Ajax and the Back Button

Ajax presents a revolutionary way of experiencing the web. However, it has presented new complications. One of those prominent complications is the back-button. Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Safari and other web browser always have that feature just in case you want to go back to the previous website or part of the site for easier navigation. Some online programs or website that are not Ajax based are quite efficient in returning to the site including all the things you have written there, although some doesn’t have that feature. It has become a part of our daily web navigation experience because all the browsers got to do when dealing with an html-coded website is to reload the webpage. But that situation is not available in Ajax. There are already strides of developers in Ajax but there are few developers who have figured out how to activate the back button. Most Ajax developers have even chosen to disregard the use of the back button because it has been proven to be really complicated. In HTML, all the site has got to do is to reload the webpage. But in the case of an Ajax based website, back button requires another complicated rendering of the website. This happens since JavaScript, which is an essential component of Ajax, doesn’t leave any marks when the browser leaves the page. Because of that, when the back button of an Ajax-based website is clicked, it just reloads the webpage instead of going back to the website. This is quiet complicated for web users since they will be forced to click on the site or restart. The developer has to be persistent enough if he/she wants to add this feature in a website. Aside from assigning each page with a unique webpage, there are simpler ways of going back to the previous website while maintaining that Ajaxian experience in a website. Some developers cleverly use HTML Microformat to reload the webpage. JavaScript will never render the page all over again so instead of dwelling into that unfathomable problem, developers have used HTML to properly activate the function. Microformat plays an important role in this field since it will render the frame and form of the website. Although it will never render the whole page, it will still work since developers can pinpoint what information will take a hit once the back button will be used. On the other hand, there are developers who use Really Simple History framework. Again, instead of figuring out how Ajax could be activated with a back button through JavaScript, developers created the Ajax based site within a framework that’s friendly with the back button. Although you have to be a little bit familiar with the framework, the rewards are great when you are expecting your visitors to use a lot of back buttons while navigating through your website. Disabling the back button in Ajax is not a disability. It’s just Ajax’s way of rendering things. Developers will just have to create more workarounds in their Ajax based software or website to ensure this button has been activated.