelines to provide comments.

3 Windows and Content Pages

Web browsers display pages on the desktop in windows containing other user interface elements. This chapter presents a high-level view of windows and content pages. It includes Required and Advised usage guidelines and Implementation Tips for these elements. The following figure shows examples of the various elements discussed in this chapter. You should also refer to Chapter 5, Top-Level Navigation and Chapter 6, Content Area Structure and Layout for more detailed information, requirements, and examples.

Main Browser Window

Main Browser Window

The user interface elements in these Guidelines are defined as follows:

Main browser window: The main focus of user interaction with the product. Some products will be contained entirely in that single window, others can be augmented with pop-up windows and JavaScript windows. Browser windows are modeless: when opened, other browser windows can be operated without restriction. Every product must have a main browser window.
Pop-up window: A browser window that opens from the main browser window or another pop-up window, and appears on top of the originating window. Pop-up windows are not JavaScript windows.
JavaScript window: There are three types with standard icons and limited controls: confirmation, alert, and prompt. Users need to address the JavaScript window before moving on to another task. JavaScript windows are fully modal.

Chrome: The menu bar, location bar, toolbars, and status bar are the browser window's "chrome" which can be removed. A "fully chromeless" browser window has all of its chrome suppressed when opened from another page's JavaScript code. A new window can be made chromeless at the time it is opened. Pop-up windows can always be chromeless. However, a main browser window is chromeless only if the product starts up by opening a new window or if the initial window was chromeless.
Content pages: There are two types of content pages: primary and secondary. Primary content pages are independent of other pages with a context of their own. Secondary-content pages have context that depends upon the parent page opened (can be a primary page or another secondary-content page). Each type contains material that fills the window content area including the page title and area below. Appearance and behavior are tailored to help users meet goals by purpose.

Notes:

The terms "primary window" and "secondary window" are not used in these guidelines. "Page" is used instead of "window" as the unit of information because some windows can have contents that swap between primary and secondary content.

Help windows are exempt from some of the guidelines in this chapter. Online help is designed to be a coherent whole. For more information, see Chapter 11, Contextual Help.

These Guidelines are designed to accommodate the following situations:

Font sizes are increased by a sight-impaired user, causing text to be taller and/or wider and/or to wrap to more lines

Lengthier text or taller characters appear due to internationalization

Stylesheets are suppressed or replaced by a user or customer site

Users choose to resize windows

For more information see Appendix D, Accessibility, section D-4.3.