Livenavigate

In-page navigation that doesn't break the back button and actually changes the URL.

What it solves

The usual approach to single-page apps are URL's like http://domain.com/#!1938/article. Livenavigate does the same thing, except that it your URL will be http://domain.com/1938/article, yet everything will be in-place via AJAX.

This is only supported if your browser supports history states (FF4/Safari). Don't worry though--it will fallback to the hashbang method otherwise.

For hashbang URL's, this relies on the awesome jQuery.hashListen. It uses the hash change event, and falls back to window timers if it's not available.

End result: in-place navigation with nice URL's, no matter what browser.

Usage

/* Bind this to like, say, <a> links */
$.navigate('/admin/products');

If the history states are available (Safari/FF4), it will change the actual URL of the page, yet still /not/ load the URL directly (but instead just trigger the navigate event).

/* Here's how you listen to new pages */
$(window).bind('navigate', function (e, href) {
  /* href == '/admin/products' */
});

If history states are not available, it will fall back to hashListen.

Common example

In your HTML, include both JS files. (jQuery 1.3+ required)

<script src="jquery.js">
<script src="jquery.hashlisten.js">
<script src="jquery.livenavigate.js">

Now you probably have links like this:

<a href="/product/12">Fish steamer</a>

In your JS, let's bind all <a> links to open in-place.

$("a").live('click', function() {
    // Ignore <a rel='external'>
    if ($(this).is("[rel~=external]")) { return true; }

    // Navigate to it.
    var href = $(this).attr('href');
    $.navigate(href);

    // Show a loading spinner or something.
    $("#loading").show();
    return false;
});

Now let's hook it up to load the URL's via AJAX.

$window.bind('navigate', function (e, href) {
    // Load it via AJAX.
    $.get(href, function(data)
    {
        // Pick out the content from it.
        var $data = $("<div>").html(data);
        var html  = $data.find('#content').html();

        // Load it in place.
        $("#content").html(html);

        // Hide the spinner
        $("#loading").hide();
    });
});

Hashlisten

This includes a separate plugin Hashlisten. See README.hashlisten.md for notes on what it is.

Authors

Livenavigate and Hashlisten are authored and maintained by Rico Sta. Cruz of Sinefunc, Inc. See more of our work on www.sinefunc.com!

Copyright

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

sinefunc/jquery.livenavigate