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views:

127

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3

So if you have a RIA version (Silverlight or Flash) and a standard HTML version (or AJAX even), should you have the same URL for both, or is it ok to have a different one for the RIA app and just redirect accordingly?

So, for instance, if you have a site (http://example.com), is it ok to have the about page URL for the RIA app be http://example.com/#/about and the html be http://example.com/about? Does it matter?

Of course if you take the route with different URLs you will need to map between them.

+1  A: 

It's perfectly acceptable to use 2 different link formats. If 2 users are not seeing the same content why should they be at the same URL.

Unkwntech
Acceptable yes, but is it preferred? Is it the best choice or should things stay consistent no matter what?
Bryant
A: 

I guess what I really need here is not a Question/Answer format but some kind of poll. While I agree (and accepted) that because they are getting two different views of the same content, that different urls are ok, but I'm thinking more of sharing these urls out.

Thanks for the reply though!

Bryant
+1  A: 

The URLs of your pages denote the identity of the content. In my view, if the content is the same but the presentation varies (i.e RIA vs. HTML), then the URL should be the same and you should use some other mechanism to select between the different presentation forms. Choices of other mechanisms include cookies, content negotiation, session identifiers or, if your users are identified, a persistent user preferences model. Even using a URL argument would at least keep the root of the URL consistent (e.g. http://your.si.te/foobar vs. http://your.si.te/foobar?view=plain)

If the content of the two presentations differs in some meaningful way, then you should make that difference meaningful in the URL. Exploiting the presence or absence of #, and other such hacks, would be a mistake in my view.

Try to pick URL's that do not change over time: so-called cool URL's. This will aide the long-term usefulness of your site to your users: consider what happens if they come back to a bookmarked page in a year's time. Consistency will also help you to get a better critical mass of links or reviews of your site in del.icio.us and similar bookmarking/review sites.

Ian

Ian Dickinson
So you think it is worth the extra effort to make sure everything maps to the same url (RIA, plain HTML, maybe even mobile)? I can see your point, but what if you redirect to keep everything in sync? That was the only thing I didn't see in your post. Thanks!
Bryant
Not quite sure what you're asking re: redirects. My basic point is that your URLs publicly denote your content. If there's a semantic difference - say the mobile content is simplified and summarised - then you have different content and so a different (but ideally meaningful) URL is appropriate.
Ian Dickinson