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11-20-2010, 03:46 PM

[eluser]skunkbad[/eluser]
[quote author="Narkboy" date="1290309045"]I'm building a e-commerce site for a client who dearly wants "web 2.0" (ironic quotes...) functionality. He mentioned Facebook... Anyway:

In order to work properly with users who don't have JS enabled, the entire site is built without javascript and works just fine. Now to add in the fun stuff - I'm using jQuery, jQuery UI and jQuery Tools.

I want to change some links on the fly so that js users get ajax functionality - for example, a non-js user clicks on 'show cart' and the cart page loads; while a js user click and gets the cart in an overlay.

Using rel="overlay" can direct js users to an ajax request, but if they request the same url as a non-js user they get the entire page, rather than just the relevent part. No point reloading the <head> etc. I can use jQuery to change the href only in a tags with an .ajax class.

Is it better to:

1)

http://www.example.com/shop/show_cart - loads the full page with cart details.
http://www.example.com/shop/ajax_show_cart - loads the cart snippet into an overlay.

The problem is that the js to rewrite these links is a pain. I don't want to work out how to do this for all possible controller / function pairs required.

2)

http://www.example.com/shop/show_cart - full page
http://www.example.com/shop/show_cart/ajax - ajax snip

Problem here is that I'll have to edit all controller functiuons that can deliver via ajax to check for the var. Also, if the function requires / permits additional vars to be passed, then the ajax var will probably have to go last.

3)

http://www.example.com/shop/show_cart - full page
http://www.example.com/ajax/shop/show_cart - ajax snip

This requires an entire new controller set for ajax functions.

4)

Something else?

How does everyone else provide ajax / rich functionality while preserving non-js useability?

Help![/quote]

If all you want to do is show the cart via ajax, then why not just pull in the content that would show with a non-javascript view? You can always style it differently if that'w what your after, but the content shouldn't be different, or is it?

Ya gotta love the people that want Facebook type interaction, but want to do it on a tight budget. I've got pretty good at sniffing these types out, and I'll usually give them a really expensive quote.