I was trawling the web for an answer to this one - is there an
accepted/preferred methodology for updating the browser address bar
after an AJAX page transition?
For example, I have a list of folders, which when clicked use an
XMLHTTP request to display the contents via an update to a <div>.
After this is done, I would like to show a RESTful url in the address
bar for people to be able to share access the same view via a normal
HTTP GET.
For security reasons (phishing), you can't change the location bar from javascript without loading the new location. You'll have to display that permalink in a prominent place in the page. For example, breadcrumbs at top-left that spell out the URL.
You can change the location bar from javascript without reloading as
long as you only change anchors. It would however require some
javascript on page load to take the users to that folder.
