Javascript and AJAX, only works when using alert()

Question

I am having trouble with my javascript. It seems to be acting oddly. This is what's going on. I have a form, after the user submits it, it calls a function(onsubmit event) to verify the submitted data, if something bad OR if the username/email is already in database(using ajax for this part) it'll return false and display errors using DOM. Here's the code below. What's weird about it, is that it only works when I use an empty alert('') message, without it, it just doesn't work. Thanks for the help.

//////////////////////////////////////

function httpRequest() {
    var xmlhttp;

    if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
        // code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
        xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
    } else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
        // code for IE6, IE5
        xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
    } else {
        alert("Your browser does not support XMLHTTP!");
    }

    return xmlhttp;
}

function validateRegForm(reg) {

    var isValidForm = true;
    var warningIcon = "";//for later in case we want to use an icon next to warning msg

    with(reg) {


        var regFormDiv = document.getElementById("registration_form");

        //Check if dynamic div exist, if so, remove it
        if(document.getElementById('disp_errors') != null) {
            var dispErrorsDiv = document.getElementById('disp_errors');
            document.getElementById('reg_form').removeChild(dispErrorsDiv);
        }           

        //Dynamically create new 'div'
        var errorDiv = document.createElement('div');
        errorDiv.setAttribute('id','disp_errors');
        errorDiv.setAttribute('style','background-color:pink;border:1px solid red;color:red;padding:10px;');
        document.getElementById('reg_form').insertBefore(errorDiv,regFormDiv);




        var xmlhttp = httpRequest();
        var available = new Array();
        xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
            if(xmlhttp.readyState == 4)
            {   
                var response = xmlhttp.responseText;
                if(response != "") {

                    //Return values
                    var newValue = response.split("|");
                    available[0] = newValue[0]; 
                    available[1] = newValue[1]; 
                }
            }
        }

        xmlhttp.open("GET","profile_fetch_reg_info.php?do=available&un="+u_username.value+"&email="+u_email.value+"",true);
        xmlhttp.send(null);


        alert(' '); ////////////WITHOUT THIS, IT DOESN'T WORK. Why?

        if(available[1] == "taken") {
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Username is already taken!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        } else if(u_username.value.length < 4){
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Username must be more than 4 characters long!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        } else if(u_username.value.length > 35) {
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Username must be less than 34 characters long!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        }


        if(available[0] == "taken") {
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Email address entered is already in use!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        } else if(u_email.value == ""){
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Email address is required!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        } else {
            //Determine if email entered is valid
            var filter = /^([a-zA-Z0-9_\.\-])+\@(([a-zA-Z0-9\-])+\.)+([a-zA-Z0-9]{2,4})+$/;
            if (!filter.test(u_email.value)) {
                errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Email entered is invalid!<br />';
                u_email.value = "";
                isValidForm = false;
            }
        }


        if(u_fname.value == ""){
            errorDiv.innerHTML = warningIcon+'Your first name is required!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        }

        if(u_lname.value == ""){
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Your last name is required!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        }



        if(u_password.value.length < 4){
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Password must be more than 4 characters long!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        } else if(u_password.value.length > 35) {
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Password must be less than 34 characters long!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        } else if (u_password.value != u_password2.value) {
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Password and re-typed password don\'t match!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        }


        if(u_squestion.value == ""){
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'A security question is required!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        }

        if(u_sanswer.value == ""){
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'A security answer is required!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        }

        if(u_address.value == ""){
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Address is required!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        }

        if(u_city.value == ""){
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'City is required!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        }

        if(u_state.value == ""){
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'State is required!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        }

        if(u_zip.value == ""){
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Zip code is required!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        }

        if(u_phone.value == ""){
            errorDiv.innerHTML += warningIcon+'Phone number is required!<br />';
            isValidForm = false;
        }

        if(isValidForm == false)
            window.scroll(0,0);

        return isValidForm;
    }

}

Answer 1

The alert() helps because that delays the processing of the remaining javascript in that function (everything from the alert() down to the bottom), leaving enough time for the AJAX request to complete. The first letter in AJAX stands for "asynchronous" which means that (by default) the response will come in at "some point in the future" but not immediately.

One fix (which you should not implement) is to make the processing synchronous (by changing the third argument of open() to be false) which will stop further processing of your script (and the entire webpage) until the request returns. This is bad because it will effectively freeze the web browser until the request completes.

The proper fix is to restructure your code so that any processing that depends on the result of the AJAX request goes in to the onreadystatechange function, and can't be in the main function that initiates the AJAX request.

The way this is usually handled is to modify your DOM (before the AJAX request is sent) to make the form readonly and display some sort of "processing" message, then in the AJAX response handler, if everything is okay (the server responded properly and validation was successful) call submit() on the form, otherwise make the form wriable again and display any validation errors.