CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LOS ANGELES INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff Web Accessibility Working Group CSULA Accessible Technology Initiative Winter 2013, Version 1.0 Table of Contents Introduction...2 Requirements...2 Logging In...2 Using Compliance Sheriff...3 Scans and Scan Groups...3 Creating a Custom Scan...3 Adding a Scan to a Group...6 Running or Stopping a Scan...7 Scheduling a Scan...7 Editing a Scan Schedule...8 Deleting a Scan...8 Local Scans...9 Installing the HiSoftware Toolbar...9 Creating and Running a Local Scan...9 Views...10 Editing a View...12 Adding a View to the Dashboard...13 Reports...14 Interpreting Results...14 Viewing Checkpoint Violations on Web Pages...15 Getting Help...17 Logging Out...17 Additional Resources...18 For additional web accessibility resources, visit http://www.calstatela.edu/accessibility. For video tutorials, visit http://www.youtube.com/mycsula.
Introduction Compliance Sheriff is an automated accessibility testing tool from HiSoftware. It helps organizations ensure that their web pages meet accessibility standards. Compliance Sheriff features a web-based user interface that makes it easy to check the overall compliance of a website and identify web pages with accessibility issues. This handout provides an overview of the Compliance Sheriff user interface and covers how to perform basic tasks such as creating scans, working with scan groups, running and scheduling scans, working with views, interpreting reports, and getting help. Requirements Users must log in to Compliance Sheriff from campus computers; remote access is available using a virtual private network (VPN). Before using Compliance Sheriff, users should verify that their computer meets the following minimum requirements: Minimum screen resolution of 1024x768. Internet Explorer 6 or higher. NOTE: Compliance Sheriff is compatible with other web browsers such as Firefox and Safari, but not all features are available. The HiSoftware toolbar, required when running local scans, imposes the following requirements: Internet Explorer 6 or higher. At least 1GB RAM and 2GB free disk space to run local scans. Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5 or higher. NOTE: To check the version of the Microsoft.NET Framework installed on a computer, review the instructions in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article. Logging In Information Technology Services (ITS) administers Compliance Sheriff accounts. Each college and division will be given one account that will be shared amongst each area s web authors. Users who have forgotten their Compliance Sheriff username or password should e-mail the Web Administrator at wwwadmin@calstatela.edu. NOTE: A shared username and password will be used during the workshop training. To log in to Compliance Sheriff: 1. Launch the Internet Explorer web browser and go to the Compliance Sheriff login page (http://ati.calstatela.edu/compliancesheriff/) (see Figure 1). 2. Type the username and password in the corresponding fields, and then click the Sign in button. The Dashboard tab displays. Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 2
Figure 1 Compliance Sheriff Login Page Using Compliance Sheriff The Compliance Sheriff interface consists of a horizontal menu bar with tabs for various functions (see Figure 2). Web authors will work mainly with the following tabs: Scans, Views and Reports. Figure 2 Compliance Sheriff Interface Scans and Scan Groups A scan is a collection of checkpoints that will be executed on the pages of a website; a scan group is a collection of scans. Scans can be configured to run on any published web page or on locally stored web page files (see Figure 3). Users can create, edit and delete as many scans as they like, but users cannot create new scan groups. Each college and division will be given three scan groups. One group may be pre-populated with scans that were created for the college or division by the Web Administrator. Users can edit the groups to arrange scans into various collections which can be useful when creating views and reports. Additional scan groups can be requested by e-mailing the Web Administrator at wwwadmin@calstatela.edu. Figure 3 Scans Table Creating a Custom Scan Web authors will create a new scan when using Compliance Sheriff for the first time or when new web pages are added to a website. All Cal State L.A. web pages must adhere to the Section 508 accessibility standards. Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 3
To create a custom scan: 1. Click the Scans tab, and then click the Scans sub-tab. 2. Click the New button (see Figure 4). Figure 4 New Button 3. In the Display Name field, type a unique name for the new scan (see Figure 5). For this example, type Training followed by the training station number which can be found on a label on or near the desktop (e.g., Training 20). Figure 5 Display Name and Base URL Fields NOTE: Compliance Sheriff requires that all scan names be unique. Attempting to save two scans with the same name will prompt an error message stating that there is already an item with that name (see Figure 6). Users receiving this error message should save the scan with a different name. Figure 6 Error Message Dialog Box 4. In the Base URL field, type the base URL of the website you wish to scan (see Figure 5). For most Cal State L.A. websites, the base URL is http://www.calstatela.edu. 5. In the Checkpoint groups section, select the Show subgroups check box above the right Description column (see Figure 7). 6. In the right Description column, scroll down and select the Section 508 check box. NOTE: The Section 508 standards are listed as individual rules (A through P). Selecting Section 508 will enforce all of the Section 508 standards. 7. Click the Add button to move the Section 508 checkpoint to the left Description column. NOTE: The left column should only contain the checkpoints you wish to run on your web pages. Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 4
