Preferred method for waiting for AJAX in JavaScript

Question

I find myself having to get around waiting for AJAX in jQuery often these days. Problem is, I have to do loops and crap to wait for them. What are some ways that I can wait for the AJAX event to finish before executing code (preferably without making extra functions)?

Answer 1

Generally, if there is a chance that a repeating AJAX request may not be finished before it is called again, I use a flag to prevent overlapping requests.

First, define the flag and set it initially as false. Whenever you are sending your AJAX request, check to see if this flag is false. If it is, then proceed with the request - not before setting the flag to true mind. Once the AJAX request has completed, set the flag back to false.

Using the above method, only one instance of the AJAX query will run at once. I'm sure jQuery must have a way of seeing if there is an AJAX request being processed already or not, but I'm a MooTools man.

Answer 2

What method are you using to make AJAX calls? If you use the built in $.ajax(), you can set the success property to a callback function which will be called once the AJAX request returns successfully. There is also the complete callback which will always be called whether it succeeds or fails.

Answer 3

From the jQuery API:

$.ajax({
   type: "POST",
   url: "some.php",
   data: "name=John&location=Boston",
   success: function(msg){
     alert( "Data Saved: " + msg );
   }
});

There is also a complete option that you can use.

http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/