Better Juportal

Concept

This browser extension (available for Chrome on https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/better-justel/jjknlnihcjeefjgdacaanbiedamibimp and for Firefox on https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/addon/better-justel/) takes the information publicly available on Justel (https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/loi/loi.htm), the Belgian database of consolidated legislation, and displays it in a more user-friendly experience.

Features

• The page on which each act is displayed is divided in three panes : the upper pane containing general information on the act; the left pane with a table of content; and the right pane displaying the content of the act. Each pane can be resized by hovering the mouse on the dividing line and dragging it.
• In the info pane, the icon of a disk allows to download and automatically name the consolidated version of the act in PDF. The link "Clear database" removes the act from the offline database. The link "Disable extension" shows the original text of the act, without the extension.
• The left pane displays the internal structure of the acte based on its headings (Title, Chapter, Section, etc.) and allows to jump immediately to the relevant part of the act by clicking on an article. The table of content can be fully collapsed or expanded with two different buttons.
• In the right pane, the hierarchical level of each heading is reflected by appropriate styling. The content of each article is also analysed. The text is indented to make appear more clearly the internal structure (§, 1°, a), hyphen, etc.). The number of each article is shown in bold. Subparagraphs (alénas) are also automatically numbered in the margin of the article.
• When text is selected within an article in the right page, a popup window appears and allows to highlight the text (in yellow, green, blue or red) or to underline it (in violet). To edit an existing highlight, click on it : the color of it can be changed by clicking on another color, or deleted by clicking on the white circle. A comment can also be inserted. The popup window can be closed by clicking elsewhere in the right pane. When a comment is added to highlighted text, this text is displayed in italic.
• Highlights are stored in the local storage of the browser and are restored the next time the same act is displayed. Saved highlights can be managed with the commands available in the popup window shown when clicking on the icon of the extension. They can be exported in JSON format and imported again by pasting the content of the JSON file in the relevant input box. A daily backup to Dropbox can also be set up (access is limited to the app folder in Dropbox, no access to the rest of the Dropbox is granted).
• Acts displayed are automatically stored in the browser local storage. When visited again, the act loads much quicker (which is useful for very long texts such as the Code of Economic Law), unless it has been updated in the online database in the meanwhile. Stored acts can also be consulted offline: when no internet access is available, a user browsing to the ELI URL of a stored act will automatically be redirected to the offline version of it. The online or offline character of the text displayed is mentioned on top of the left pane. The list of stored acts can also be consulted by clicking on the icon of the extension (they are listed in chronological order). Highlights are also displayed and are editable when in offline mode.