Courthouse Bldg. Accessibility Information Shawnee County Government Online: JavaScript Use
Use Patterns
JavaScript allows us to offer you additional information and functionality that would bring a substantial burden on our servers if we were responsible to provide it. Without JavaScript (in terms of bandwidth and server activity) the functionality that we offer by its use might be cost prohibitive (at least during peak activity). However, by using it, your computer shares some of the burden by applying certain features to the page dynamically. This offers a much richer experience: e.g., warning of certain things, making the page more legible or appealing, adding pertinent information and more.
As a rule we try to use JavaScript only to implement things that are not absolutely necessary, but add fuctionality that is helpful or valuable. Likewise, as we build new pages and migrate old ones we have worked hard to avoid comingling script (behavior) with the information on the page (content). This will help to make sure that if you have JavaScript disabled all important information is still available to you.
Specific Applications
We have used JavaScript in the following ways, though this list is not exhaustive and the full implementation is not yet sitewide:
- Listing the contents breifly at the beginning of the page (as after the heading “Javascript Implementation” on this page)
- Exposing email addresses in email links (like the webmaster link at the end of this page)
- Displaying additional pictures randomly (as on the home page)
- Warning of non-web documents (i.e. PDF and standard Microsoft Office documents)
and external links
- Further offering links to the appropriate plugins
- Showing a small key to explain the associated icons in the navigation pane
- Consider the following examples and their effect on the page:
- Google Maps functionality (as on the Recycling Locations page)
- Google Search (on every page)