Fix hit area icon links buttons

src/pydata_sphinx_theme/assets/styles/abstracts/_links.scss

@@ -164,114 +164,59 @@ $link-hover-decoration-thickness: string.unquote(
   }
 }
 
-// Navigation bar current page link styles
-// ---------------------------------------
-// Adds a bottom underline, this leaves enough space for the hover state without
-// cluttering the navbar.
-// We want the side box shadow to have the same thickness as the hover underline
-@mixin link-navbar-current {
-  font-weight: 600;
-  color: var(--pst-color-primary);
+// Heaver navbar text and icon links
+// ---------------------------------
+// (includes light/dark mode button)
+
+// This mixin makes it possible to show hover/underline and focus/ring styles at
+// the same time. The trick is to use:
+//    - a pseudo-element with bottom border for the hover underline
+//    - a CSS outline for the focus ring.
+
+// Normally we use box-shadow for underline and outline for focus ring. But we
+// cannot apply box-shadow and outline together on the same element because the
+// border-radius value that we use to round the outline will also round the
+// box-shadow used for the underline. We also cannot use text-underline because
+// it does not work on non-text links, nor do we want to use it on text links
+// that we want to treat as blocks, such as the header nav links because the
+// underline will wrap across two lines if the link text also wraps across two
+// lines.
+@mixin link-style-block {
+  color: var(--pst-color-text-muted);
 
-  @if $link-hover-decoration-thickness {
-    border-bottom: $link-hover-decoration-thickness
-      solid
-      var(--pst-color-primary);
-  }
-}
+  // Set position relative so that the child ::before pseudo-element's absolute
+  // position is relative to this element.
+  position: relative;
 
-// Navigation bar icon links hover styles
-// --------------------------------------
-// Adds a bottom box-shadow - since there is no text we cannot use text-decoration
-// We want the side box shadow to have the same thickness as the hover underline
-@mixin icon-navbar-hover {
-  &:hover {
-    color: var(--pst-color-link-hover);
+  // Set up pseudo-element used for hover underline styles
+  &::before {
+    content: "";
+    display: block;
+    position: absolute;
+    inset: 0;
+    background-color: transparent;
 
     @if $link-hover-decoration-thickness {
-      box-shadow: 0
-        $link-hover-decoration-thickness
-        0
-        var(--pst-color-link-hover);
+      bottom: calc(-1 * $link-hover-decoration-thickness);
+      margin: $link-hover-decoration-thickness 0;
     }
   }
-}
-
-// Mixin for links in the header (and the More dropdown toggle).
-
-// The mixin assumes it will be applied to some element X with a markup structure
-// like: X > .nav-link, or X > .dropdown-toggle.
-
-// It also assumes X.current is how the app annotates which item in the header nav
-// corresponds to the section in the docs that the user is currently reading.
-@mixin header-link {
-  // Target the child and not the parent because we want the underline in the
-  // mobile sidebar to only span the width of the text not the entire row/line.
-  > .nav-link,
-  > .dropdown-toggle {
-    border-radius: 2px;
-    color: var(--pst-color-text-muted);
-  }
-
-  > .nav-link {
-    // Set up pseudo-element for hover and current states below.
-    position: relative;
 
+  &:hover {
+    color: var(--pst-color-secondary);
+    text-decoration: none; // override the link-style-hover mixin
     &::before {
-      content: "";
-      display: block;
-      position: absolute;
-      inset: 0;
-      background-color: transparent;
-    }
-
-    // Underline on hover.
-    // - Don't use text-decoration because it will wrap across two lines if
-    //   the link text also wraps across two lines.
-    // - Use pseudo-element in order to avoid the border-radius values
-    //   rounding the edges of the underline. (And since a header link can be
-    //   both focused and hovered at the same time and we want the focus ring
-    //   but not the underline to be rounded, we cannot use a box shadow or
-    //   bottom border link element to create the underline, or else it will
-    //   be rounded and if we apply border-radius 0 then the hovered focus
-    //   ring would go from rounded to sharp. So we have to use the
-    //   pseudo-element.)
-    &:hover {
-      color: var(--pst-color-secondary);
-      text-decoration: none; // override the link-style-hover mixin
-      &::before {
-        border-bottom: 3px solid var(--pst-color-secondary);
+      @if $link-hover-decoration-thickness {
+        border-bottom: $link-hover-decoration-thickness
+          solid
+          var(--pst-color-secondary);
       }
     }
-
-    &:focus-visible {
-      box-shadow: none; // override Bootstrap
-      outline: 3px solid var(--pst-color-accent);
-      outline-offset: 3px;
-    }
-  }
-
-  > .dropdown-toggle {
-    &:focus-visible {
-      box-shadow: $focus-ring-box-shadow;
-    }
-
-    &:hover {
-      text-decoration: none;
-      box-shadow: 0 0 0 $focus-ring-width var(--pst-color-link-hover); // purple focus ring
-      // Brighten the text on hover (muted -> base)
-      color: var(--pst-color-text-base);
-    }
   }
 
