Load .txt file using JQuery or Ajax - javascript

How can I fix the script below so that it will work EVERY TIME! Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Pro JQuery explains what causes this, but it doesn't talk about how to fix it. I am almost positive it has to do with the ajax ready state but I have no clue how to write it. The web shows about 99 different ways to write ajax and JQuery, its a bit overwhelming.
My goal is to create an HTML shell that can be filled with text from server based text files. For example: Let's say there is a text file on the server named AG and its contents is PF: PF-01, PF-02, PF-03, etc.. I want to pull this information and populate the HTML DOM before it is seen by the user. A was ##!#$*& golden with PHP, then found out my host has fopen() shut off. So here I am.
Thanks for you help.
JS - plantSeed.js
var pageExecute = {
fileContents:"Null",
pagePrefix:"Null",
slides:"Null",
init:function () {
$.ajax({
url: "./seeds/Ag.txt",
success: function (data){
pageExecute.fileContents = data;
}
});
}
};
HTML - HEAD
<script type="text/javascript">
pageExecute.init();
</script>
HTML - BODY
<script type="text/javascript"> alert(pageExecute.fileContents); </script>

Try this:
var pageExecute = {
fileContents:"Null",
pagePrefix:"Null",
slides:"Null",
init: function () {
$.ajax({
url: "./seeds/Ag.txt",
async: false,
success: function (data){
pageExecute.fileContents = data;
}
});
}
};

Try this:
HTML:
<div id="target"></div>
JavaScript:
$(function(){
$( "#target" ).load( "pathToYourFile" );
});
In my example, the div will be filled with the file contents. Take a look at jQuery .load() function.
The "pathToYourFile" cand be any resource that contains the data you want to be loaded. Take a look at the load method documentation for more information about how to use it.
Edit: Other examples to get the value to be manipulated
Using $.get() function:
$(function(){
$.get( "pathToYourFile", function( data ) {
var resourceContent = data; // can be a global variable too...
// process the content...
});
});
Using $.ajax() function:
$(function(){
$.ajax({
url: "pathToYourFile",
async: false, // asynchronous request? (synchronous requests are discouraged...)
cache: false, // with this, you can force the browser to not make cache of the retrieved data
dataType: "text", // jQuery will infer this, but you can set explicitly
success: function( data, textStatus, jqXHR ) {
var resourceContent = data; // can be a global variable too...
// process the content...
}
});
});
It is important to note that:
$(function(){
// code...
});
Is the same as:
$(document).ready(function(){
// code
});
And normally you need to use this syntax, since you would want that the DOM is ready to execute your JavaScript code.

Here's your issue:
You've got a script tag in the body, which is asking for the AJAX data.
Even if you were asking it to write the data to your shell, and not just spout it...
...that's your #1 issue.
Here's why:
AJAX is asynchronous.
Okay, we know that already, but what does that mean?
Well, it means that it's going to go to the server and ask for the file.
The server is going to go looking, and send it back. Then your computer is going to download the contents. When the contents are 100% downloaded, they'll be available to use.
...thing is...
Your program isn't waiting for that to happen.
It's telling the server to take its time, and in the meantime it's going to keep doing what it's doing, and it's not going to think about the contents again, until it gets a call from the server.
Well, browsers are really freakin' fast when it comes to rendering HTML.
Servers are really freakin' fast at serving static (plain-text/img/css/js) files, too.
So now you're in a race.
Which will happen first?
Will the server call back with the text, or will the browser hit the script tag that asks for the file contents?
Whichever one wins on that refresh is the one that will happen.
So how do you get around that?
Callbacks.
Callbacks are a different way of thinking.
In JavaScript, you perform a callback by giving the AJAX call a function to use, when the download is complete.
It'd be like calling somebody from a work-line, and saying: dial THIS extension to reach me, when you have an answer for me.
In jQuery, you'll use a parameter called "success" in the AJAX call.
Make success : function (data) { doSomething(data); } a part of that object that you're passing into the AJAX call.
When the file downloads, as soon as it downloads, jQuery will pass the results into the success function you gave it, which will do whatever it's made to do, or call whatever functions it was made to call.
Give it a try. It sure beats racing to see which downloads first.

