I am currently working on a web based time tracking software. I'm developing in grails, but this question is solely related to javascript and asynchronous requests.
The time tracking tool shall enable users to choose a day for the current month, create one or multiple activities for each day and save the entire day. Each activity must be assigned to a project and a contract.
Upon choosing "save", the partial day is saved to the database, the hours are calculated and a table is updated at the bottom of the page, showing an overview of the user's worked hours per month.
Now to my issue: There may be a lot of AJAX request. Patient users might only click the "create activity" button just once and wait until it is created. Others, however, might just keep clicking until something happens.
The main issue here is updating the view, although i also recognized some failed calls because of concurrent database transaction (especially when choosing "save" and "delete" sequentially). Any feedback on that issue -- requests not "waiting" for the same row to be ready again -- will be apreciated as well, yet this is not my question.
I have an updateTemplate(data, day) function, which is invoked onSuccess of respective ajax calls in either of my functions saveRecord(), deleteRecord(), pasteRecords(), makeEditable() (undo save). Here is the example AJAX call in jquery:
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "${g.createLink(controller:"controller", action:"action")}",
data: requestJson,
contentType:"application/json; charset=utf-8",
async: true,
success: function(data, textstatus) {updateTemplate(data["template"], tag); updateTable(data["table"]);},
});
In the controller action, a JSON object is rendered as a response, containing the keys template and table. Each key has a template rendered as a String assigned to it, using g.render.
Now, what happens when I click on create repeatedly in very short intervalls, due to the asynchronous calls, some create (or other) actions are executed concurrently. The issue is that updateTemplate just renders data from the repsonse; the data to render is collected in the create controller action. But the "last" request action only finds the objects created by itself. I think this is because create actions are run concurrently
I figure there is something I'm either overcomplicating or doing something essentially wrong working with a page that refreshs dynamically. The only thing I found that helps are synchronous calls, which works, but the user experience was awful. What options do I have to make this work? Is this really it or am I just looking for the wrong approach? How can I make this all more robust, so that impatient users are not able to break my code?
*********EDIT:********
I know that I could block buttons or keyboard shortcuts, use synchronous calls or similar things to avoid those issues. However, I want to know if it is possible to solve it with multiple AJAX requests being submitted. So the user should be able to keep adding new activities, although they won't appear immediately. There is a spinner for feedback anyway. I just want to somehow make sure that before the "last" AJAX request gets fired, the database is up to date so that the controller action will respond with the up-to-date gsp template with the right objects.
With help of this Stackoverflow answer, I found a way to ensure that the ajax call -- in the javascript function executed lastly -- always responds with an up-to-date model. Basically, I put the javascript functions containing AJAX calls in a waiting queue if a "critical" AJAX request has been initiated before but not completed yet.
For that I define the function doCallAjaxBusyAwareFunction(callable) that checks if the global variable Global.busy is 'true' prior to executing the callable function. If it's true, the function will be executed again until Global.busy is false, to finally execute the function -- collecting the data from the DOM -- and fire the AJAX request.
Definition of the global Variable:
var Global = {
ajaxIsBusy = false//,
//additional Global scope variables
};
Definition of the function doCallAjaxBusyAwareFunction:
function doCallAjaxBusyAwareFunction(callable) {
if(Global.busy == true){
console.log("Global.busy = " + Global.busy + ". Timout set! Try again in 100ms!!");
setTimeout(function(){doCallAjaxBusyAwareFunction(callable);}, 100);
}
else{
console.log("Global.busy = " + Global.busy + ". Call function!!");
callable();
}
}
To flag a function containing ajax as critical, I let it set Global.busy = true at the very start and Global.busy = false on AJAX complete. Example call:
function xyz (){
Global.busy = true;
//collect ajax request parameters from DOM
$.ajax({
//desired ajax settings
complete: function(data, status){ Global.busy = false; }
}
Since Global.busy is set to true at the very beginning, the DOM cannot be manipulated -- e.g. by deletes while the function xyz collects DOM data. But when the function was executed, there is still Global.busy === true until the ajax call completes.
Fire an ajax call from a "busy-aware" function:
doCallAjaxBusyAwareFunction(function(){
//collect DOM data
$.ajax({/*AJAX settings*/});
});
....or fire an ajax call from a "busy-aware" function that is also marked critical itself (basically what I mainly use it for):
doCallAjaxBusyAwareFunction(function(){
Global.busy = true;
//collect DOM data
$.ajax({
//AJAX SETTINGS
complete: function(data, status){ Global.busy = false; }
});
});
Feedback is welcome and other options too, especially if this approach is bad practice. I really hope somebody finds this post and evaluates it, since I don't know if it should be done like that at all. I will leave this question unanswered for now.