-  &.current {
-    > .nav-link {
-      color: var(--pst-color-primary);
-
-      // Underline the current navbar item
-      &::before {
-        border-bottom: 3px solid var(--pst-color-primary);
-      }
-    }
+  &:focus-visible {
+    box-shadow: none; // override Bootstrap
+    outline: 3px solid var(--pst-color-accent);
+    outline-offset: 3px;
   }
 }

src/pydata_sphinx_theme/assets/styles/abstracts/_mixins.scss

@@ -57,3 +57,14 @@
     }
   }
 }
+
+// Minimum mouse hit area
+// ----------------------
+// Ensures that the element has a minimum hit area that conforms to
+// accessibility guidelines. For WCAG AA, we need 24px x 24px, see:
+// https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/target-size-minimum.html
+@mixin min-hit-area() {
+  box-sizing: border-box;
+  min-width: 24px;
+  min-height: 24px;
+}

src/pydata_sphinx_theme/assets/styles/base/_base.scss

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ body {
   background-color: var(--pst-color-background);
   font-family: var(--pst-font-family-base);
   font-weight: 400;
-  line-height: 1.65;
+  line-height: $line-height-body;
   color: var(--pst-color-text-base);
   min-height: 100vh;
   display: flex;

src/pydata_sphinx_theme/assets/styles/components/_icon-links.scss

@@ -2,7 +2,29 @@
  * Icon links in the navbar
  */
 
-.navbar-icon-links {
+.pst-navbar-icon {
+  // Extra specificity needed for overrides
+  html & {
+    @include min-hit-area;
+    @include link-style-block;
+
+    display: flex;
+    align-items: center;
+    justify-content: center;
+
+    // Bootstrap overrides
+    border-radius: 0;
+    border: none;
+    font-size: 1rem;
+    line-height: $line-height-body; // Override Boostrap, which defines a separate line-height for buttons
+    padding: $navbar-link-padding-y 0; // Horizontal white space in nav bar between items is controlled via column gap rule on the container.
+
+    // Make the navbar icon links have the same size as the navbar text links
+    height: calc(2 * $navbar-link-padding-y + $line-height-body * 1rem);
+  }
+}
+
+ul.navbar-icon-links {
   display: flex;
   flex-flow: row wrap;
   column-gap: 1rem;
@@ -12,24 +34,6 @@
   margin-bottom: 0;
   list-style: none;
 
-  // Remove the padding so that we can define it with flexbox gap above
-  li.nav-item a.nav-link {
-    padding-left: 0;
-    padding-right: 0;
-
-    @include icon-navbar-hover;
-
-    &:focus {
-      color: inherit;
-    }
-  }
-
-  // Spacing and centering
-  a span {
-    display: flex;
-    align-items: center;
-  }
-
   // Icons styling
   i {
     &.fa-brands,

src/pydata_sphinx_theme/assets/styles/components/_navbar-links.scss

@@ -1,16 +1,10 @@
 /**
  * Navigation links in the navbar and icon links
  */
-.navbar-nav,
-.navbar-icon-links {
+ul.navbar-nav {
+  // Reduce padding of nested `ul` items a bit
   ul {
-    display: block;
-    list-style: none;
-
-    // Reduce padding of nested `ul` items a bit
-    ul {
-      padding: 0 0 0 1rem;
-    }
+    padding: 0 0 0 1rem;
   }
 
   // Navbar links - do not have an underline by default
@@ -22,8 +16,8 @@
       display: flex;
       align-items: center;
       height: 100%;
-      padding-top: 0.25rem;
-      padding-bottom: 0.25rem;
+      padding-top: $navbar-link-padding-y;
+      padding-bottom: $navbar-link-padding-y;
 
       @include link-style-text;
     }

src/pydata_sphinx_theme/assets/styles/components/_search.scss

@@ -67,26 +67,8 @@
  */
 
 // Search link icon should be a bit bigger since it is separate from icon links
-.search-button {
-  display: flex;
-  align-items: center;
-  align-content: center;
-  color: var(--pst-color-text-muted);
-  padding: 0;
-  border-radius: 0;
-  border: none; // Override Bootstrap button border
-  font-size: 1rem; // Override Bootstrap button font size
-
-  // Override Bootstrap button padding-x. Whitespace in nav bar is controlled
-  // via column gap rule on the container.
-  padding-left: 0;
-  padding-right: 0;
-
-  @include icon-navbar-hover;
-
-  i {
-    font-size: 1.3rem;
-  }
+.search-button i {
+  font-size: 1.3rem;
 }
 
 // __search-container will only show up when we use the search pop-up bar

src/pydata_sphinx_theme/assets/styles/components/_switcher-theme.scss

@@ -3,21 +3,7 @@
  */
 
 .theme-switch-button {
-  color: var(--pst-color-text-muted);
-  border-radius: 0;
-  border: none; // Override Bootstrap button border
-  font-size: 1rem; // Override Bootstrap's button font size
-
-  // Override Bootstrap button padding-x. Whitespace in nav bar is controlled
-  // via column gap rule on the container.
-  padding-left: 0;
-  padding-right: 0;
-
-  &:hover {
-    @include icon-navbar-hover;
-  }
-
-  span {
+  .theme-switch {
     display: none;
 
     &:active {
@@ -31,14 +17,10 @@
   }
 }
 
-html[data-mode="auto"] .theme-switch-button span[data-mode="auto"] {
-  display: flex;
-}
-
-html[data-mode="light"] .theme-switch-button span[data-mode="light"] {
-  display: flex;
-}
-
-html[data-mode="dark"] .theme-switch-button span[data-mode="dark"] {
-  display: flex;
+@each $mode in auto, light, dark {
+  html[data-mode="#{$mode}"]
+    .theme-switch-button
+    .theme-switch[data-mode="#{$mode}"] {
+    display: inline; // inline needed for span height to be calculated using inherited font size and line height
+  }
 }

src/pydata_sphinx_theme/assets/styles/components/_switcher-version.scss

@@ -72,6 +72,10 @@ button.version-switcher__button,
   font-size: 1.1em; // A bit smaller than other menu font
   z-index: $zindex-modal; // higher than the sidebars
 
+  // Make sure it meets WCAG target size requirement no matter the version
+  // string displayed in the button
+  @include min-hit-area;
+
   @include media-breakpoint-up($breakpoint-sidebar-primary) {
     font-size: unset;
   }