How to create a Prototype Ajax.Updater onComplete hook for all calls

Question

Is there any chance to observe within the prototype framework if a dom element has been updated by Ajax.Updater?

Instead of writing a function in the onComplete parameter, I would like to observe that event for all Ajax.Updater calls. Any idea on how to do that?

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

I don't think you can go without an onComplete handler, unless you want to rewrite the prototype ajax API. However you do not have to directly pass a closure to the onComplete handler.

What you could do is create an empty object on top level scope within your javascript code:

 var updates = { } ;

Now you would set the onComplete parameter to contain a compact function that sets a property to the updates object by the name of the div you updated (+ date for multiple updates):

 function update() {

     var divName = arguments[0] ;
     var date = new Date() ;

         if( updates[divName] ) { //!! if there is an entry for that div fill date
                 updates[divName].push(date) ;
         } else { //!! else create a new array with the current date
                 updates[divName] = [ date ] ;
         }

 }

Now you may check for updates by checking the object for a property by the name of the div:

 /* code */
     if( updates[divName] !== null ) {
         isAlreadyUpdated() ;
     } else {
         isNotAlreadyUpdated() ;
     }
 /* more code */

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Btw, I'm not excluding the possibility that there may be a method in the prototype API that will do something similar. I'm not that familiar with prototype.

If there is none however, I hope this will help!

FK