JavaScript stats

[Tom Cole]

Does anyone know of web client stats showing the percentage of users that
JavaScript enabled/disabled?

I am writing several Java (not JavaScript) components that would be much
easier to code if I could include a .js file to do client side validation.
Just wanted to know what percentage of clients I would expect this to work
on.

[Lasse Reichstein Nielsen]

Re: JavaScript stats

"Tom Cole" <tcole6@earthli nk.net> writes:
[color=blue]
> Does anyone know of web client stats showing the percentage of users that
> JavaScript enabled/disabled?[/color]

<URL:http://www.thecounter. com/stats/2003/May/javas.php>

The Counter usually gives numbers of ~10% non-javascript. Some are
most likely spiders, but if you check the browser statistics too, you
can see that at least half of the non-javscript clients are IE
browsers (or identify themselves as such), since 95% of the clients
are IE.
[color=blue]
> I am writing several Java (not JavaScript) components that would be much
> easier to code if I could include a .js file to do client side validation.[/color]

They won't be easier, because you should never rely on client-side
validation alone. You still have to make the server-side validation anyway.
Not just because of the 10% who are not using Javascript, but because of
the one person who deliberatly send non-validating data to your server and
crashes it. It might happen. Always validate data on the server.
[color=blue]
> Just wanted to know what percentage of clients I would expect this to work
> on.[/color]

~90%.

/L
--
Lasse Reichstein Nielsen - lrn@hotpop.com
DHTML Death Colors: <URL:http://www.infimum.dk/HTML/rasterTriangleD OM.html>
'Faith without judgement merely degrades the spirit divine.'

[Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn]

Re: JavaScript stats

Tom Cole wrote:
[color=blue]
> Does anyone know of web client stats showing the percentage of users
> that JavaScript enabled/disabled?[/color]

You do not think of so-called "statistics " (because most of them are no
statistics at all, missing the most important aspects of such a work) as
a reliable resource for your decision-making process, do you?

A Web document that requires JavaScript to provide basic functionality is
simply b0rken because there are people who cannot use it. It should not
matter to you if those are 90%, 50% or 0.01% of the visitors because you
could be the one that helps to decrease the number of visitors for the
site of an author or your own site. Visitors are potential customers on
commercial sites.

Besides, having JavaScript enabled does not mean automagically that
accessing JavaScript from Java works. Security settings may, and because
of Murphy's Law, will prevent that and the user may/will not be able to do
anything about it (because security policies imposing access restrictions
will prevent it).

And last but not least you cannot presume that even client-side Java is
supported.


PointedEars