Figure 7 Checkpoint Groups Section 8. In the Start page field, after the forward slash (/), type the website s relative path to set a starting point for the scan. For this example, type its/devl/508training/ (see Figure 8). NOTE: The default start page is / which means the root of the base URL. The base URL together with the relative path defines the point where the scan will begin. A scan will include any pages referenced by the current page, provided the number of levels defined is not exceeded. 9. Select the desired level from the Levels list. For this example, select 3. NOTE: Level refers to the number of links a visitor must click to navigate from the start page (index) to the furthest page from the index. It is recommended to set the initial crawl level to 3. Web authors should increase the crawl level if they notice pages missing from their scans. Conversely, web authors can decrease the crawl level if they are certain all of their pages will be included. 10. Select the Retest all pages check box to make sure that all pages are tested each time the scan is run. Figure 8 Start Page and Levels Fields 11. In the Include URLs matching field, type the website s base URL and relative path to limit the scan to just the website you wish to scan. This will prevent Compliance Sheriff from scanning external web pages that may be linked from the website. For this example, type http://www.calstatela.edu/its/devl/508training/ (see Figure 9). Figure 9 Include and Exclude URLs Matching Fields 12. To exclude web pages from the scan, type the URL or regular expression in the Exclude URLs matching field. Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 5
NOTE: Pages specified in the Include or Exclude URLs matching fields will only be included or excluded if the URL or regular expression matches. For example, typing the regular expression \.txt in the Exclude URLs Matching field will exclude all pages with URLs ending with.txt, but not those ending with.html,.php, etc. A full explanation of regular expressions can be found at http://www.regular-expressions.info. 13. Click the Save button. Adding a Scan to a Group When a new scan is created, it may not automatically become part of any scan group depending on a user s scan view settings. If needed, users can manually add a scan to a scan group. To check if a scan is part of a group: 1. Click the Scans tab, and then click the Scans sub-tab. 2. Click the Scan Group arrow and select the desired group from the list (see Figure 10). Figure 10 Scan Group List 3. Review the list of scans that are part of the selected group. If the new scan is not listed, follow the steps below to add the scan to the group. To add a new scan to a scan group: 1. Click the Scans tab, and then click the Groups sub-tab. 2. In the Display Name column, click the name of the scan group you wish to edit. For this example, click Training. On the edit page, the scans listed in the left column are part of the selected scan group; the scans listed in the right column are not part of the group (see Figure 11). 3. In the right Display Name column, locate the new scan and select the check box next to it. If necessary, click the Display Name column header to sort the scans alphabetically. 4. Click the Add button to move the selected scan to the left Display Name column. 5. Click the Save button. Figure 11 Scan Group Edit Page Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 6
Running or Stopping a Scan Scans can be run on an ad hoc basis or on a specified schedule. Running an ad hoc scan will not affect scheduled scans. The length of time that it takes Compliance Sheriff to scan a website depends on a variety of factors, including the number of pages. Compliance Sheriff can scan 10 pages in approximately half a second. To run or stop a scan: 1. Click the Scans tab, and then click the Scans sub-tab. 2. To run a scan, in the Scheduled column, click the Run button associated with the scan you wish to run. The status in the Status column changes to Running (see Figure 12). 3. To stop a scan, in the Scheduled column, click the Stop button associated with the scan you wish to stop. The status in the Status column changes to Aborted. 4. To view the scan results, in the Health column, click the scan s health value. NOTE: Scan results will not be available unless the scan has been completed. Figure 12 Status, Health and Scheduled Columns Scheduling a Scan Information Technology Services (ITS) requires that each college and division scan their web pages for accessibility issues at least once a month. However, major revisions to a website should prompt new scans. Scans can be scheduled to run daily, weekly, monthly, or just once at a future time. Monthly scans allow users to specify a start date, time, and day of the week to run the recurring scan. To schedule a scan: 1. Click the Scans tab, and then click the Scans sub-tab. 2. In the Scheduled column, click the Schedule button associated with the scan you wish to schedule (see Figure 12). NOTE: There is no Schedule button for local scans because they cannot be scheduled. 