Another problem with relying on Javascript is of course that some users may have it disabled for whatever reason (their choice of user agent, paranoid IT departments, whatever). To be honest I don't think this group of users is that high these days, but it's important enough to consider some alternatives. We certainly used to agonise over this for accessibility reasons but as far as I'm aware Javascript doesn't cause any major problems for assistive technology these days.
So, it might be necessary to consider some kind of "progressive enhancement" technique where your baseline experience is some kind of link to get Acrobat Reader whilst providing a more dynamic experience (reader, plugin checking etc.) for those with more capable browsers. Cheers, David 2009/3/16 Christopher Rider <[email protected]>: > There might be a bit of a problem with this approach. The browser can only > detect whether the user has a reader configured to load as a plugin. That > rules out users in firms with paranoid IT departments, which sometimes > install reader as a stand-alone for security purposes, and also users who > have the full version of acrobat and never bother installing the reader > plugin. > > I have no idea how many people live in either of those categories, but it's > seems to me worth trying to figure it out before deciding on the javascript > approach. Either way, your usability assesment should ensure that the design > still works even if your user is a "false negative" for the plugin. > > Cheers! > > On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 10:52 AM, James Page <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >So what to do? >> A little bit of javascript magic. Use javascript to test if the user has a >> pdf reader, if not show them the link to download it. >> >> > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- David Little w: www.littled.net t: twitter.com/djlittle ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
