Ajax/jQuery Timing Issue - ajax

Question

I have a click function that does a jQuery/Ajax $.post to get data from a webservice when a span is clicked. When there is a Firebug break point set on the click function, everything works as expected (some new table tr's are appended to a table). When there is no break point set, nothing happens when you click the span. Firebug doesn't show any errors. I assume from other stackoverflow questions that this is a timing problem, but I don't know what to do about it. I have tried changing from a $.post to a $.ajax and setting async to false, but that didn't fix it. Here's the code for the click handler:
$('.rating_config').click(function(event){
event.preventDefault();
event.stopPropagation();
var that = $(this);
// calculate the name of the module based on the classes of the parent <tr>
var mytrclasses = $(this).parents('tr').attr('class');
var modulestart = mytrclasses.indexOf('module-');
var start = mytrclasses.indexOf('-', modulestart) + 1;
var stop = mytrclasses.indexOf(' ', start);
var mymodule = mytrclasses.substring(start, stop);
mymodule = mymodule.replace(/ /g, '+');
mymodule = mymodule.replace(/_/g, '+');
mymodule = encodeURI(mymodule);
// calculate the name of the property based on the classes of the parent <tr>
var propertystart = mytrclasses.indexOf('property-');
var propstart = mytrclasses.indexOf('-', propertystart) + 1;
var propstop = mytrclasses.indexOf(' ', propstart);
var myproperty = mytrclasses.substring(propstart, propstop);
myproperty = myproperty.replace(/ /g, '+');
myproperty = myproperty.replace(/_/g, '+');
myproperty = encodeURI(myproperty);
var parentspanid = $(this).attr('id');
// Remove the comparison rows if they are already present, otherwise generate them
if ($('.comparison_' + parentspanid).length != 0) {
$('.comparison_' + parentspanid).remove();
} else {
$.post('http://localhost/LearnPHP/webservice.php?user=user-0&q=comparison&level=property&module=' + mymodule + '&version_id=1.0&property=' + myproperty + '&format=xml', function(data) {
var data = $.xml2json(data);
for (var propnum in data.configuration.modules.module.properties.property) {
var prop = data.configuration.modules.module.properties.property[propnum];
console.log(JSON.stringify(prop));
prop.mod_or_config = 'config';
var item_id = mymodule + '?' + prop.property_name + '?' + prop.version_id + '?' + prop.value;
item_id = convertId(item_id);
prop.id = item_id;
//alert('prop.conformity = ' + prop.conformity);
// genRow(row, module, comparison, comparison_parentspanid)
var rowstring = genRow(prop, mymodule, true, parentspanid);
console.log('back from genRow. rowstring = ' + rowstring);
$(that).closest('tr').after(rowstring);
//$('tr#node-' + data[row].id + ' span#rating' + row.id).css('background', '-moz-linear-gradient(left, #ff0000 0%, #ff0000 ' + data[row].conformity + '%, #00ff00 ' + 100 - data[row].conformity + '%, #00ff00 100%');
var conformity_color = getConformityColor(prop.conformity);
$('tr#comparison_module_' + mymodule + '_setting_' + prop.id + ' span#module_' + mymodule + '_rating' + prop.id).css({'background':'-moz-linear-gradient(left, ' + conformity_color + ' 0%, ' + conformity_color + ' ' + prop.conformity + '%, #fffff0 ' + prop.conformity + '%, #fffff0 100%)'});
//$('tr#comparison-' + data[row].id + ' span#rating' + data[row].id).css('background','-webkit-linear-gradient(left, #00ff00 0%, #00ff00 ' + data[row].conformity + '%, #ff0000 ' + (100 - (data[row].conformity + 2)) + '%, #ff0000 100%)');
}
});
// Hide the Fix by mod column
hideFixedByModCol();
$('tr.comparison_' + parentspanid).each(function(i){
if (i % 2 == 0) {
$(that).addClass('comparison_even');
} else {
$(that).addClass('comparison_odd');
}
});
}
});
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

I suspect your data is coming back improperly formed. Enclose your code from the break on within try {} catch {} to see the error generated. Also it would be a good idea to add error processing to your ajax request.