getJSON done callback

Question

I have the function bellow called every 5 seconds to get data from the server, which is flask/python. My question is how can I adapt the getjson call to have callback when the data is successfully retrieved.

I know there's .done .fail and so on, but I was wondering if I can keep this structure and just add bellow it, but I don't know the syntax in this particular case, hope this isn't too confusing, thanks for reading, here's the code.

// get data from the server every getDataFromServerInterval milliseconds
var getDataFromServerInterval = 5000;
function getData(){
  // request timesince table entries from server for user...
  $.getJSON($SCRIPT_ROOT + '/_database', {
    action: "getUserTable_timesince",
    username: $('input[name="username"]').val()
  }, function(data) { // do something with the response data
    timesince_dataBuffer = data;
  });
  return false; // prevent get
}
// get data from the server every getDataFromServerInterval milliseconds
setInterval(getData, getDataFromServerInterval);

Answer 1

You could do something like this. Instead of processing the data in getData or using a callback, take advantage of the promise that $.getJSON returns. Have a separate function that is called by the timeout which calls for the data, then processes it. It neatly separates your code out into more managable functions.

var getDataFromServerInterval = 5000;

function getData() {
  return $.getJSON($SCRIPT_ROOT + '/_database', {
    action: "getUserTable_timesince",
    username: $('input[name="username"]').val()
  }
}

function wrangleData() {
  getData().then(function (data) {
    console.log(data);
  });
}

setInterval(wrangleData, getDataFromServerInterval);

Answer 2

I found a partial solution, I realized that I can add a callback at the end of the function that handles the data received, which is somewhat equivalent to .done in a different getjson call structure, I'm not sure yet if the function gets called before or after the data is received.

// global timesince buffer, holds
var timesince_dataBuffer;

// get data from the server every getDataFromServerInterval milliseconds
var getDataFromServerInterval = 5000;
function getData(){
  // request timesince table entries from server for user
  $.getJSON($SCRIPT_ROOT + '/_database', {
    action: "getUserTable_timesince",
    username: $('input[name="username"]').val()
  }, function(data) { // do something with the response data
    timesince_dataBuffer = data;
    updateEntryStruct(); // the hope is to call this when data is received
  });
  return false; // prevent get
}
// get data from the server every getDataFromServerInterval milliseconds
setInterval(getData, getDataFromServerInterval);

Answer 3

This is the solution I came up with.

var timesince_dataBuffer;
function getData(){
  // gets user's entries from sql table
  $.getJSON($SCRIPT_ROOT + '/_database', { // $SCRIPT_ROOT, root to the application
    action: "getUserTable_timesince",
    username: $('input[name="username"]').val()
  }, function(data) { // if a response is sent, this function is called
    timesince_dataBuffer = data;
    updateEntryStruct(); // recreate the structure of each content, buttons etc
  });
  return false;
}

I get the data, put in a global variable, call another function which takes that data and re-creates a structure for each object received, this way I don't recreate parts of the structure which are static, most importantly the buttons.

Another function is called every 1 second, which updates the dynamic parts. (formatted time) passed since (event name)

Anyway, this is actually my final project in CS50, I started by communicating with the server via form submissions, refreshing the page each time the user pressed a button, then I did it by ajax, but I was sending requests to the server every 2 seconds, and having unresponsive buttons because I would keep re-creating the buttons themselves on a time interval. And now the page feels responsive and efficient, it's been a great learning experience.

If anyone wants to check out the code, everything is here. https://github.com/silvermirai/cs50-final-project

It's basically a bunch of random functionality that came to mind. The application can be found here as of now. http://ide502-silvermirai.cs50.io:8080/