3. In the Frequency column, click the Add button, and then use the three fields to set the scan frequency (see Figure 13). For this example, select the Every, 1 and month(s) options. NOTE: If no other properties are set, this scan will run on a monthly basis starting with the date specified in the Beginning column. 4. In the Start time column, use the hour and minutes fields to specify a start time. Time must be entered in the 24-hour (military time) format (13:00 for 1 p.m., 14:00 for 2 p.m., etc.). 5. In the Beginning column, use the date field to specify the start date. Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 7
6. For monthly scans only, select the On the check box in the Beginning column, and then use the two fields to specify when a monthly scan should occur (the week of the month and the day of the week). 7. Click the Save button. Figure 13 Scan Schedule Page Editing a Scan Schedule User can easily edit or remove an existing scan schedule as well as add additional schedules. To edit a scan schedule: 1. Click the Scans tab, and then click the Scans sub-tab. 2. In the Scheduled column, click the schedule associated with the scan you wish to edit (see Figure 14). Figure 14 Scan Schedule 3. Make the desired changes to the schedule properties (see Figure 13). 4. To add another schedule, click the Add button. 5. To delete a schedule, click the remove link. 6. When finished, click the Save button. NOTE: Clicking the Cancel button will discard all unsaved changes. Deleting a Scan Users should delete scans of web pages or websites that are removed from the server. Note that deleted scans cannot be recovered. To delete a scan: 1. Click the Scans tab, and then click the Scans sub-tab. 2. Select the check box to the left of the scan s name. For this example, select the Delete Scan check box (see Figure 15). Figure 15 Selected Scan Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 8
3. Click the Delete button (see Figure 16). Figure 16 Delete Button 4. A confirmation dialog box opens. Click the OK button (see Figure 17). Figure 17 Confirmation Dialog Box Local Scans It is good practice to check web pages for accessibility issues before uploading them to a web server. Compliance Sheriff allows web authors to run local scans which are scans of web page files located on the user s local computer. Installing the HiSoftware Toolbar In order to run local scans, web authors must download and install the HiSoftware toolbar from http://ati.calstatela.edu/compliancesheriff/plugins/hisoftwaretoolbarinstall.exe. After the installation is complete, Internet Explorer must be restarted. If the toolbar does not appear, activate it by clicking the View menu, pointing to Toolbars, and then clicking Script Recorder. The toolbar will appear below the web browser s Address bar (see Figure 18 and Figure 19). NOTE: Web authors without sufficient privileges to install the toolbar should contact their Information Technology Consultant (ITC) for assistance. Figure 18 HiSoftware Toolbar Status While Idle Figure 19 HiSoftware Toolbar Status While Recording Creating and Running a Local Scan Local scans test web pages that are not publicly accessible via the Internet (e.g., web pages located on a user s computer, intranet sites). When creating a local scan, the base URL need only be valid from the user s computer. Local scans cannot be scheduled; they must be run manually by clicking the Run button. To create and run a local scan: 1. Click the Scans tab, and then click the Scans sub-tab. 2. Click the New button. Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 9
3. In the Display Name field, type a name for the local scan. 4. In the Base URL field, type the drive letter of the local computer (C, D, etc.), a colon, and three forward slashes. For this example, type C:/// in the field. 5. Select the Run locally check box. 6. In the Checkpoint groups section, select the Show subgroups check box above the right Description column. 7. In the right Description column, scroll down and select the Section 508 check box. 8. Click the Add button to move the Section 508 checkpoint to the left Description column. 9. In the Start page field, type the starting page for the scan. For this example, type /CompSheriff/badpage.html in the field. 10. Select the desired level from the Levels list. To scan a single web page file, select 0. Otherwise, select a level that will include all the pages you wish to scan. 11. Select the Retest all pages check box to make sure that all pages are tested each time the scan is run. 12. If necessary, limit the scan s crawl to just the pages you wish to scan by entering the appropriate paths in the Include URLs matching or Exclude URLs matching fields. 