Related
I'm trying to figure out if there's any chance to receive the status of completion of a task (triggered via an ajax call), via multiple (time intervalled) ajax calls.
Basically, during the execution of something that could take long, I want to populate some variable and return it's value when asked.
Server code looks like this:
function setTask($total,$current){
$this->task['total'] = $total;
$this->task['current'] = $current;
}
function setEmptyTask(){
$this->task = [];
}
function getTaskPercentage(){
return ($this->task['current'] * 100) / $this->task['total'];
}
function actionGetTask(){
if (Yii::$app->request->isAjax) {
\Yii::$app->response->format = \yii\web\Response::FORMAT_JSON;
return [
'percentage' => $this->getTaskPercentage(),
];
}
}
Let's say I'm in a for loop, and I know how many times I iterate over:
function actionExportAll(){
$size = sizeof($array);
$c = 0;
foreach($array as $a){
// do something that takes relatively long
$this->setTask($size,$c++);
}
}
While in the client side i have this:
function exportAll(){
var intervalId = setInterval(function(){
$.ajax({
url: '/get-task',
type: 'post',
success: function(data){
console.log(data);
}
});
},3000);
$.ajax({
url: '/export-all',
type: 'post',
success: function(data){
clearInterval(intervalId); // cancel setInterval
// ..
}
});
}
This looks like it could work, besides the fact that ajax calls done in the setInterval function are completed after "export-all" is done and goes in the success callback.
There's surely something that I'm missing in this logic.
Thanks
The problem is probably in sessions.
Let's take a look what is going on.
The request to /export-all is send by browser.
App on server calls session_start() that opens the session file and locks access to it.
The app begins the expensive operations.
In browser the set interval passes and browser send request to /get-task.
App on server tries to handle the /get-task request and calls session_start(). It is blocked and has to wait for /export-all request to finish.
The expensive operations of /export-all are finished and the response is send to browser.
The session file is unlocked and /get-task request can finally continue past session_start(). Meanwhile browser have recieved /export-all response and executes the success callback for it.
The /get-task request is finished and response is send to browser.
The browser recieves /get-task response and executes its success callback.
The best way to deal with it is avoid running the expensive tasks directly from requests executed by user's browser.
Your export-all action should only plan the task for execution. Then the task itself can be executed by some cron action or some worker in background. And the /get-task can check its progress and trigger the final actions when the task is finished.
You should take look at yiisoft/yii2-queue extension. This extension allows you to create jobs, enqueue them and run the jobs from queue by cron task or by running a daemon that will listen for tasks and execute them as they come.
Without trying to dive into your code, which I don't have time to do, I'll say that the essential process looks like this:
Your first AJAX call is "to schedule the unit of work ... somehow." The result of this call is to indicate success and to hand back some kind of nonce, or token, which uniquely identifies the request. This does not necessarily indicate that processing has begun, only that the request to start it has been accepted.
Your next calls request "progress," and provide the nonce given in step #1 as the means to refer to it. The immediate response is the status at this time.
Presumably, you also have some kind of call to retrieve (and remove) the completed request. The same nonce is once again used to refer to it. The immediate response is that the results are returned to you and the nonce is cancelled.
Obviously, you must have some client-side way to remember the nonce(s). "Sessions" are the most-common way to do that. "Local storage," in a suitably-recent web browser, can also be used.
Also note ... as an important clarification ... that the title to your post does not match what's happening: one AJAX call isn't happening "during" another AJAX call. All of the AJAX calls return immediately. But, all of them refer (by means of nonces) to a long-running unit of work that is being carried out by some other appropriate means.
(By the way, there are many existing "workflow managers" and "batch processing systems" out there, open-source on Github, Sourceforge, and other such places. Be sure that you're not re-inventing what someone else has already perfected! "Actum Ne Agas: Do Not Do A Thing Already Done." Take a few minutes to look around and see if there's something already out there that you can just steal.)
So basically I found the solution for this very problem by myself.
What you need to do is to replace the above server side's code into this:
function setTask($total,$current){
$_SESSION['task']['total'] = $total;
$_SESSION['task']['current'] = $current;
session_write_close();
}
function setEmptyTask(){
$_SESSION['task'] = [];
session_write_close();
}
function getTaskPercentage(){
return ($_SESSION['task']['current'] * 100) / $_SESSION['task']['total'];
}
function actionGetTask(){
if (Yii::$app->request->isAjax) {
\Yii::$app->response->format = \yii\web\Response::FORMAT_JSON;
return [
'percentage' => $this->getTaskPercentage(),
];
}
}
This works, but I'm not completely sure if is a good practice.
