While loop with jQuery async AJAX calls

Question

The thing: I have a page, which has to display undetermined number of images, loaded through AJAX (using base64 encoding on the server-side) one by one.

var position = 'front';
while(GLOB_PROCEED_FETCH)
{
    getImageRequest(position);
}

function getImageRequest(position)
{
    GLOB_IMG_CURR++;
$.ajax({
        url: urlAJAX + 'scan=' + position,
        method: 'GET',
        async: false,
        success: function(data) {
            if ((data.status == 'empty') || (GLOB_IMG_CURR > GLOB_IMG_MAX))
            {
                GLOB_PROCEED_FETCH = false;
                return true;
            }
            else if (data.status == 'success')
            {
                renderImageData(data);
            }
        }
    });
}

The problem is that images (constructed with the renderImageData() function) are appended (all together) to the certain DIV only when all images are fetched. I mean, there is no any DOM manipulation possible until the loop is over.

I need to load and display images one by one because of possible huge number of images, so I can't stack them until they all will be fetched.

Answer 1

Your best bet would be to restructure your code to use async ajax calls and launch the next call when the first one completes and so on. This will allow the page to redisplay between image fetches.

This will also give the browser a chance to breathe and take care of its other housekeeping and not think that maybe it's locked up or hung.

And, use async: 'false' is a bad idea. I see no reason why properly structured code couldn't use asynchronous ajax calls here and not hang the browser while you're fetching this data.

You could do it with asynchronous ajax like this:

function getAllImages(position, maxImages) {
    var imgCount = 0;

    function getNextImage() {
        $.ajax({
            url: urlAJAX + 'scan=' + position,
            method: 'GET',
            async: true,
            success: function(data) {
                if (data.status == "success" && imgCount <= maxImages) {
                    ++imgCount;
                    renderImageData(data);
                    getNextImage();
                }
            }
        });
    }
    getNextImage();
}

// no while loop is needed
// just call getAllImages() and pass it the 
// position and the maxImages you want to retrieve
getAllImages('front', 20);

Also, while this may look like recursion, it isn't really recursion because of the async nature of the ajax call. getNextImage() has actually completed before the next one is called so it isn't technically recursion.