One page only javascript applications

Question

Have you experimented with single page web application, i.e. where the browser only \'GETs\' one page form the server, the rest being handled by client side javascript code (one

Answer 1

One pro is that you get the full presentation power of JavaScript as opposed to non-JavaScript web sites where the browser may flicker between pages and similar minor nuisances. You may notice lower bandwidth use as well as a result of only handling with the immediately important parts that need to be refreshed instead of getting a full web page back from the server.

The major con behind this is the accessibility concern. Users without JavaScript (or those who choose to disable it) can't use your web site unless you do some serious server-side coding to determine what to respond with depending on whether the request was made using AJAX or not. Depending on what (server-side) web framework you use, this can be either easy or extremely tedious.

It is not considered a good idea in general to have a web site which relies completely on the user having JavaScript.