From what I can tell, it seems like it frees access to the $_SESSION variable and makes it readable by another session (ence my actionGetTask()) during the execution of the actionExportAll() session.
Maybe somebody could integrate this answer and tell more about it.
Thanks for the answers, I will certainly dig more in those approaches and maybe try to make this same task in a better, more elegant and logic way.
Working on a platform, to enable auto-ticketing functionality. For which a REST API request is used for ticket creation. Unfortunately, there are 2 requests popping simultaneously, which results in creating duplicated tickets.
How to handle such case and send only one of these requests?
Tried adding the 2nd request in the response callback of the first, though this does not seem to work.
if (flag == 1){
logger.debug("Node-down alarm-Request raised - +sitn_id);
clearTimeout(mouseoverTimer);
mouseoverTimer = setTimeout(function(){
logger.debug("Inside Call back function - ");
//function call for ticket creation
incidentRequest(sitn_id,confUtil.config.mule_url);
}, 10);
You really should show more of the code that makes the request, though it seems as if you are doing some ajax inside your 'incidentRequest', so I will presume that (if that isn't what you are doing, then please, show your code....) - and since you tags say javascript and jquery - well, here goes...
To stop the 'double send' in an AJAX call, it is simple:
function incidentRequest(sitn_id,confUtil.config.mule_url){
// stop the double by clearing the cache
$.ajaxSetup({cache: false});
// continue on with the AJAX call
// presuming the url you want is confUtil.config.mule_url
// and the data you want to send is sitn_id
$.post(confUtil.config.mule_url, 'sitn_id=' + sitn_id, function (data) {
// do cool stuff
});
}
Hopefully that will help you get moving. If not, then we will need more code of what is going on around all this.
Here's my issue. I have a js function that performs an $.ajax call to fetch some data from a server. When it gets that data back, I need to pass control back to the browser in order to show an update to a div.
The js function is itself within a for loop, and I need to ensure that the for loop does not advance until the js function has updated the div and allowed the Browser to display that update, at which point the for loop advances and the js function (with its ajax call) is called again, continuing until the for loop test causes the loop to end.
I've tried many different approaches - callbacks, promises etc, but to date I can't seem to get a handle on ensuring that the loop doesn't advance until the js function gets its server data, updates the div, causes the browser to display that update and fully completes.
Here's a simple stripped-down version of the function:
function myFunction (email) {
var request = $.ajax( {
url: 'getit.php',
cache: false,
async: false,
method: "post",
timeout: 1000,
data: "requesttype=getemailname&email="+encodeURIComponent(email)
});
request.done(function(response) {
$("#myDiv").html(response);
});
}
and here's part of the js that calls it:
.....
var emailscount = emails.length;
for(var i=0;i<emailscount;i++) {
myFunction (emails[i]);
}
.....
So, my issues are:
1) myFunction must allow the browser to display the updated div html - I'm not sure how to achieve that?
2) the for loop should only proceed when myFunction has received the data back from the server, updated the div html, AND allowed the browser to display that div.
At the moment, I have set the $.ajax call async flag set to "false" to stop execution until the data comes back, but how do I ensure the browser displays the new div content, and that the for loop does not proceed to call myFunction again until the previous myFunction call fully completes?
Any help you can give me would be very welcome, as right now I can't get this all to work!
Sounds like you need a recursive function, not a for loop with synchronous ajax calls
(function myFunction(i) {
$.ajax({
url: 'getit.php',
method: "post",
timeout: 1000,
data: {
requesttype : 'getemailname',
email : emails[i]
}
}).done(function(response) {
$("#myDiv").html(response);
if (emails[++i]) myFunction(i); // continue when this one is done
});
})(0);
Thanks for everyone's help! I'm making good progress (including taking care of JQuery deprecations!) but have run into a further problem. As I need to hand control back to the browser in order to show the refreshed div as I recurse, I'm calling a setTimeout as follows:
var nextBitOfWork = function () {
return myFunction(email);
};
setTimeout(nextBitOfWork, 0);
where myFunction (which recurses) now returns a promise when it's done doing it's $.ajax call.
