AJAX compatibility with older browsers?

K

Korialstrasza

Gawd
Joined
Jan 21, 2004
Messages
561
Hi,
I have the option of building an ajax menu for a website I'm working on. I'd like to use ajax to gain some practice with it. The problem is that the website has an audience who are mostly on older systems. So, does ajax have many compatibility problems with older systems and browsers?

Just making sure before I make any plans.
Thanks
 
I haven't worked with ajax in about half a year so I don't have the figures to throw at you, but yes, if you're trying to accomodate older browsers it's a real pain/impossible, depending on how far back you want to go. If the browser doesn't recognize the HTTPRequestObject (if Im remembering that correctly), you can't use it, so you're looking at something like explorer (6?) or netscape 6? and up, and I think any firefox version, but you even have to handle the different browsers differently if you're coding the client-side ajax stuff yourself (in the javascript that is). You can sometimes get away with hiding it all away within the javascript and not actually making any server-side calls, in which case your compatibility would be much higher

and at the same time, I'm not sure how helpful any experience would be. Hopefully in a few years there will be a more established framework for ajax, and would make your experience moot, aside from having a conceptualy better grasp of how ajax works
 
Bummer.

What kind of framework are you talking about? Ajax is pretty confusing, especially when you get 4-5 different languages in there. Do you mean better objects to work with?

Thanks!
 
Korialstrasza said:
Hi,
I have the option of building an ajax menu for a website I'm working on. I'd like to use ajax to gain some practice with it. The problem is that the website has an audience who are mostly on older systems. So, does ajax have many compatibility problems with older systems and browsers?

Just making sure before I make any plans.
Thanks
Click to expand...


While I don't know exactly what problem you are trying to solve. I am gathering that you do not understand enough about javascript to safely implement such a feature.

That being said, from my point of view, with as little as i know about your current problem, I would not be using ajax to provide content for a menu. Unless this menu would have thousands of potential items w/o the ability to filter on the fly.
 
AJAX type functionality is typically supported for browsers as low as internet explorer 5. If you are internet explorer 5 or higher, any version of firefox, any version of opera in that range, etc, you are fine.

As for programming for different browsers, there are plenty of frameworks and libraries out that have done this for you already, jQuery, prototype, fork just to name 3 off the top of my head and not slow down typing.
 
Xenarchy said:
While I don't know exactly what problem you are trying to solve. I am gathering that you do not understand enough about javascript to safely implement such a feature.

That being said, from my point of view, with as little as i know about your current problem, I would not be using ajax to provide content for a menu. Unless this menu would have thousands of potential items w/o the ability to filter on the fly.
Click to expand...

That wasn't my question though, was it. :rolleyes:

Thanks to everyone else who actually read my post.
 
the HttpXMLRequest Object was first implemented by Microsoft way back when for Outlook Web Access. It worked with IE4.0 and newer, so the callback feature should work in just about any browser from 1997 onward.

However, while the HttpXMLRequest object itself is supported by most older browsers, that does not automatically imply they will support all the other Javascript elements needed for a really good, modern AJAX implementation.

Also, Xenarchy does make a good point that you may have misinterpreted. you really shouldn't use AJAX just for the sake of it. a menu system is probably a very poor choice for an AJAX implementation.
 
Korialstrasza said:
That wasn't my question though, was it. :rolleyes:

Thanks to everyone else who actually read my post.
Click to expand...


I did read your post and I gave you feedback on your problem and potential solution. I'm apologize to you if you didn't like the feedback I gave. I'm sure as you progress you will realize what I said holds water and I wasn't as off base as you think I am.
 
As far as frameworks I was thinking mainly of JSF, as that was the most popular one when I was working with it. There are many, many frameworks out there, the most notable one to come out since I worked with ajax (if you want to call it a FW) is probably the google web toolkit, which I've heard good things about. I do have to agree that a menu does seem an odd choice for ajax, but without further details I can't quite confirm. If the data is relatively static, or very small, you will often find better methods for implementation.

I wasn't aware that ajax went back that far on the MS side, there's always the cheap way to go and return from the server your formatted html, and just set it to a div or container element using the innerHTML, if that would still be supported in javascript that old. (the odds seem higher than having the js contain the functionality for more traditional ajax implementations where you would get back xml or even a js object). Generally when I had to take older browsers into account we had to go back to netscape 4, which doesn't leave much, or at least much + consistency
 
The problem with AJAX is the overuse of it. Why does your menu have to use AJAX aside from a learning experience for you? What does AJAX bring to the table that you couldn't do in different languages?

These same questions should be asked when considering using Flash too. Problem with new, 'fancy' technology is the overuse of it. In flash, it creates loading times. In AJAX, it overwhelms the users and creates unneeded database queries.

If your looking into simple animations, look into AJAX libraries like Rico (http://www.openrico.org).
 
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