Since using $.Deferred
I've run into this scenario a couple times: I have a list of values each of which yields a Deferred Object in some way and I want to execute a callback once all of the Deferred Objects are resolved.
A more concrete example would be something like this:
var urls = [ 'foo.com', 'bar.com', 'baz.com', 'qux.com' ],
defers = [], defer;
for( var i = 0, j = urls.length; i < j; i++ ){
defer = $.ajax({
url: 'http://' + urls[ i ]
});
defers.push(defer);
}
$.when.apply(window, defers).done(function(){
// Do Something
});
Is there a more elegant solution than the code in my example?
Yes there is, you should never reference a lookup value in a loop. Always make a copy.
var urls = [ 'foo.com', 'bar.com', 'baz.com', 'qux.com' ],
defers = [], defer;
var urlsLength = urls.length;
for( var i = 0, j = urlsLength; i < j; i++ ){
defer = $.ajax({
url: 'http://' + urls[ i ]
});
defers.push(defer);
}
$.when.apply(window, defers).done(function(){
// Do Something
});
But seriously, I'm just joshin' you. That code rocks. Stick with it.
A more elegant way to write this example is with the array map function (or jQuery's $.map):
var urls = [ 'foo.com', 'bar.com', 'baz.com', 'qux.com' ];
var defers = urls.map( function( url) {
return $.ajax({
url: 'http://' + url
});
});
$.when.apply(window, defers).done(function(){
// Do Something
});
You could even roll your own "whenDone" and "fetchURL" functions:
Array.prototype.whenDone = function(callback){
return $.when.apply(window, this).done(callback);
}
function fetchURL(url){
return $.ajax({
url: 'http://' + url
});
}
var urls = [ 'foo.com', 'bar.com', 'baz.com', 'qux.com' ];
urls.map( fetchUrl ).whenDone(function(){
// Do Something
});
Here is a helper function I wrote called LoadInitialData, it can be called like this LoadInitialData(urlArray, dataReturnedArray, callback)
///
/// 1. The magical function LoadInitialData
///
///
/// <summary>
/// This functions allows you to fire off a bunch of ajax GET requests and run a callback function when
/// all the requests come back that contains an array of all your ajax success data
/// </summary>
/// <params>
/// urlArray - an array of urls to be looped and ajaxed
/// dataReturnedArray - this array will contain all data returned from your ajax calls. Its stuctured like this
/// [{url: "http//site.com/1", "data": "your data"}, {url: "http//site.com/2", "data": "your data"}]
/// dataReturnedArray[0] is data from call 1, dataReturnedArray[1] is data from call 2 etc. It might be a
/// good idea to pass in a global array so you can use this data throughout your application.
/// callback - a function that runs after all ajax calles are done, dataReturnedArray is available in the callback
/// </parms>
///
function LoadInitialData(urlArray, dataReturnedArray, callback){
// set up a deffered promise to fire when all our async calls come back
var urls = urlArray, defers = [], defer;
var urlsLength = urls.length;
for( var i = 0, j = urlsLength; i < j; i++ ){
var u = urls[ i ];
defer = $.ajax({
type : "GET",
dataType : "jsonp",
url: u,
success: function(data){
dataReturnedArray.push({
url: u,
data: data
});
}
});
defers.push(defer);
}
$.when.apply(window, defers).then(function(){
// Do Something now that we have all the data
console.log("done fetching all data");
callback(dataReturnedArray);
});
}
///
/// 2. Your config…. urlArray, dataReturnedArray, callback
///
var app = app || {};
app.data = []; // will hold the fetched data
var urlArr = ["http://site.com/2", "http://site.com/2"]; // the urls to get data from
// function to call once all the data is loaded
callback = function(data){
// data cleansing
var tblData = [];
$.each(data, function(key, value){
$.each(value.data, function(key, value){
tblData.push(value);
});
});
$("#loader").hide();
};
///
/// 3. Kick it all off!
///
// show a loader here
$("#loader").show();
// fire off the code to fetch the initial data
LoadInitialData(urlArr, app.data, callback);