AJAX - Change URL?

[jc94062]

Hi,

I had an application that worked on a principle of _get where each ?id in the URL loaded different data.

I've moved to ajax and it works fine, just the text area of the page changes and it works fast (albeit without a working back button at present). But part of the idea with using _get was so that people can link to specific sections of the page.

The get option still works, people can do /page.php?5 and get the information on ID 5 but as soon as you start using it again the url changes to /page.php# of course. Is there any way to change this so that you get the ?id appearing in the URL without going back to a "re-load entire page every time" option?

I had a quick search here and at google but couldn't see anything related, although I'm sure I read about it, somewhere?

Thanks!

[Dan Grossman]

as you start using it again the url changes to /page.php# of course

This is not an "of course" thing! This is a design decision, and having your links point to "#" is just poor design. Does this whole thing fall apart if someone doesn't have the latest-greatest browser with XMLHttpRequest support and JavaScript enabled too?

[jc94062]

It checks for activeX stuff in that fails and goes to standard get usage if they have javascript disabled.

Of course seeing as the site requires javascript to login (that decision was made well over me) I don't see that as a major issue anyway.

As far as I was aware your links had to point to # if you were using onClick type commands.

[Dan Grossman]

As far as I was aware your links had to point to # if you were using onClick type commands.

There's no such requirement... they can point to real URLs for people with JavaScript disabled, but as you're requiring JavaScript anyway, there's no point in discussing this further.

[JVLB]

The use of the octothorpe (#) as the target of a link with an onclick handler is just a safety; it basically makes the link valid without it actually pointing to anything.

As Mr. Grossman points out, a valid URL can exist as the href attribute, regardless of an onclick handler. If the onclick code concludes with 'return false' the link will not be activated if the JavaScript is executed; otherwise the link will be activated when the script concludes. This allows a different outcome if JavaScript is enabled than if it is not.

It might be worth looking into using the noscript element; it would allow you to inform those without JavaScript enabled of its necessity for proper function.

[jc94062]

Some helpful hints there, thanks.