How can I change the URI without refreshing the page?

Question

I have built a website with CodeIginer and I want to implement AJAX and JQuery in one of my pages. The problem is that when I load the content, the URL does not change.

Let’s say that I have these URI:

• http://www.example.com/controller/function/param
• http://www.example.com/controller/function/param2

How can I change from the first one to the second one when I click a button?

Solution 1

In HTML5 you can change the URL:

window.history.pushState("object or string", "Title", "/new-url");

check http://spoiledmilk.com/blog/html5-changing-the-browser-url-without-refreshing-page/

docs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/Manipulating_the_browser_history#The_pushState().c2.a0method

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UPDATE

An overview of which browser support the new HTML5 history API:

http://caniuse.com/#search=pushState (caniuse.com is worth to bookmark!)

there are already frameworks that do the hard work for you and even gracefully fallback to the common hash-tag solution:

History.js

History.js gracefully supports the HTML5 History/State APIs (pushState, replaceState, onPopState) in all browsers. Including continued support for data, titles, replaceState. Supports jQuery, MooTools and Prototype. For HTML5 browsers this means that you can modify the URL directly, without needing to use hashes anymore. For HTML4 browsers it will revert back to using the old onhashchange functionality.

Backbone.js

Backbone supplies structure to JavaScript-heavy applications by providing models with key-value binding and custom events, collections with a rich API of enumerable functions, views with declarative event handling, and connects it all to your existing application over a RESTful JSON interface. ... pushState support exists on a purely opt-in basis in Backbone. Older browsers that don't support pushState will continue to use hash-based URL fragments, and if a hash URL is visited by a pushState-capable browser, it will be transparently upgraded to the true URL.

Mootools (via Plugin)

MooTools is a compact, modular, Object-Oriented JavaScript framework designed for the intermediate to advanced JavaScript developer. [...] History Management via popstate or hashchange. Replaces the URL of the page without a reload and falls back to Hashchange on older browsers.

dojo toolkit

Dojo saves you time and scales with your development process, using web standards as its platform. It’s the toolkit experienced developers turn to for building high quality desktop and mobile web applications. [...] dojox.app manage the navigation history through HTML5 pushState standard and delegate it to browser enabled history management.

... just to name a few.

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(!!) BE AWARE

One important side-effect when using the pushState (citation from the Backbone documentation):

Note that using real URLs requires your web server to be able to correctly render those pages, so back-end changes are required as well. For example, if you have a route of /documents/100, your web server must be able to serve that page, if the browser visits that URL directly. For full search-engine crawlability, it's best to have the server generate the complete HTML for the page ... but if it's a web application, just rendering the same content you would have for the root URL, and filling in the rest with Backbone Views and JavaScript works fine.

Solution 2

Could use a hash (#) and put whatever you like afterwards.

Here's a site I built using this - and then I have JavaScript read the hash and call appropriate functions:

http://bannerhouse.com.au/#/popup=media&id=don

Side note:

This is useful for flash websites or flash content as well; you can use FlashVars to parse the hash value to the SWF and load an appropriate section/screen based on that.

Solution 3

Use hash tags via Javascript, so in the button's click event handler: location.hash = "param2" Which will change http://example.com/mypage/#whatever to http://example.com/mypage/#param2

Of course, you could also put your "folders" after the hash, so, with a base url of http://example.com/ you then add: location.hash = "/MyPage/MySubPage/MyInfo"; which changes it to http://example.com/#/MyPage/MySubPage/MyInfo

Solution 4

A similar thread deduced no, unless using a hash tag.

One idea put forward, but strongly discouraged, was using a 204 HTTP response.

From the W3:

No Response 204

Server has received the request but there is no information to send back, and the client should stay in the same document view. This is mainly to allow input for scripts without changing the document at the same time.

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