13. Click the Save button. The scan is added to the list of scans with the word [local] appended to the base URL (see Figure 20). Figure 20 Local Scan 14. To run the scan, in the Scheduled column, click the Run button associated with the scan. 15. To view the scan results, in the Health column, click the scan s health value. Views A view is a presentation of data from the results database. It may contain a graphical chart, a textual summary, or a table of checkpoint results. Essentially, views are filters for reports. Each scan group is allocated three views. Users can edit their default view. However, users cannot create new views. Additional views can be requested by e-mailing the Web Administrator at wwwadmin@calstatela.edu. To open a view: 1. Click the Views tab. 2. In the far right column of the desired scan group, do one of the following (see Figure 21): To preview the report, click the Preview icon. To open the report in a new window, click the Report icon. To open the report as a PDF file in a new window, click the PDF icon. Figure 21 Views Table Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 10
The preview displays the report in the current browser window (see Figure 22). The report view is the same as the preview, but it opens in a new browser window and displays all of the results (warnings, failures) expanded in full detail. Figure 22 Report Preview The PDF view opens the report as a PDF file in a new browser window (see Figure 23). The report can be saved or printed. Figure 23 PDF Report Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 11
Editing a View Users can customize the way the summary, charts and tables are displayed in a view. To edit a view: 1. Click the Views tab. 2. In the Name column, click the name of the view you wish to edit (see Figure 21). For this example, click Training. The edit page displays (see Figure 24). 3. Select the desired option to the right of Show results for. Figure 24 Views Edit Page 4. Click to expand the Checkpoint Groups section, and then select the checkpoints you wish to include in the view. To select multiple checkpoints, hold down the Ctrl key and click each checkpoint. NOTE: The Checkpoint Groups section will only list checkpoints that were run on the web pages in the selected scans, scan groups or monitors. Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 12
5. Click to expand the Pages section, and then type the URLs of the pages you wish to report on (one per line). If left blank, the view will include all pages in the scan or scan group. 6. Click to expand the Chart section, and then select the desired chart type from the Chart type list. Each chart type includes additional options. For views on web accessibility, it is recommended to set Chart type to Page compliance. 7. Click to expand the Summary section, and then select the options you wish to include in the view. 8. Click to expand the Table section, and then select the desired table type from the Table type list. Each table type includes additional options. For views on web accessibility, it is recommended to set Table type to Page compliance. NOTE: The preview on the right side of the page updates automatically as you make revisions. Review all changes before saving them. 9. When finished, click the Save button. NOTE: Clicking the Cancel button will discard all unsaved changes. Adding a View to the Dashboard Users can add views to the dashboard so it appears on the home page after logging in. To add a view to the dashboard: 1. Click the Dashboard tab. 2. Click the Add view button, and then select the desired view from the list. For this example, select Training. The web page refreshes and displays the selected view (see Figure 25). Figure 25 View Added to the Dashboard 3. To remove the view from the dashboard, click the Close view button in the upperright corner of the view. NOTE: The report is not deleted; it is simply removed from the dashboard. Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 13
Reports Web authors can view the results of accessibility scans by scan group or by individual scans. To view a report: 1. Click the Reports tab to display the Scorecard page (see Figure 26). 2. To view the overall scan group results, click the name of the scan group in the left column or the corresponding health value in the View Details column. For this example, click either Training or 93%. 3. To view individual scan results, click the plus icon to expand the scan group, and then click the name of the individual scan in the left column or the corresponding health value in the View Details column. Figure 26 Scorecard Page Interpreting Results A report s main display page provides a scan summary which includes overall scan statistics and multiple top 10 sections for checkpoints, issues, and web pages with violations (see Figure 27, Figure 28 and Figure 29). NOTE: You can view the full details of the report by clicking the View Full Details button at the top of the page. Figure 27 Scan Statistics Section The Top 10 Checkpoints section lists the checkpoint failures that occur most frequently across the website. The Top 10 Pages section lists the pages that contain the most failures. These two sections include a drop-down menu that can be used to filter the results by failures, warnings, visual checks, and other categories (see Figure 28). Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 14
