Question

I’m implementing a voting system like the one used by stackoverflow. It’s working with ajax sending POST request to an url. I’d like a way to fail gracefully when javascript/ajax isn’t supported or enabled, a GET like /voteup/id isn’t even considered because i’m altering the database.
What’s the best solution? I’m either considering a form or simply removing the feature if js isn’t enabled.

There are at least three related entries on SO but i can’t insert more than one hyperlink

POST with links without JavaScript

Answer 1

Make the basic voting actions mini-forms, then use javascript to disable their posting action.

<form method=post action="hit-url">
   <input type=hidden name=vote value="1" />
   <input type=submit value="Vote Up" onSubmit="doVote(1);return false;" />
</form>
<form method=post action="hit-url">
   <input type=hidden name=vote value="-1" />
   <input type=submit value="Vote Down" onSubmit="doVote(-1);return false;" />
</form>

To replace these with links for javascript-enabled users:

<div id="voteupbutton">
   <form method=post action="hit-url">
      <input type=hidden name=vote value="1" />
      <input type=submit value="Vote Up" onSubmit="doVote(1);return false;" />
   </form>
</div>
<script>
   document.getElementById("voteupbutton").innerHTML="<a href='script:return false' onClick='doVote(1);return false;'>Vote up</a>";
</script>

I haven’t tested the above. If you’re using jQuery or some other framework, there will be more elegant ways of doing all of this.