Hi!
In XWIKI-21782: Make header rows and columns mandatory for table macro is reported the fact that XWiki allows the users to create a table without adding the proper semantics to the column by ensuring they do have a header.
In my opinion, in XWiki standard we should not force the use of table headers (it could break old content and make it more difficult). However a good compromise would be to display a warning on the editor for tables that do not have a header. This way, when creating the table, the user would make a conscious choice to ignore accessibility recommendation if they do not put headers. Even so, it seems to me like an editor option that not everyone might want in their XWiki.
I think the best solution to improve the situation without creating too much friction is:
- Create an administration setting for the ckeditor editor to toggle table header accessibility warning.
- Have this parameter set to ON by default.
- Display the warning in a box next to the Headers field of the table properties if the current selected value is
None. The default is stillNone.
![image]()
The advantage of this is that it sheds light on the semantic importance of those headers while minimizing the friction with admins and users: an admin that wants to ignore this feature can deactivate it in a couple clicks, and a user can just create a table without headers without anything stopping them.
What do you think of my idea to solve this issue?
Can you think of an alternative compromise to reduce the number of headerless tables while not decreasing the average content creator experience?
Thank you in advance for your participation in the brainstorming!
Lucas C.
3 posts - 3 participants