I’m curious about the current trend these days for ajax-applications. Is it acceptable to simply build an ajax application the best you can make it and simply ignore browsers that don’t support ajax (assuming this a secured part of the site… not the public part)?
I am not talking about corporate intranets where you can reasonably control the browsers being used – but sites that people pay a monthly rate for. It’s not quite public, but it’s not controlled either.
It seems that the more you make your ajax application “kick ass”, the harder it is to support the old model of doing things. The two models diverge further and further apart from each other that you’re basically writing 2 UIs/controllers for everything in your system. Maybe in some cases you are writing 2 views too.
I’m the only developer working on this particular project. Having to double my efforts actually seems like a waste of time. I think I am better off building the product I want, and if it’s successful, maybe go back and add the non-ajax stuff later (if at all).
The project’s unique selling point – it’s core domain – has a lot to do with the way I’m going to incorporate ajax. Frankly, supporting the non-ajax stuff isn’t really that important to me. The software that doesn’t support ajax is basically going to be a copy of what people are already using. The reason people would use this software is because it’s a lot easier to use and it’s lot more fun to use.
If people want the non-ajax version, there’s already a lot of products out there that do that. I’m thinking it’s smart to just say “screw it… that’s a market I’m just going to ignore… and I’m going to bank on the fact that my product might eventually overtake them anyway.”
Given this scenario, would it be reasonable to simply not support browsers with javascript disabled? If I did that, what things would I need to worry about, besides customers using older browsers and having problems?
If you can safely assume all of your users have JavaScript enabled or are able (and willing) to enable it for your site, you can require JavaScript.
However, you should still provide a meaningful, well-looking error page for those who do not have JavaScript. You could even add a guide how to enable (or allow – e.g. via NoScript) JavaScript for the site.