Appending only numbers to a friendly URL after selecting a number

Question

My website basically consists of photo galleries that people can browse. On the main page, people can choose to access the gallery of images then in the gallery, they can select which photo they want to see.

This is an image of the possible different ways to give users picture choices. On my site now, I offer the left-most options because of compatibility for all browsers.

The option format I want on my site is defined under "Desired Options". When a user selects a boxed arrow, the number (shown as ## here) will automatically increment or decrement. then when GO is clicked, the URL is then http://example.com/picturenumber/## . So if users use the up and down arrow buttons to select number 10 and GO is clicked, then http://example.com/picturenumber/10 is the resulting URL.

Here's the issue

To achieve the above, I feel I need to use javascript. I believe at least one person in this whole world that wants to use my site uses a device or browser with no javascript support. This forces me to use the option format on the far right, a basic text box for the picture number to be typed in and a GO button.

My partial answer to my question is this:

Use this HTML:

Enter #:

and this PHP named imagepicker.php:

While this does work, the problem is that an extra request is required to fully process the user's request.

I feel my only other options to solve my problem are either:

1. Not use friendly URLs and make them compatible so that when the form is submitted, the correct URL is loaded without the need for an extra request. For example, make this URL the official image URL displayed in the address bar: http://example.com/imagepicker.php?number=##

OR

2. List every single image number on the main page which is rather redundant because the list is in the gallery page.

I even thought of using a combo box in place of a text box and that wouldn't help either.

Is there some way I can do this so that users with no javascript support can enter an image number and then with a click of a button, be taken to that image without requiring the resulting image page to be accessed at a not-so-friendly URL and without listing all image numbers at once? If so, what would you suggest?

Answer 1

So, basically it boils down to a HTML problem in which you need to increment some numbers pressing buttons that alter the format of the URL in order to be friendly, and after that, you have to produce a postback. I think you need javascript for it.

Without javascript, I think the best solution is to sacrifice friendly URLs and create a form with method GET, so the choice that the user writes will be sent to the server as part of the query string. But only for those users that don't have javascript on their browsers. You can use javascript for the rest, but if you do that, it would be better to keep the "unfriendly" URL format for consistency and maintainability.