Add delay before sending new ajax request using jquery

Question

I have a list of links wich point to html pages.

<ul id="item-list">
    <li><a href="assets/data/item1.html">Item 1</a></li> 
    <li><a href="assets/data/item2.html">Item 2</a></li>
    <li><a href="assets/data/item3.html">Item 3</a></li>
    <li><a href="assets/data/item3.html">Item 4</a></li>
</ul>

And i have a javascript(jquery) wich recives and append the html to my document.

var request;
$('#item-list a').live('mouseover', function(event) {
    if (request)
        request.abort();
        request = null;

    request = $.ajax({
        url: $(this).attr('href'),
        type: 'POST',
        success: function(data) {
            $('body').append('<div>'+ data +'</div>')
        }
    });
});

I've tried to work with setTimeout() but it does not work as i aspected.

    var request, timeout;
$('#item-list a').live('mouseover', function(event) {
    timeout = setTimeout(function(){
        if (request)
            request.abort();
            request = null;

        request = $.ajax({
            url: $(this).attr('href'),
            type: 'POST',
            success: function(data) {
                $('body').append('<div>'+ data +'</div>')
            }
           });
        }, 2000
    );
});

How can i tell jquery to wait (500ms or 1000ms or …) on hover before sending the new request?

Answer 1

I think that perhaps instead of aborting the request, you should control the ajax requests with a variable, for example, called "processing"=false, that would be reset to false, in the success/error function. Then you would only execute the function in setTimeout, if processing was false.

Something like:

 var request, timeout;
var processing=false;
$('#item-list a').live('mouseover', function(event) {
    timeout = setTimeout(function(){
        if (!processing)
       {
   processing=true;
        request = $.ajax({
            url: $(this).attr('href'),
            type: 'POST',
            success: function(data) {
            processing=false;
                $('body').append('<div>'+ data +'</div>')
            }
           });
        }
        }, 2000
    );
});

Answer 2

$.fn.extend( {
        delayedAjax: function() {
          setTimeout ($.ajax, 1000 );
        }
});

  $.fn.delayedAjax();

Seems to work but probably not the prettiest solution. Also, you need to add some code to pass the args & the timeout val if you want

Answer 3

You will need to have a variable that can act a countdown timer if you will, that a mouseout event will cancel as well...

$(function(){
  $("#item-list a").live("mouseover",function(){
    var a = $(this);
    a.data("hovering","1");
    setTimeout(function(){
        if (a.data("hovering") == "1") {
            // this would actually be your ajax call
            alert(a.text());
        }
    }, 2000);
  });
  $("#item-list a").live("mouseout",function(){
    $(this).data("hovering","0");
  });
});