I recommend not to use url: "./seeds/Ag.txt",, to target a file directly. Instead, use a server side script llike PHP to open the file and return the data, either in plane format or in JSON format.
You may find a tutorial to open files here: http://www.tizag.com/phpT/fileread.php

Related

JQuery - Looping a .load() inside a 'for' statement

I'm not sure if this will actually be possible, since load() is an asynchronous method, but I need some way to basically Load several little bits of pages, one at a time, get some data included in them via JavaScript, and then send that over via Ajax so I can put it on a database I made.
Basically I get this from my page, where all the links I'll be having to iterate through are located:
var digiList = $('.2u');
var link;
for(var i=0;i<digiList.length;i++){
link = "http://www.digimon-heroes.com" + $(digiList).eq(i).find('map').children().attr('href');
So far so good.
Now, I'm going to have to load each link (only a specific div of the full page, not the whole thing) into a div I have somewhere around my page, so that I can get some data via JQuery:
var contentURI= link + ' div.row:nth-child(2)';
$('#single').load('grabber.php?url='+ contentURI,function(){
///////////// And I do a bunch of JQuery stuff here, and save stuff into an object
///////////// Aaaand then I call up an ajax request.
$.ajax({
url: 'insertDigi.php',
type: 'POST',
data: {digimon: JSON.stringify(digimon)},
dataType: 'json',
success: function(msg){
console.log(msg);
}
////////This calls up a script that handles everything and makes an insert into my database.
}); //END ajax
}); //END load callback Function
} //END 'for' Statement.
alert('Inserted!');
Naturally, as would be expected, the loading takes too long, and the rest of the for statement just keeps going through, not really caring about letting the load finish up it's business, since the load is asynchronous. The alert('Inserted!'); is called before I even get the chance to load the very first page. This, in turn, means that I only get to load the stuff into my div before I can even treat it's information and send it over to my script.
So my question is: Is there some creative way to do this in such a manner that I could iterate through multiple links, load them, do my business with them, and be done with it? And if not, is there a synchronous alternative to load, that could produce roughly the same effect? I know that it would probably block up my page completely, but I'd be fine with it, since the page does not require any input from me.
Hopefully I explained everything with the necessary detail, and hopefully you guys can help me out with this. Thanks!
You probably want a recursive function, that waits for one iteration, before going to the next iteration etc.
(function recursive(i) {
var digiList = $('.2u');
var link = digiList.eq(i).find('map').children().attr('href') + ' div.row:nth-child(2)';
$.ajax({
url: 'grabber.php',
data: {
url: link
}
}).done(function(data) {
// do stuff with "data"
$.ajax({
url: 'insertDigi.php',
type: 'POST',
data: {
digimon: digimon
},
dataType: 'json'
}).done(function(msg) {
console.log(msg);
if (i < digiList.length) {
recursive(++i); // do the next one ... when this is one is done
}
});
});
})(0);
Just in case you want them to run together you can use closure to preserve each number in the loop
for (var i = 0; i < digiList.length; i++) {
(function(num) { < // num here as the argument is actually i
var link = "http://www.digimon-heroes.com" + $(digiList).eq(num).find('map').children().attr('href');
var contentURI= link + ' div.row:nth-child(2)';
$('#single').load('grabber.php?url=' + contentURI, function() {
///////////// And I do a bunch of JQuery stuff here, and save stuff into an object
///////////// Aaaand then I call up an ajax request.
$.ajax({
url: 'insertDigi.php',
type: 'POST',
data: {
digimon: JSON.stringify(digimon)
},
dataType: 'json',
success: function(msg) {
console.log(msg);
}
////////This calls up a script that handles everything and makes an insert into my database.
}); //END ajax
}); //END load callback Function
})(i);// <-- pass in the number from the loop
}
You can always use synchronous ajax, but there's no good reason for it.
If you know the number of documents you need to download (you can count them or just hardcode if it's constant), you could run some callback function on success and if everything is done, then proceed with logic that need all documents.
To make it even better you could just trigger an event (on document or any other object) when everything is downloaded (e.x. "downloads_done") and listen on this even to make what you need to make.
But all above is for case you need to do something when all is done. However I'm not sure if I understood your question correctly (just read this again).
If you want to download something -> do something with data -> download another thing -> do something again...
Then you can also use javascript waterfall (library or build your own) to make it simple and easy to use. On waterfall you define what should happen when async function is done, one by one.

