AJAX Search

The built-in search engine utilises AJAX and MySQL's powerful FULLTEXT feature to rapidly return, in real-time, any pages that match your search query.

When you click on a returned result, the visited page will highlight the search terms until one of them is clicked on. Try searching for 'ajax' and clicking on a returned result.

Search results appear here in real-time.
PHP Sidebar

Embed PHP Code

Sidebars can also contain raw PHP code, enabling you to hook into any script, function or include file. This provides limitless scope for extensibility.

The server date and time below is created on the fly using PHP's gmdate() function.

Date and Time: 08/09/10 22:45:21

Code is locked down and secured via multiple mechanisms.

Accessibility - Triple-A CMS

Out of the box, Vanilla CMS adheres to the strict guidelines set out in Priority 1, 2 and 3 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0).  However, this does not mean that your site will always pass such validation; achieving Triple-A on every page of a site is no mean feat, especially a content management system.  In order to maintain such a claim, you'll have to generate your page content very carefully and have a good understanding of accessibility techniques.

Vanilla's Front-End Accessibility Features

  • Persistent resizeable text on all pages
  • Menu navigation and page content supports full keyboard control
  • Persistent Hi-Vis mode displays content in high contrast colours
  • Easy access to common links such as search, print, home page and site map
  • Logical mark-up with well-defined attributes
  • Full Text-To-Speech (TTS) plugin available from jTalk

Accessibility and Keyboard Shortcuts

The navigation menu and page links can be traversed using the keyboard alone on most modern browsers.  Furthermore, all links, both in regular and hi-vis display mode, show prominent borders and background colours to aid those with visual impairment.

Keyboard Shortcuts:

  • [TAB] - skip forwards through menu items/links
  • [SHIFT + TAB] - skip backwards through menu items/links
  • [RIGHT ARROW] - open sub menu
  • [ENTER] - visit menu link (same as a mouse click)

Common Triple-A Pitfalls

If you're trying to validate this (or your own) site and it fails, it may be because of the following:

  • The text content of each h1 element should match all of part of the page's title content
  • Links on the same page pointing to the same place should have the same anchor text

Test Vanilla's Accessibility Now!