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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-14T14:46:33+00:00

I have a page with a menu that uses JQuery AJAX calls to populate

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I have a page with a menu that uses JQuery AJAX calls to populate the page with. To reflect any changes I update the URL with a #… instead of ?… or /… So an URL that originally reads : htpp://localhost/pages/index/id=1 would look like : http://localhost/#pages/index/id=1. If a user bookmarks this, and later comes back to the page, I wonder if it’s possible to use the second URL in my route decoding, or if I have to load it blank, then use the same JS/Ajax to populate the page?

In my mind it is problematic to use Ajax in these cases if a user copies the link and mails it to a friend with JavaScript disabled.

edit#1: Fixed some spelling.

edit#2: To clarify the question a bit: I want a site where I can do the following:
(a): with javascript turned on, use ajax calls to replace the content of a div (without reloading the page)
(b): with javascript turned on, bookmark the page as it is after the ajax call i (a)
(c): take the URL, send it to a person with noscript turned on, and have the same page as after the ajax call was made.

(a) and (b) works just fine on my page but (c) is seemingly impossible.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Currently, the only portion of a URL you can update without causing the browser to redirect is the hash. This portion of the URL is not sent to the server in a request and is only available for client-side processing, so it cannot be used to provide a javascript-free way of providing a link.

    The issue you are facing is a common one amongst those using AJAX. The best solution I’ve encountered is to provide a way to view any AJAX-loaded state of every page through a “true” URL, one that will be passed to the server.

    This means you have one URL which provides a “snapshot” of a page’s state:

    http://localhost/pages/index/1/someaction

    And an AJAX-specific URL which provides the local state of the page in the client’s browser:

    http://localhost/pages/index/1#someaction

    What you then have to do is provide some means of generating the “snapshot” link to the page from the AJAX version. A “Link to this Page” or “Permanent Link” button is a reasonable option.

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