Auto saving JAVASCRIPT data via AJAX to database

Apologies if this particular question has been solved before, I have looked everywhere it seems and can't quite get the answer I'm looking for! I am no expert and can imagine the solution is embarrassingly easy.
My problem is this: I have some php and javascript code working on a html based website, linked to a database (reading data in and also writing data out via a save function called once at the end of the script). I need the javascript code to automatically save/update itself to db via an Ajax request, without the need to keep running the page. The data being saved here needs to be read by various other pages and is relied upon to give correct results elsewhere! (so a solution would be to have the user keep the page open in the background - but suggestions for this separate issue are also welcome!)
Anyway, at the moment I have:
function sessionSave () {
var newData = kpiCA.getData().concat(kpiHA.getData(),kpiStocks.getData(),kpiCV.getData(),kpiPD.getData());
$.ajax({
url: 'saveMain.php',
type: 'POST',
data: {'kpi': newData},
success: function () {
},
error: function () {
$console.text('Data Save Error');
}
});
}
sessionSave();
I have seen some autosave scripts and the addition of timers etc. but as I am a complete noob, some help would be much appreciated,
Thanks guys!
Basically it's just timers or intervals. For example:
window.setInterval(sessionSave, NUMBER_OF_SECONDS * 1000)
// where NUMBER_OF_SECONDS is, obviously, the number of seconds to repeat your function at

Ajax Call Confusion

before we start apologies for the wording and lack of understanding - I am completely new to this.
I am hoping to run a php script using Ajax - I don't need to send any data to the php script, I simply need it to run on button press, after the script is run I need to refresh the body of the page. What I have so far:
HMTL Button with on click:
<font color = "white">Next Question</font>
JS Ajax call:
function AjaxCall() {
$.ajax({
url:'increment.php',
type: 'php',
success:function(content,code)
{
alert(code);
$('body').html(content);
}
});
}
this runs the php script but doesn't stay on the current page or refresh the body - has anyone got any ideas - apologies if this is completely wrong I'm learning - slowly.
Many thanks in advance.
**As a small edit - I don't want a user to navigate away from the page during the process
How about using load instead of the typical ajax function?
function AjaxCall() {
$(body).load('increment.php');
}
Additionally, if you were to use the ajax function, php is not a valid type. The type option specifies whether you are using GET or POST to post the request.
As far as the dataType option (which is what I think you mean), The Ajax doesn't care what technology the called process is using (like ASP or PHP), it only care about the format of the returned data, so appropriate types are html, json, etc...
Read More: http://api.jquery.com/jquery.ajax/
Furthermore, if you are replacing the entire body content, why don't you just refresh the page?
your ajax should be
function AjaxCall() {
$.ajax({
url:'increment.php',
type: 'post',
success:function(data)
{
console.log(data);
$('body').html(data);
}
});
}
if you want to learn ajax then you should refer this link
and if you just want to load that page then you can use .load() method as "Dutchie432" described.
If you are going to fire a javascript event in this way there are two ways to go about it and keep it from actually trying to follow the link:
<font color = "white">Next Question</font>
Note the return false;. This stops the following of the link. The other method would be:
<font color = "white">Next Question</font>
Note how this actually modifies the href to be a javascript call.
You can study about js and ajax here http://www.w3schools.com/ajax/default.asp will help a lot. Of course all js functions if called from internal js script should be inside <script></script> and if called from external you call the js gile like <script src"somejs.js"></script> and inside js there is no need for <script> tags again. Now all those function do not work by simply declaring them. So this:
function sayHello(){
alert("Happy coding");
}
doesn't work because it is just declared and not called into action. So in jQuery that you use after we declare some functions as the sayHello above we use:
jQuery(document).ready(function($){
sayHello();
});
Doing this we say that when everything is fully loaded so our DOM has its final shape then let the games begin, make some DOM manipulations etc
Above also you don't specify the type of your call meaning POST or GET. Those verbs are the alpha and omega of http requests. Typically we use GET to bring data like in your case here and POST to send some data for storage to the server. A very common GET request is this:
$.ajax({
type : 'GET',
url : someURL,
data : mydata, //optional if you want to send sth to the server like a user's id and get only that specific user's info
success : function(data) {
console.log("Ajax rocks");
},
error: function(){
console.log("Ajax failed");
}
});
Try this;
<script type="text/javascript">
function AjaxCall() {
window.location.reload();
}
</script>
<body>
<font color = "white">Next Question</font>
</body>

