This stuff’s all over my head, but it seems to be talking about tricks to get the performance of Ajax applications in the browser without trading off the standard browser experience your users (and Jakob Nielson) have come to expect (Developing Ajax Applications That Preserve Standard Browser Functionality):
To provide the traditional Web usability features, the Ajax application therefore needs to handle URIs client side in much the same way as the server does in traditional Web applications. The Ajax application needs to:
- Generate a URI and send it to the browser when a client-side state change occurs
- Recreate state when a new URI is requested by the browser
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One response to “Ajax apps that don't break the Back button”
This topic was discussed at the January 25th WebGuild presentation. How do we build the rich internet applications that the user demands without “breaking the web”? The two primary concerns that AJAX applications pose are the browser history (see back button) and the ability for a user to copy a URL. A solution for the former was already discribed (also, manipulating the history object is somewhat possible). The latter problem is solved today by the “permalink” approach used by site’s like Google and Yahoo! Maps. This solution is pretty questionable in it’s usability.