If I simply call:
return myFunction(email);
without the setTimeout function construct above, the promise is passed through and all my promises are captured and allow me to get the array output I need and everything works great. But without the setTimeout I don't get the browser refresh. Using it as above I get the div update refresh displaying, but seem to lose the promise and so the script continues and I don't get to fill the array I use to capture values as I recurse.
Any thoughts on how to make sure the setTimeout passes on the promise?
Thanks
This question already has answers here:
Sequencing ajax requests
(10 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
I am working a script, I need to loop an array of AJAX requests:
$('#fetchPosts').click(function(){
for(var i=0; i < link_array.length; i++) {
settings = {
// some object not relevant
}
var status = main_ajaxCall(settings, i); // ajax call
}
});
function main_ajaxCall(settings, i) {
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "../model/insert.php",
data:{obj_settings: settings},
dataType: "json",
cache: false,
success: function (data) {
// some handeling here
return 0;
},
error: function(XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
return 1;
},
};
Why does the AJAX requests fire instantly? It does not seem to wait for a response from model/insert.php, is there any way to force it to wait for a response before firing the next AJAX request?
EDIT 1:
It seems I wasnt clear, sorry, I dont want it to wait, I want to queue up the calls.
I cant make the call in one request, this is impossible in my current situation.
Set async to false if you want to wait for a response (default: true)
$.ajax({
async: false,
...
http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/
If you do not want blocking, you can set a success handler function using .ajaxComplete(), and you have to keep track of active AJAX connections if you want to wait for all to complete - How to know when all ajax calls are complete
The best solution would be to minimize the number of AJAX requests to one. If you have to make a loop of AJAX requests, the logic could be simplified somewhere (put that in the server perhaps?)
EDIT 1: (In response to OP edit)
If you want to queue the AJAX requests, this question has been answered before here:
Sequencing ajax requests
Queue ajax requests using jQuery.queue()
You could also use these libraries (all you needed to do was Google):
https://code.google.com/p/jquery-ajaxq/
http://codecanyon.net/item/ajax-queue-jquery/full_screen_preview/4903957
http://schneimi.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/multiple-ajax-requests-problems-and-ajaxqueue-as-solution/
It fires instantly and doesn't wait around because that's what AJAX does best (The first A stands for asynchronous).
The request to a server could take a long time to respond, and in most cases, don't want user's browser's freezing up or stopping them from doing anything else. If you do, you could probably just use a normal request.
This is the reason you give it functions for success error, so it can call them when the server responds.
If you want nothing to be able to happen in the browser while you're calling insert.php, you could drop an overlay (eg. dark div) over everything with a loading image and remove it on success.
Maybe replace the $('#fetchPosts') element with "loading..." text and then reverse it when done. Hiding visibility of the fetchPosts element and adding a different "loading.." element is a nice way.
Your AJAX call will wait for a response from the server, but wil do so asynchronously. That is, your script will continue to execute rather than block the browser while the server responds. When the server responds (or when the request times out - usually several seconds) your success: or error: functions will then execute.
The effect of your code here is to create several concurrent requests based on the link_array length.
You could specify async:false in your AJAX call, but this would freeze the browser while all the AJAX calls are made.
You should rewrite your code to execute all the handling as part of your success: function. I'd recommend you rewrite your code to assemble all your request into one, and make one AJAX call rather than several, and have the server return all the responses as one block. I can't suggest exactly how you do that - it's implementation dependent.
EDITED:
In response to your clarification, if you want them to be called in order, you'll need the success function to call the next one. You'll then have a chain of success calls the next, whose success calls the next, whose success calls the next.. etc until the last one which does the final processing. One way would be to pass the call number to the success function.
Is there any way to intercept an ajax request being made via jquery, to insert additional variables into it?
I know that .ajaxStart() lets you register a callback which triggers an event whenever an ajax request begins, but what I'm looking for is a way to cancel that ajax request if it meets certain criteria (e.g url), insert some more variables into its content, and then submit it.
This is for a plugin for a 3rd party software whose own code can't be changed directly.
Edit: Seems like .ajaxSetup() lets you set some global variables related to ajaxRequests. If I registered a beforeSend function, would that function be able to cancel the request to make a different one on meeting certain criteria?
Figured it out, this was the code I used:
jQuery(document).ready(function()
{
var func = function(e, data)
{
//data.data is a string with &seperated values, e.g a=b&c=d&.. .
//Append additional variables to it and they'll be submitted with the request:
data.data += "&id=3&d=f&z=y";
return true;
};
jQuery.ajaxSetup( {beforeSend: func} );
jQuery.post('example.php', {a : 'b'}, 'json');
} );
To cancel the request, returning false from func seemed to work.