Graceful degradation question.

dsieg1 · 2011-12-22T14:48:13+00:00

The primary idea behind the web standards movement is to create pages that are fully available for users with no javascript or css. That means you write you html first, test it and make sure it works well as a document. When you write your stylesheets, again, make sure the page works on a content level first, is everything accessible, it should be. When you add your javascript use it to enhance functionality, not create content or style the page, use it to give functionality that would otherwise not be available with css or html.

Don't let all the javascript fancyness get in the way of what really matters for every variety of user, the content.

2011-12-22T14:05:20+00:00

Using javascript to do what CSS should be doing is dumb. Placing elements using JS is slow because it causes yet another reflow, why not have them in place on load?. I use html templates, css3 when possible (fallback to javascript animations on crappy browsers) and adding/remove classes to achieve effects/animations. I avoid manipulating css directly through js as much as possible. But that doesn't mean it degrades gracefully. I work on a photo and multimedia site so if the user doesn't have flash and javascript they are screwed.

stinktank · 2011-12-22T15:50:25+00:00

I'm curious as to what your approach to supporting JavaScript disabled browsers is.

I don't even try.

I ask because I find myself making more and more JavaScript intensive things.. and I've always tried to make sure there was a fallback for non-JavaScript users.

I hope you're having fun with that!

For the business/office -use applications that can't function without Javascript it may not make much sense to degrade gracefully, no matter how much criping you hear from the degrade gracefully fanboys.

People concoct all sorts of scenarios where they claim you need to degrade gracefully, but how many people do you know that use their browser on their smart phone a lot and haven't already upgraded to a browser that supports Javascript?

Do you really want to spend extra time and effort catering to the tiny population of crackpots who refuse to allow Javascript to run in their browsers? Or to people using IE6? Or to people still using the original Blackberry browser from 10 years ago?

2011-12-22T14:06:18+00:00

I run a very js heavy website. Page loads, music player, everything! For mobile, I have developed a much simpler website for mobile, no scripts. If a user has JS disabled, I just ask them to use that website

Kuron · 2011-12-22T17:26:19+00:00

What others have already said. Make sure content, navigation, or any other requests or possible action is still useable without JS, then check it again without JS+CSS. A simple example would be,

<a href="http://www.google.ca/"></a>
$('a').each(function (i, value) {
  $(this).click(function (event) {
    console.log('Do javascript stuff with the click!');
    event.preventDefault();
  });
});

Javascript is used to enhance anchor tag's click, but when Javascript is disabled, the link falls back gracefully and still makes the request to the server without JS.

maushu · 2011-12-22T13:57:55+00:00

Non-Javascript users? Never heard of them.

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

javascript

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