Echoing <script> from PHP to jQuery AJAX causes problems with my interval

Question

Basically, I'm grabbing contents from a PHP file. I check it every 5 seconds. If the content differs from the content on the page, it loads that new content:

    <script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function()
    {
        $.ajaxSetup ({ cache: false });  

        var loadUrl = "<?php echo site_url("admin/get_uploads"); ?>";  

        $("#result").load(loadUrl);

        var refreshId = setInterval(function() {
            $.get(loadUrl,function(result){
                if(result !=  $("#result").html())
                {
                    $("#result").html(result);
                    $("#result").effect("highlight", {}, 2000);
                }
            });
        }, 2000);
    });  
    </script>

My PHP is as follows:

    function get_uploads()
    {
        $this->db->order_by('upload_date', 'desc');
        $uploads = $this->je_model->get_uploads(array('new' => TRUE));

        echo '<script>function delete_upload(id){$.ajax({type: "POST",url: "'.site_url("admin/delete_upload").'/" + id,success: function(html){$("#" + id).hide();}});}</script>';

        if ($uploads == NULL):
            echo 'NO NEW UPLOADS';
        else:
            foreach ($uploads as $row):
                echo '<p id="'.$row->id.'">'.$row->file.' '.anchor('admin/file/'.$row->id.'/complete', 'Complete', 'title="Complete"').' '.anchor('#', 'Delete', 'title="Delete File" onclick="delete_upload('.$row->id.'); return false"').'</p>';
            endforeach;
        endif;
    }

I'm echo'ing the tag. With the script tag in there, my #result DIV constantly re-loads. For some reason, the Javascript is thinking there's a difference between the content when there shouldn't be. When I remove the tag from my PHP, it works as it should. It only updates if there are new uploads.

Any ideas what's wrong here?

Answer 1

Change your function to return json, and do your processing in javascript.

Answer 2

You might have luck if you set the headers and type:

header('Content-type: text/javascript');
echo "<script type=\"text/javascript\">" ...

Byron's suggestion to use JSON is probably the ideal solution though