[Phpmyadmin-devel] Maintaining non-js compatibility?

[Dieter Adriaenssens]

2010/5/30 Thijs Kinkhorst <thijs at debian.org>:
> Hi Marc,
>
> On snein 30 Maaie 2010, Marc Delisle wrote:
>> I'm posting this to both lists to get developers and users feedback.
>>
>> In the phpMyAdmin 3.4 series, is it worth maintaining compatibility with
>> non-js-enabled browsers?
>
> I don't think it's necessary to keep feature-by-feature compatibility with
> non-js-enabled browsers. However, I do think it would be very useful if
> functionality that only works with JavaScript on is limited to "extras", and
> that all the basic operations (login, browse databases, table structures and
> data, insert update and delete data, user management) is still possible
> without JavaScript.
>
> I can imagine JavaScript being used for extra features that make working with
> pMA more convenient or that add more peripheral functionality. Some examples
> would be form validation, a colour picker, but there's probably more.
>

I agree with Thijs, that basic functionality should still be possible
without needing javascript. I usually think of Javascript (and AJAX)
as a nice way of improving interaction with the user (f.e. autofilling
a textfield while typing a search term, or showing/hiding certain
parts of a page when choosing options, ...)
Of course this doesn't mean that some advanced features (like the
relation editor) should also work when Javascript is not enabled. This
tool is very graphical, and almost impossible to implement when using
just HTML. So the effort to make these kind of features work without
Javascript is unnecessary.

To summarise, in my opinion, in version 3.4 it should be possible to
login, get an overview of databases and tables, browse the content of
tables and  insert/delete/modify records/tables/databases/priviliges,
without needing Javascript or AJAX.

Greetings,

Dieter