How A-Prompt Program Works

How The A-Prompt Tester Program Works

The A-Prompt test program is used to demonstrate how HTML validation may be integrated into an HTML editor program. This test program uses the A-Prompt DLL module to validate and repair HTML.

Quick Start

In the top section titled 'Validate Single Element', select a sample HTML element from the 'HTML to be validated' drop-down list.
Select the 'Validate Now' button near the top of the dialog.
The A-Prompt program will run and present you with a series of dialogs that prompt you to enter accessible HTML.
After selecting 'Finish' in the A-Prompt program, the validated HTML element is displayed in the 'Validated HTML returned' text area. The 'Validation Flags' area will describe the accessibility problems with the HTML.

Two Modes Of Operation

The validator has 2 modes of operation:

Validate Single Elements
Validate Entire File

Validate Single Elements

The first mode, 'Single Elements', is used to validate HTML text as it is entered by the user. It can only detect validation problems that occur within the given HTML element. The second mode 'Entire File' is used to validate an entire document and can look for accessibility problems in the entire file.

At the top of the dialog is a section titled 'HTML To Be Validated' that contains the HTML element that is sent to the validator.

Examples of HTML element text are contained in a drop-down list box. You may select an element from the drop-down listbox or enter one of your own.

The centre area of the dialog contains the validated HTML element returned by the validator.

The upper text area displays the element text.

The Return Code area describes the repair state of the HTML. The repair state can be:

No Validation Errors:
Validation Errors, fixed
Validation Errors, part fixed
Validation Errors, not fixed

The Validation Flags area describes the accessibility problems with the given HTML element.

Validate Entire File

The bottom portion of the dialog contains a section titled 'Validate Entire File'. This section allows you to correct all the accessibility problems within an HTML file. Select the button 'Select file to validate' to select the HTML file to be validated. The A-Prompt validator will look through the entire document, find the accessibility problems and prompt you to make changes.

There are 2 ways in which an HTML editor can give the A-Prompt module a file to validate:

Use disk file - the editor program gives the A-Prompt module the name of the file. The A-Prompt module will load the file, validate it, then write the file back to disk.
Use direct transfer - the editor program gives the A-Prompt module the file using a simple memory transfer. After validating the file, it is returned to the HTML editor using the same memory transfer.

The program works the same in either method but we have added these options to show the 2 types of file transfer methods.

(For a technical description of how this works, see the Developer Section at the A-Prompt web site - http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/develop/dll.htm.)

Program Integration

The A-Prompt Validator may be integrated into an HTML editor program as source code or as a DLL module. For testing purposes, the default method is to integrate it as source code. To try the DLL version of the program, select the 'Use DLL' check box. The operation of the program will be exactly the same but the code will be executed as a DLL module.

Validation of HTML elements

HTML authoring programs send the A-Prompt module their HTML elements. The A-Prompt module checks the HTML elements for accessibility. If the HTML element can be more accessible, a series of dialogs is displayed, allowing the user to fix the element.

To see exactly how the A-Prompt module works, select a HTML element below.

Download the demo version of the program.

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Last Modified: November 12, 2021