Calling a user defined jQuery function

Question

I'm a javascript newbie and I'm trying to call a jQuery function in this way:

function getProducts(){
      $.post("products.php",
      {
        customer_ID:$("#customers").val()
      },
      function(data,status){
        return status && data !== "";
      });
};

$(document).ready(function(){
    $("#customers").change(function(){
        if(getProducts){
            alert("trovato");

            $("#products").prop("disabled", false);
            $("#products").html(data);
        }else{
            alert("non trovato");

            $("#products").empty();
            $("#products").prop("disabled", true);
        }
    });
});

The if-else statement in the ready doesn't work although the function getProducts works properly. The problem, I suppose, is in the function call. What am I wrong with this? Thank you.

Answer 1

You need to wrap the response with a callback, like so:

function getProducts(callback){
      $.post("products.php",
      {
        customer_ID:$("#customers").val()
      },
      function(data,status){
         callback(status && data !== "");
      });
};

$(document).ready(function(){
    $("#customers").change(function(){
        getProducts(function(status) {
           if(status){
             alert("trovato");

             $("#products").prop("disabled", false);
             $("#products").html(data);
           }else{
             alert("non trovato");

             $("#products").empty();
             $("#products").prop("disabled", true);
           }
        });

    });
});

Answer 2

I'm not quite sure if this will work because of the asynchronized call inside of the function.

The obvious mistake is that you have to call a function like that: function() . You just forgot the parentheses.

If it won't work after that fix, you have to rework your program to use callbacks where you have asynchron calls.