pjax = pushState + ajax
pjax is a jQuery plugin that uses ajax and pushState to deliver a fast browsing experience with real permalinks, page titles, and a working back button.
pjax works by fetching HTML from your server via ajax and replacing the content
of a container element on your page with the loaded HTML. It then updates the
current URL in the browser using pushState. This results in faster page
navigation for two reasons:
No page resources (JS, CSS) get re-executed or re-applied;
If the server is configured for pjax, it can render only partial page
contents and thus avoid the potentially costly full layout render.
Status of this project
jquery-pjax is largely unmaintained at this point. It might continue to
receive important bug fixes, but its feature set is frozen and it's unlikely
that it will get new features or enhancements.
Installation
pjax depends on jQuery 1.8 or higher.
npm
$ npm install jquery-pjax
standalone script
Download and include jquery.pjax.js in your web page:
curl -LO https://raw.github.com/defunkt/jquery-pjax/master/jquery.pjax.js
Usage
$.fn.pjax
The simplest and most common use of pjax looks like this:
$(document).pjax('a', '#pjax-container')
This will enable pjax on all links on the page and designate the container as #pjax-container.
If you are migrating an existing site, you probably don't want to enable pjax
everywhere just yet. Instead of using a global selector like a, try annotating
pjaxable links with data-pjax, then use 'a[data-pjax]' as your selector. Or,
try this selector that matches any links inside a
$(document).pjax('[data-pjax] a, a[data-pjax]', '#pjax-container')
Ideally, your server should detect pjax requests by looking at the special
X-PJAX HTTP header, and render only the HTML meant to replace the contents of
the container element (#pjax-container in our example) without the rest of
the page layout. Here is an example of how this might be done in Ruby on Rails:
If you'd like a more automatic solution than pjax for Rails check out Turbolinks.
Check if there is a pjax plugin for your favorite server framework.
The synopsis for the $.fn.pjax function is:
$(document).pjax(selector, [container], options)
selector is a string to be used for click event delegation.
container is a string selector that uniquely identifies the pjax container.
options is an object with keys described below.
ajax timeout in milliseconds after which a full refresh is forced
use pushState to add a browser history entry upon navigation
replace URL without adding browser history entry
maximum cache size for previous container contents
a string or function returning the current pjax version
vertical position to scroll to after navigation. To avoid changing scroll position, pass false.
CSS selector for the element where content should be replaced
a string or function that returns the URL for the ajax request
eventually the relatedTarget value for pjax events
CSS selector for the fragment to extract from ajax response
You can change the defaults globally by writing to the $.pjax.defaults object:
$.pjax.defaults.timeout = 1200
This example uses the current click context to set an ancestor element as the container:
$(document).on('click', 'a[data-pjax]', function(event) {
var container = $(this).closest('[data-pjax-container]')
var containerSelector = '#' + container.id
$.pjax.click(event, {container: containerSelector})
$(document).on('submit', 'form[data-pjax]', function(event) {
$.pjax.submit(event, '#pjax-container')
$.pjax.reload('#pjax-container', options)
$.pjax({url: url, container: '#pjax-container'})
All pjax events except pjax:click & pjax:clicked are fired from the pjax
event lifecycle upon following a pjaxed link
fires from a link that got activated; cancel to prevent pjax
fires after pjax has started from a link that got clicked
before replacing HTML with content loaded from the server
after replacing HTML content loaded from the server
fires after options.timeout; will hard refresh unless canceled
xhr, textStatus, error, options
on ajax error; will hard refresh unless canceled
always fires after ajax, regardless of result
event lifecycle on browser Back/Forward navigation
event direction property: "back"/"forward"
right before replacing HTML with content from cache
pjax:send & pjax:complete are a good pair of events to use if you are implementing a
loading indicator. They'll only be triggered if an actual XHR request is made,
not if the content is loaded from cache:
$(document).on('pjax:send', function() {
$(document).on('pjax:complete', function() {
An example of canceling a pjax:timeout event would be to disable the fallback
timeout behavior if a spinner is being shown:
$(document).on('pjax:timeout', function(event) {
// Prevent default timeout redirection behavior
Reinitializing plugins/widget on new page content
The whole point of pjax is that it fetches and inserts new content without
refreshing the page. However, other jQuery plugins or libraries that are set to
react on page loaded event (such as DOMContentLoaded) will not pick up on
these changes. Therefore, it's usually a good idea to configure these plugins to
reinitialize in the scope of the updated page content. This can be done like so:
$(document).on('ready pjax:end', function(event) {
$(event.target).initializeMyPlugin()
This will make $.fn.initializeMyPlugin() be called at the document level on
normal page load, and on the container level after any pjax navigation (either
after clicking on a link or going Back in the browser).
Response types that force a reload
By default, pjax will force a full reload of the page if it receives one of the
following responses from the server:
Page content that includes when fragment selector wasn't explicitly
configured. Pjax presumes that the server's response hasn't been properly
configured for pjax. If fragment pjax option is given, pjax will extract the
content based on that selector.
Page content that is blank. Pjax assumes that the server is unable to deliver
HTTP response code that is 4xx or 5xx, indicating some server error.
If the server needs to affect the URL which will appear in the browser URL after
pjax navigation (like HTTP redirects work for normal requests), it can set the
request.headers['X-PJAX-URL'] = "http://example.com/hello"
Layouts can be forced to do a hard reload when assets or html changes.
First set the initial layout version in your header with a custom meta tag.
Then from the server side, set the X-PJAX-Version header to the same.
response.headers['X-PJAX-Version'] = "v123"