Why requiring javascript is bad 0 Comments February 29

I am working on a help desk system (slowly, trying to get it right) and it’s running in production for a local team to use.

They reminded me why requiring javascript is a terrible idea. One of the team members was browsing a ticket on his phone and wanted to close it, but it was using javascript to submit a hidden form to generate a POST (a common thing in web apps) and his phone was just doing a GET request. He got an error, I got an email about the error.

I had to let the team member know that he did nothing wrong, but that I had taken the lazy way out and not provided a non-js solution for closing a ticket. Now this help desk system is very unfinished and they understand that, but I see “complete” systems that require javascript everywhere.

Think hard about whether you want to punish users for using a site in ways that are convenient for them.