Figure 28 Top 10 Checkpoints Section The Top 10 Issues section lists the checkpoint failures that occur on the most pages within the website (see Figure 29). The Page Count column indicates the number of pages that failed the listed checkpoint. The icons displayed in the left column indicate the type of issue each item refers to. A Failure icon indicates a checkpoint failure. A repair must be made to make the page compliant. A Warning icon indicates a warning. This may or may not need repair. It should be reviewed. A Visual Check icon indicates an item that must be manually checked to ensure it meets accessibility standards. For example, a manual check can ensure that a foreground and background color combination provides sufficient color contrast. Figure 29 Top 10 Issues Section Viewing Checkpoint Violations on Web Pages The Show Instances feature allows web authors to view checkpoint violations on web pages. Users can view the rendered page or the source code to see exactly where each violation occurs. The banner at the top of the Show Instances feature includes the following elements: the URL of the web page being viewed, the checkpoint description, arrows for navigating through pages and occurrences, and buttons for switching between the source code and the rendered page. Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 15
To view checkpoint violations on web pages: 1. In the Top 10 Issues section, click one of the checkpoints in the Result column (see Figure 29). The Show Instances feature for that checkpoint opens in a new browser window and displays the first page on which one or more violations occurred; a red box appears around each violation (see Figure 30). Figure 30 Show Instance Feature: Rendered View 2. To navigate through the pages on which one or more violations occurred, click the Next Result arrow or the Previous Result arrow located on the left side of the banner. NOTE: The two numbers between the arrows are the current page number and the total number of pages. 3. To navigate through the individual violations on the current page, click the Next Occurrence arrow or the Previous Occurrence arrow located on the right side of the banner. NOTE: The Occurrences box displays the total number of violations for the selected checkpoint on the current page. 4. To see where the violations occur in the source code, click the Code source button located on the right side of the banner. The source code of the page appears and each violation is highlighted in red (see Figure 31). Figure 31 Show Instance Feature: Code View 5. To see the rendered page again, click the Rendered view button located on the right side of the banner. NOTE: For certain checkpoints, the Show Instances feature includes a How to fix button on the right side of the banner. Clicking the button opens a new browser window that displays a W3C web page with the full description of the checkpoint (see Figure 32). Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 16
Figure 32 W3C Checkpoint Description Page Getting Help Compliance Sheriff includes an online help system that can be used to get assistance on any topic or task. To get help: 1. Click the Help link in the upper-right corner of the page (see Figure 33). The Help window opens. Figure 33 Help Link 2. The help system offers four options (see Figure 34): Click the Contents button to display a list of help topics grouped by subject. Click the Index button to display a list of help topics sorted alphabetically. Click the Search button to search for a specific topic. Click the Glossary button to display a list of terms and their definitions. Figure 34 Help Options 3. To close the Help window, click the Close button in the upper-right corner of the window. NOTE: For technical support, e-mail the Web Administrator at wwwadmin@calstatela.edu. Logging Out When finished using Compliance Sheriff, users should log out. To log out of Compliance Sheriff: 1. Click the Sign out link in the upper-right corner of the page (see Figure 35). Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 17
Figure 35 Sign Out Link Additional Resources Below is a list of additional resources related to web accessibility. HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff website: http://www.hisoftware.com/solutions/hisoftware-compliance-sheriff.aspx Accessibility websites: Cal State L.A. accessibility website: http://www.calstatela.edu/accessibility CSU Accessible Technology Initiative website: http://www.calstate.edu/accessibility W3C Web Accessibility Initiative website: http://www.w3.org/wai/intro/accessibility.php Adobe accessibility website: http://www.adobe.com/accessibility Apple accessibility website: http://www.apple.com/accessibility Microsoft accessibility website: http://www.microsoft.com/enable Common accessibility errors and solutions: http://www.calstatela.edu/accessibility/errors.php Tools for testing web accessibility: http://www.calstatela.edu/accessibility/tools.php W3C quality assurance tips for webmasters: http://www.w3.org/qa/tips/doctype How to achieve web standards and quality on your website: http://www.w3.org/qa/2002/04/web-quality YouTube video demonstrating the importance of proper heading use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=jp&hl=ja&v=amuphevwu_e Most common web standards and accessibility errors: http://www.personal.psu.edu/v23/presentations/accessibility/20errors/standards_errors.ht ml Absolute vs. relative positioning with CSS: http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/stylesheets/csslayout.html Introduction to HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff 18