Enabling browser back/front navigation for page loads that don't change URL hash

Question

I have an Ajax site where I have browser navigation hooked up to ajax page loads in cases where navigation results in a change to the URL hash.

I was wondering what the best way to get navigation history is for ajax loads that don't result in a change to the hash.

So, say I have 'Level 1' links which, on clicking, result in a URL hash change. Something like the jquery history plugin picks that up and invoked my handler, and front/back navigation works fine for these 'Level 1' links.

But I have a set of 'Level 2' links that fetch data using the 'click' handler (which internally do some Ajax fetches) instead of going the URL hash + history plugin route. These currently don't result in a change to the URL/hash. I want these 'Level 2' links to be browser navigation enabled.

It seems like for this to work smoothly, I must change the URL so my guess is any solution here involves decorating the hash some more. One solution that might work but I'd never consider seriously is to encode the JS function name I wish to execute and the params into the URL hash somehow, and then have my history load handler invoke that function. Blech!

Anyone have clever ideas about how I can do this?

Answer 1

Hmmm... maybe the jQuery BBQ plugin is what you're looking for?

Answer 2

One thing I did for a project was use hash values like this:

IDProduct-8185--tab-tech--g-8184

Meaning there were 3 parameters: IDProduct = 8185, tab = "tech", and g = 8184. Then, I'd split by "--" and loop over the resulting array. Probably not the most elegant solution, and works for very simple parameter values only. Better have a look at the BBQ plugin that Sean is suggesting first.