What's the best way to retry an AJAX request on failure using jQuery?

Something like this:

$.ajax({
    url : 'someurl',
    type : 'POST',
    data :  ....,   
    tryCount : 0,
    retryLimit : 3,
    success : function(json) {
        //do something
    },
    error : function(xhr, textStatus, errorThrown ) {
        if (textStatus == 'timeout') {
            this.tryCount++;
            if (this.tryCount <= this.retryLimit) {
                //try again
                $.ajax(this);
                return;
            }            
            return;
        }
        if (xhr.status == 500) {
            //handle error
        } else {
            //handle error
        }
    }
});

One approach is to use a wrapper function:

(function runAjax(retries, delay){
  delay = delay || 1000;
  $.ajax({
    type        : 'GET',
    url         : '',
    dataType    : 'json',
    contentType : 'application/json'
  })
  .fail(function(){
    console.log(retries); // prrint retry count
    retries > 0 && setTimeout(function(){
        runAjax(--retries);
    },delay);
  })
})(3, 100);

Another approach would be to use a retries property on the $.ajax

// define ajax settings
var ajaxSettings = {
  type        : 'GET',
  url         : '',
  dataType    : 'json',
  contentType : 'application/json',
  retries     : 3  //                 <-----------------------
};

// run initial ajax
$.ajax(ajaxSettings).fail(onFail)

// on fail, retry by creating a new Ajax deferred
function onFail(){
  if( ajaxSettings.retries-- > 0 )
    setTimeout(function(){
        $.ajax(ajaxSettings).fail(onFail);
    }, 1000);
}

Another way (GIST) - override original $.ajax (better for DRY)

// enhance the original "$.ajax" with a retry mechanism 
$.ajax = (($oldAjax) => {
  // on fail, retry by creating a new Ajax deferred
  function check(a,b,c){
    var shouldRetry = b != 'success' && b != 'parsererror';
    if( shouldRetry && --this.retries > 0 )
      setTimeout(() => { $.ajax(this) }, this.retryInterval || 100);
  }

  return settings => $oldAjax(settings).always(check)
})($.ajax);



// now we can use the "retries" property if we need to retry on fail
$.ajax({
    type          : 'GET',
    url           : 'http://www.whatever123.gov',
    timeout       : 2000,
    retries       : 3,     //       <-------- Optional
    retryInterval : 2000   //       <-------- Optional
})
// Problem: "fail" will only be called once, and not for each retry
.fail(()=>{
  console.log('failed') 
});

A point to consider is making sure the $.ajax method wasn't already wrapped previously, in order to avoid the same code running twice.

You can copy-paste these snippets (as-is) to the console to test them

I've had a lot of success with this code below (example: http://jsfiddle.net/uZSFK/)

$.ajaxSetup({
    timeout: 3000, 
    retryAfter:7000
});

function func( param ){
    $.ajax( 'http://www.example.com/' )
        .success( function() {
            console.log( 'Ajax request worked' );
        })
        .error(function() {
            console.log( 'Ajax request failed...' );
            setTimeout ( function(){ func( param ) }, $.ajaxSetup().retryAfter );
        });
}