correct usage of Ajax and forms ?

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correct usage of Ajax and forms ?

johnecobo
I've got a simple, small mostly read-only web site to
do.  As one clicks around the pages nearly everything
(header, menu, footer, etc.) would stay constant apart
from the central content text/xhtml.

The question is: Would it make sense to implement this
as one page where the menu is a form rather than
links, and the central content is an AJAX enabled form
output field ?

It seems this could offer a smooth and quick movement
around the site, but the idea of doing navigation on a
form feels somehow wrong to me.  Am I being too
emotional ?

Any Opinions ?

John C.


               
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Re: correct usage of Ajax and forms ?

barandis
Doing navigation that way IS somehow wrong. It's dangerous to do site
navigation through Ajax. There's nothing technically difficult with it,
but doing Ajax navigation means that the site acts differently than
users expect, so you have to be careful with what you do.

The problems all revolve around the fact that the URL for every page
would be the same. This means that 1) the browser's Back button would
not work, and 2) there would be no way for anyone to bookmark any
individual page within your site. Site visitors expect these things to
work, and when they don't, they can get frustrated.

I love the idea of using Ajax for anything that you can, but this is one
place where you'd be better off without it.

-Thomas


John Cobo wrote:

>I've got a simple, small mostly read-only web site to
>do.  As one clicks around the pages nearly everything
>(header, menu, footer, etc.) would stay constant apart
>from the central content text/xhtml.
>
>The question is: Would it make sense to implement this
>as one page where the menu is a form rather than
>links, and the central content is an AJAX enabled form
>output field ?
>
>It seems this could offer a smooth and quick movement
>around the site, but the idea of doing navigation on a
>form feels somehow wrong to me.  Am I being too
>emotional ?
>
>Any Opinions ?
>
>John C.
>
>
>
>___________________________________________________________
>How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday
>snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com
>
>  
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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>You receive this message as a subscriber of the [hidden email] mailing list.
>To unsubscribe: mailto:[hidden email]
>For general help: mailto:[hidden email]?subject=help
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>  
>



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Re: correct usage of Ajax and forms ?

Erik Bruchez
Administrator
Thomas,

I agree, I think all-Ajax web site navigation is not a great idea in
general. Flash-based web sites usually make the same mistake. Now there
are some cases where I think it has value:

o Prototyping, if you happen to be more efficient by writing your
application this way.

o Wizards, which in 99% of the cases do not allow bookmarking (you would
break the back button though).

Note that the BizDoc NG example application uses an xforms:switch to
show the two different parts of a form entry page. In this case, I am a
little split, as it is clearly much more convenient to implement this
page this way.

-Erik

Barandis Alarion wrote:

> Doing navigation that way IS somehow wrong. It's dangerous to do site
> navigation through Ajax. There's nothing technically difficult with it,
> but doing Ajax navigation means that the site acts differently than
> users expect, so you have to be careful with what you do.
>
> The problems all revolve around the fact that the URL for every page
> would be the same. This means that 1) the browser's Back button would
> not work, and 2) there would be no way for anyone to bookmark any
> individual page within your site. Site visitors expect these things to
> work, and when they don't, they can get frustrated.
>
> I love the idea of using Ajax for anything that you can, but this is one
> place where you'd be better off without it.
>
> -Thomas
>
>
> John Cobo wrote:
>
>> I've got a simple, small mostly read-only web site to
>> do.  As one clicks around the pages nearly everything
>> (header, menu, footer, etc.) would stay constant apart
>> from the central content text/xhtml.
>>
>> The question is: Would it make sense to implement this
>> as one page where the menu is a form rather than
>> links, and the central content is an AJAX enabled form
>> output field ?
>>
>> It seems this could offer a smooth and quick movement
>> around the site, but the idea of doing navigation on a
>> form feels somehow wrong to me.  Am I being too
>> emotional ?
>>
>> Any Opinions ?
>>
>> John C.
>>
>>
>>        
>> ___________________________________________________________ How much
>> free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with
>> Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com
>>
>>  
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>> --
>> You receive this message as a subscriber of the
>> [hidden email] mailing list.
>> To unsubscribe: mailto:[hidden email]
>> For general help: mailto:[hidden email]?subject=help
>> ObjectWeb mailing lists service home page: http://www.objectweb.org/wws
>>  
>>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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> You receive this message as a subscriber of the [hidden email] mailing list.
> To unsubscribe: mailto:[hidden email]
> For general help: mailto:[hidden email]?subject=help
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