send a javascript request to another domain and get the response - not in jsonp

i am really banging my head here for more then a day, i am trying to send a request and get the response from another site. i'm doing it with jsonp (from the obvious reason). but the response is not a JavaScript function definition, so it keeps failing.
can anyone in this planet help me get the response the right way.
i attached the code i wrote, again: because the response is not in json it's not working. (try to run it yourself and you'll see).
any suggestions?
<script>
function test()
{
$.ajax({
dataType: 'jsonp',
jsonp: 'jsonp_callback',
url: 'https://www.facebook.com/ajax/typeahead/first_degree.php?viewer=1000009843914&token=1-1&filter[0]=user&options[0]=pending_request&lazy=1&token=v7&stale_ok=1&__a=1&__user=1000009843914& viewer=1000009843914',
});
}
function jsonp_callback(data)
{
var val=JSON.stringify(data);
myString = val.slice( 11 );
$('#container').html(myString);
/*for (;;);*/
}
test();
</script>
The server must be programmed to include the JSONP callback within its script file. If it only knows to return JSON, it will have no effect when the dynamic script tag is inserted into the page since JSON can at most provide an object--but it won't go anywhere unless the same file calls the function. In this way, it is different from Ajax, since a dynamically inserted script tag can only interact with your own code if it knows to call one of your functions. Just as an example, it might return:
jsonp_callback({facebooKData:[...]});
You should investigate how the Facebook API supports JSONP (not just JSON) for whatever you are trying to do. Typically APIs will accept a "callback" variable to determine which callback function it should use (which jQuery handles for you).

How to obtain jquery post return values?

I want to retrieve the height and width of an image on a server by using an ajax post call to a php file which returns a double pipe delimited string 'width||height'
My javascript is correctly alerting that requested string from the php file so the info is now in my script but i cannot seem to access it outside the $.post function.
This works:
var getImagesize = function(sFilename)
{
$.post("getImagesize.php", { filename: sFilename, time: "2pm" },
function(data){
alert(data.split('||'));
});
}
But retrieving is a different matter:
// this line calls the function in a loop through images:
var aOrgdimensions = getImagesize($(this, x).attr('src')) ;
alert(aOrgdimension);
// the called function now looks like this:
var getImagesize = function(sFilename)
{
var aImagedims = new Array();
$.post("getImagesize.php", { filename: sFilename },
function(data){
aImagedims = data.split('||');
});
return "here it is" + aImagedims ;
}
Anyone able to tell me what i'm doing wrong?
You are misunderstanding the way that an AJAX call works. The first "A" in AJAX stands for asynchronous, which means that a request is made independent of the code thread you are running. That is the reason that callbacks are so big when it comes to AJAX, as you don't know when something is done until it is done. Your code, in the meantime, happily continues on.
In your code, you are trying to assign a variable, aOrgdimensions a value that you will not know until the request is done. There are two solutions to this:
Modify your logic to reconcile the concept of callbacks and perform your actions once the request is done with.
Less preferably, make your request synchronous. This means the code and page will "hang" at the point of the request and only proceed once it is over. This is done by adding async: false to the jQuery options.
Thanx for the Asynchronous explaination. I did not realize that, but at least now i know why my vars aren't available.
Edit: Figured it out. Used the callback function as suggested, and all is well. :D

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