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iconbutton-a11y

Design
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Enforce the Campfire IconButton accessibility convention — every IconButton (and its derivatives) must be wrapped with `IconButtonTooltip` and given a localized action label. Trigger when reviewing or authoring Compose UI that adds, copies, or moves an icon-only button.

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Rule

Every IconButton, FilledIconButton, OutlinedIconButton, FilledTonalIconButton, IconToggleButton, FilledIconToggleButton, FilledTonalIconToggleButton, or OutlinedIconToggleButton MUST be wrapped with IconButtonTooltip from app.campfire.common.compose.widgets.

The tooltip text MUST be a localized string from the module's composeResources/values/*_strings.xml, looked up via stringResource(Res.string.<name>). The same string MUST also be passed to the inner Icon's contentDescription so screen readers announce the action when the button is focused, in addition to revealing the tooltip on long-press / hover.

When to apply

  • Authoring any new icon-only button (Compose material3.IconButton or any derivative).
  • Copy-pasting an existing icon-only button: re-check that it's wrapped — many older call sites in the codebase are NOT yet migrated; do not propagate the legacy pattern.
  • Reviewing a PR that adds/moves an icon-only button in a *Ui.kt, top-app-bar, toolbar, bottom sheet, list-item action slot, or bottom bar.

Component

// Located at:
// common/compose/src/commonMain/kotlin/app/campfire/common/compose/widgets/IconButtonTooltip.kt
package app.campfire.common.compose.widgets

@Composable
fun IconButtonTooltip(
  text: String,
  modifier: Modifier = Modifier,
  position: TooltipAnchorPosition = TooltipAnchorPosition.Above,
  state: TooltipState = rememberTooltipState(),
  content: @Composable () -> Unit,
)

Defaults are tuned for the common case (top app bar / toolbar action). Override position for buttons anchored below their tooltip (e.g. a bottom bar action) and state if you need to drive visibility programmatically.

Canonical usage

import app.campfire.common.compose.widgets.IconButtonTooltip
import org.jetbrains.compose.resources.stringResource
import campfire.<module>.ui.generated.resources.Res
import campfire.<module>.ui.generated.resources.action_edit_playlist

IconButtonTooltip(
  text = stringResource(Res.string.action_edit_playlist),
) {
  IconButton(onClick = onEditClick) {
    Icon(
      Icons.Rounded.Edit,
      contentDescription = stringResource(Res.string.action_edit_playlist),
    )
  }
}

Toggle variant:

IconButtonTooltip(
  text = stringResource(Res.string.action_reorder_playlist),
) {
  IconToggleButton(
    checked = isReordering,
    onCheckedChange = onReorderChange,
  ) {
    Icon(
      CampfireIcons.Rounded.SwapCalls,
      contentDescription = stringResource(Res.string.action_reorder_playlist),
    )
  }
}

Anti-patterns

  • Bare IconButton with no tooltip. Fails Material 3 a11y guidance — long-press reveals nothing, screen readers may announce only "button".

    // ❌ DON'T
IconButton(onClick = onClick) {
  Icon(Icons.Rounded.Edit, contentDescription = "Edit")
}

  • Hardcoded English label. All tooltip text MUST go through a stringResource(Res.string.*) lookup; we have multiple locales planned.

    // ❌ DON'T
IconButtonTooltip(text = "Edit playlist") { ... }

  • Inlining TooltipBox directly. Use IconButtonTooltip so the plain-tooltip shape, padding, and anchor position stay consistent across the app.

    // ❌ DON'T
TooltipBox(positionProvider = ..., tooltip = { PlainTooltip { Text("Edit") } }, ...) { ... }

  • Mismatched tooltip + contentDescription. The two strings MUST be the same stringResource lookup. Drifting copy hurts a11y and looks sloppy.

String resource conventions

  • Place new tooltip labels in the owning module's src/commonMain/composeResources/values/<module>_strings.xml.
  • Prefer action_<verb>_<object> or cd_<noun> naming, e.g. action_edit_playlist, action_download_book, cd_clear_search.
  • Verbs in imperative mood: Edit playlist, Delete bookmark, Toggle reorder.

Audit (as of 2026-05-11)

There are ~86 unmigrated IconButton/derivative call sites across 47 files. The wrapper is in place but call site migration is intentionally deferred. When you touch an unmigrated file for any reason, opportunistically migrate the IconButtons in it — do not propagate the legacy pattern when copy-pasting.

A representative reference implementation (already correctly tooltip-wrapped) lives at: features/playlists/ui/src/commonMain/kotlin/app/campfire/playlists/ui/detail/composables/PlaylistFloatingToolbar.kt (though that file inlines its own tooltip helper — migrate it to IconButtonTooltip when convenient).