Purple A11y Desktop

Purple A11y Desktop is a desktop frontend for Purple A11y an accessibility site scanner - a customisable, automated web accessibility testing tool that allows software development teams to find and fix accessibility problems to improve persons with disabilities (PWDs) access to digital services. The official application can only be downloaded at https://go.gov.sg/get-purplea11y. We recommend that you download the software only from the official link, as other sources and/or third party links may pose risks and/or compromise your system.

Technology Stack

1. Electron
2. React

Installations

Download Purple A11y Desktop

Purple A11y Desktop is available as a download for Windows and MacOS. Refer to Installation Guide for step-by-step instructions.

Development and Testing

Set Engine Version

First open terminal and navigate to the location of clone respository of Purple A11y Desktop.

Then export BE_TAG to set version of Purple A11y (engine).

export BE_TAG=0.9.48<version number>

Build Standalone App

For Mac

npm run make-mac

For Windows

npm run make-win

This will create a folder in your repository in the out folder. Enter and run the Purple Ally.app in the newly created folder in ../out.

Run and Debug

Enter the code below to build Purple A11y Desktop.

npm run build

Finally to start Purple A11y Desktop enter the code below.

npm run start

An application window should be open with the inserted version. You mahy debug the app through Terminal / PowerShell window.

Facing issues?

Open an issue ticket for assistance.

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Basic Usage

Enter a valid URL to scan in the textbox and press the "Scan" button. The default settings will crawl your website and scan 100 pages for accessibility issues.

Limiting pages scanned

If you find a scan takes too long to complete due to large website, or there are too many pages in a sitemap to scan, you may choose to limit number of pages scanned. Click on the drop down and enter the desired number of pages to scan.

Advanced scan options

Click on the "Advanced scan options" button to configure the scan options.

Scan Type Selection

Website Crawl

The default scan option for Purple A11y desktop. Purple A11y Desktop will crawl and scan all the links (up to page limit) within the domain in the provided URL.

Sitemap Crawl

With sitemap crawl, provide a URL to a sitemap file (e.g. https.domain.com/sitemap.xml) and Purple A11y Desktop will crawl and scan all the links (up to page limit) within the domain in the provided URL.

Custom Flow

Custom flow is used to scan Single-Page Applications (SPAs) or websites that require user authentication. 2 pop-up windows will appear after running the scan. The browser pop-up window will be used to record your actions, proceed with your actions as you would normally do on the website and close the browser window when you are done. The second window is used to log the actions in code (do not close the second window until the scan is completed).

Viewport Options

Customise the viewport options to render your websites for desktop and mobile device users.

Desktop

Defaults to screen size of 1280x720.

Mobile

Defaults to screen size of iPhone 11.

Specific device

Click here for list of device options supported

• "Desktop Chrome HiDPI"
• "Desktop Edge HiDPI"
• "Desktop Firefox HiDPI"
• "Desktop Safari"
• "Desktop Chrome"
• "Desktop Edge"
• "Desktop Firefox"
• "Blackberry PlayBook"
• "Blackberry PlayBook landscape"
• "BlackBerry Z30"
• "BlackBerry Z30 landscape"
• "Galaxy Note 3"
• "Galaxy Note 3 landscape"
• "Galaxy Note II"
• "Galaxy Note II landscape"
• "Galaxy S III"
• "Galaxy S III landscape"
• "Galaxy S5"
• "Galaxy S5 landscape"
• "Galaxy S8"
• "Galaxy S8 landscape"
• "Galaxy S9+"
• "Galaxy S9+ landscape"
• "Galaxy Tab S4"
• "Galaxy Tab S4 landscape"
• "iPad (gen 6)"
• "iPad (gen 6) landscape"
• "iPad (gen 7)"
• "iPad (gen 7) landscape"
• "iPad Mini"
• "iPad Mini landscape"
• "iPad Pro 11"
• "iPad Pro 11 landscape"
• "iPhone 6"
• "iPhone 6 landscape"
• "iPhone 6 Plus"
• "iPhone 6 Plus landscape"
• "iPhone 7"
• "iPhone 7 landscape"
• "iPhone 7 Plus"
• "iPhone 7 Plus landscape"
• "iPhone 8"
• "iPhone 8 landscape"
• "iPhone 8 Plus"
• "iPhone 8 Plus landscape"
• "iPhone SE"
• "iPhone SE landscape"
• "iPhone X"
• "iPhone X landscape"
• "iPhone XR"
• "iPhone XR landscape"
• "iPhone 11"
• "iPhone 11 landscape"
• "iPhone 11 Pro"
• "iPhone 11 Pro landscape"
• "iPhone 11 Pro Max"
• "iPhone 11 Pro Max landscape"
• "iPhone 12"
• "iPhone 12 landscape"
• "iPhone 12 Pro"
• "iPhone 12 Pro landscape"
• "iPhone 12 Pro Max"
• "iPhone 12 Pro Max landscape"
• "iPhone 12 Mini"
• "iPhone 12 Mini landscape"
• "iPhone 13"
• "iPhone 13 landscape"
• "iPhone 13 Pro"
• "iPhone 13 Pro landscape"
• "iPhone 13 Pro Max"
• "iPhone 13 Pro Max landscape"
• "iPhone 13 Mini"
• "iPhone 13 Mini landscape"
• "Kindle Fire HDX"
• "Kindle Fire HDX landscape"
• "LG Optimus L70"
• "LG Optimus L70 landscape"
• "Microsoft Lumia 550"
• "Microsoft Lumia 550 landscape"
• "Microsoft Lumia 950"
• "Microsoft Lumia 950 landscape"
• "Nexus 10"
• "Nexus 10 landscape"
• "Nexus 4"
• "Nexus 4 landscape"
• "Nexus 5"
• "Nexus 5 landscape"
• "Nexus 5X"
• "Nexus 5X landscape"
• "Nexus 6"
• "Nexus 6 landscape"
• "Nexus 6P"
• "Nexus 6P landscape"
• "Nexus 7"
• "Nexus 7 landscape"
• "Nokia Lumia 520"
• "Nokia Lumia 520 landscape"
• "Nokia N9"
• "Nokia N9 landscape"
• "Pixel 2"
• "Pixel 2 landscape"
• "Pixel 2 XL"
• "Pixel 2 XL landscape"
• "Pixel 3"
• "Pixel 3 landscape"
• "Pixel 4"
• "Pixel 4 landscape"
• "Pixel 4a (5G)"
• "Pixel 4a (5G) landscape"
• "Pixel 5"
• "Pixel 5 landscape"
• "Moto G4"
• "Moto G4 landscape"

Custom Width

Enter a custom width in pixels. Minimum width is 320px and Maximum width is 1080px.

Report

Once a scan of the site is completed.

A report will be downloaded into the ../Documents folder.

An Address link to report is provided. Click on the link to access the location of the report.

You can also click on the view report button to see the Accessibility Scan Results.

Accessibility Scan Results

For details on which accessibility scan results trigger "Must Fix" / "Good to Fix" findings, you may refer to Scan Issue Details.

Additional Information on Data

Purple A11y Desktop uses third-party open-source tools that may be downloaded over the Internet during the installation process of Purple A11y. Users should be aware of the libraries used by examining package.json.

Purple A11y Desktop may send information to the website or URL where the user chooses to initiate a Purple A11y scan. Limited user information such as e-mail address, name, and basic analytics is collected for the purpose of knowing our usage patterns better.