What to do when users outrun ajax - ajax

Question

My program does an ajax call when the user clicks on a radio button. Upon success, the background color of the table cell containing the radio button is changed to let the user know their selection has been posted to the database.
The problem is sometimes the background doesn't change. I'm trapping for errors, so I don't think it's because of an error. I'm wondering if the user is outpacing the success callback.
var setup = {};
setup.url = 'Gateway.cfc';
setup.type= 'POST'
setup.dataType='json';
$.ajaxSetup(setup);
var settings = {};
settings.data = {};
settings.data.method = 'Save';
settings.data.AssignmentID = $('input[name=AssignmentID]').val();
settings.error = function(xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError) {
$('#msgErr').text(thrownError);
};
settings.success = function(result) {
$('#msg').empty();
$('#msgErr').empty();
if (result.RTN) { // uppercase RTN
$('#' + settings.data.AnswerID).addClass('answer');
} else {
$('#' + settings.data.AnswerID).next().append('<span class="err"> ' + result.MSG + '</span>');
}
}
$('input').filter(':radio').change(function() {
var myName = $(this).attr('name');
$('input[name=' + myName + ']').closest('td').removeClass('answer');
settings.data.AnswerID = $(this).val();
$.ajax(settings);
});

Answer 1

There is a delay between your Ajax post to the server and the ui element update on your screen. I do not know which Ajax library you are using, but you could plug into the Ajax framework and display a floating div element that covers the whole screen. This div could have other elements like an image or other divs, spans, p tags, etc. This is also called a dialog in some libraries.
I would recommend trying to find the before_Ajax_send and after_Ajax_receive functions in your Ajax library and attaching your functions to these events. The before_send function should display the floating div and the after_receive should close the div.
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Gonna post this as an answer, on the off-chance that it does the trick :)
$('input').filter(':radio').change(function() {
$(this).closest('td').removeClass('answer');
var mySettings = $.extend(true, {data:{AnswerID: $(this).val()}}, settings);
$.ajax(mySettings);
});
This will make sure there are no race conditions with your settings if calls are made in quick succession.