Only fetch output when element is not being dragged

Question

How could I change the code below so that when an element is being being dragged the script will stop fetching the output file until that element was released?

$(document).ready(function() {
    //$(".draggable").draggable();
    $(".draggable").draggable({ containment: '#container', scroll: false });
    $(".draggable").draggable({ stack: { group: '#container', min: 1 } });

    $("*", document.body).click(function (e) {
        var offset = $(this).offset();// get the offsets of the selected div
        e.stopPropagation();
        var theId = $(this).attr('id');// get the id of the selceted div
        $("#result").text(this.tagName + " id=" + theId + " (" + offset.left + "," + offset.top +")");
         //post x,y to php (and the id of the elemnt)
        $.post("http://localhost/index.php", "id=" + theId + "&x=" + offset.left + "&y=" + offset.top);
    });

    var req = function () {
        $.ajax({
            url: "out.php",
            cache: false,
            success: function(html){
                $("#stuff").empty().append(html);
                var css_attr = html.split(",");
                $('#1').css('left', css_attr[0] + 'px').css('top', css_attr[1] + 'px');
            },
            complete: function(){
                req();
            }
          });
    };
    req();
});

Note: This script is dependent on the following JavaScript sources:

jquery.js
http://jqueryui.com/latest/ui/ui.core.js
http://jqueryui.com/latest/ui/ui.draggable.js
http://jqueryui.com/latest/ui/ui.droppable.js

Anything Helps...Thanks.

Answer 1

Maybe you can associate it with the mouseup event?

http://docs.jquery.com/Events/mouseup#fn

Instead of associating the draggable object directly with the AJAX call, associate it with a trigger which you can use to activate the mouseleave.

Answer 2

Draggables has options to allow you to associate functions with the start and stop of the drag. (see http://api.jquery.com/, click jQuery UI at the top for docs). So you can use that and perhaps have a global boolean that gets set when the drag starts and unset when the drag ends. Have your req() function check this boolean and exit if it's set. Something like:

var halt_request = 0;

$(".draggable").draggable({
    containment: '#container',
    scroll: false,
    start: function(){ halt_request = 1; },
    stop: function(){ halt_request = 0; }
});

...

var req = function () {
    if (halt_request) {
        sleep(10); // so you're not looping too quickly
        req();
        return;
    }

    $.ajax({
        url: "out.php",
...

And better yet, instead of having req() call itself, have it use setTimeout. Have the timeout as a global and have the start/stop functions clear/set the timeout.

Answer 3

You can even take kbosak's idea a bit further:

var req = function () {
...

$(".draggable").draggable({
    containment: '#container',
    scroll: false,
    stop: req
});

In other words, create a draggable that calls the function "req" when dragging stops.

Also, you can also totally rewrite this in a more standard form:

function req () {
...

and it will be the exact same thing. Also, you can do:

$(function() {

instead of:

$(document).ready(function() {

and you can merge your two draggable calls. So ... if I were writing it, the final code would be:

function req () {
    ...*insert code for req here*...
};

$(function() {
    $(".draggable").draggable({
        containment: '#container',
        scroll: false,
        stack: { group: '#container', min: 1 },
        stop: req
    });
    $("*", document.body).click(function (e) {
        var offset = $(this).offset();// get the offsets of the selected div
        e.stopPropagation();
        var theId = $(this).attr('id');// get the id of the selceted div
        $("#result").text(this.tagName + " id=" + theId + " (" + offset.left + "," + offset.top +")");
         //post x,y to php (and the id of the elemnt)
        $.post("http://localhost/index.php", "id=" + theId + "&x=" + offset.left + "&y=" + offset.top);
    });

    req();
});