Is Graceful degradation possible for everything? for every javascript and javascript frameworks functionality?

Question

Is Graceful degradation possible for everything? for every javascript and javascript frameworks functionality?

Answer 1

It depends what you will accept as functional, if you require a dialog box to pop up on the page and request user input, then no, but if it's ok that the page redirects to an input form then it is.

There are a lot of cool things that can be done with javascript, but with some thought things can usually be functional (but probably not pretty) without.

Answer 2

No, it is not possible for everything. There comes a point when you have to decide if you can support a feature with or without javascript, or if it simply can't be done without it (or would take too much time/money to accomplish).

This concept might help you:

• For public websites meant to provide information, make sure every essential piece works with/without JS. This includes sales sites, corporate information sites, business micro sites, etc.
• If the site is a web application with tools available behind a login, then making JS a requirement makes more sense since you can notify the user of this requirement upon signup/signin. Obviously you should still go as far as you can to make the site accessible for handicapped users.

Answer 3

If you start with a non-javascript webpage, and get the functionality that you are willing to accept, then you can get graceful degradation to work, as you have a lower level that is acceptable, so if you can't get some functionality to work you can just not use javascript for that part.

But, if you absolutely require javascript then you need to decide on a least supported version, and get your app to work that way.

You may find that you will need to be able to replace some functionality that doesn't exist in the browser's version of javascript, so, if you use the string.trim() function but it isn't included, then you need to write it, and use the String.prototype functionality.

If you use unobtrusive javascript then you can test before making any changes to the dom elements to see what needs to be done to get that functionality to work.

If you find a framework that doesn't meet your needs, you will need to replace that framework with your own, rather than having a mix where on some browsers you have one framework and on others you have your own.

Answer 4

In my experience, I've yet to find a scenario that can't be solved with graceful degradation. Consider a "to-do list" app of today versus a decade ago. Today, if you would like to order a list of items, you simply drag & drop. A decade ago, you would click a "re-order" button, visit a second page where you would manually modify the IDs for each item for numeric sorting.

I tend to build apps (with a framework behind them, mind you) that already support this structure. Then, with "progressive enhancement" via Javascript, you can simply ease the user's burden in making these changes and still take advantage of the same code in the backend.

So yes, as long as a browser supports cookies for session data, an app can remain entirely functional without Javascript. It will simply be more difficult to use :)