Sequencing ajax requests

I find I sometimes need to iterate some collection and make an ajax call for each element. I want each call to return before moving to the next element so that I don't blast the server with requests - which often leads to other issues. And I don't want to set async to false and freeze the browser.

Usually this involves setting up some kind of iterator context that i step thru upon each success callback. I think there must be a cleaner simpler way?

Does anyone have a clever design pattern for how to neatly work thru a collection making ajax calls for each item?

jQuery 1.5+

I developed an $.ajaxQueue() plugin that uses the $.Deferred, .queue(), and $.ajax() to also pass back a promise that is resolved when the request completes.

/*
* jQuery.ajaxQueue - A queue for ajax requests
* 
* (c) 2011 Corey Frang
* Dual licensed under the MIT and GPL licenses.
*
* Requires jQuery 1.5+
*/ 
(function($) {

// jQuery on an empty object, we are going to use this as our Queue
var ajaxQueue = $({});

$.ajaxQueue = function( ajaxOpts ) {
    var jqXHR,
        dfd = $.Deferred(),
        promise = dfd.promise();

    // queue our ajax request
    ajaxQueue.queue( doRequest );

    // add the abort method
    promise.abort = function( statusText ) {

        // proxy abort to the jqXHR if it is active
        if ( jqXHR ) {
            return jqXHR.abort( statusText );
        }

        // if there wasn't already a jqXHR we need to remove from queue
        var queue = ajaxQueue.queue(),
            index = $.inArray( doRequest, queue );

        if ( index > -1 ) {
            queue.splice( index, 1 );
        }

        // and then reject the deferred
        dfd.rejectWith( ajaxOpts.context || ajaxOpts,
            [ promise, statusText, "" ] );

        return promise;
    };

    // run the actual query
    function doRequest( next ) {
        jqXHR = $.ajax( ajaxOpts )
            .done( dfd.resolve )
            .fail( dfd.reject )
            .then( next, next );
    }

    return promise;
};

})(jQuery);

jQuery 1.4

If you're using jQuery 1.4, you can utilize the animation queue on an empty object to create your own "queue" for your ajax requests for the elements.

You can even factor this into your own $.ajax() replacement. This plugin $.ajaxQueue() uses the standard 'fx' queue for jQuery, which will auto-start the first added element if the queue isn't already running.

(function($) {
  // jQuery on an empty object, we are going to use this as our Queue
  var ajaxQueue = $({});

  $.ajaxQueue = function(ajaxOpts) {
    // hold the original complete function
    var oldComplete = ajaxOpts.complete;

    // queue our ajax request
    ajaxQueue.queue(function(next) {

      // create a complete callback to fire the next event in the queue
      ajaxOpts.complete = function() {
        // fire the original complete if it was there
        if (oldComplete) oldComplete.apply(this, arguments);

        next(); // run the next query in the queue
      };

      // run the query
      $.ajax(ajaxOpts);
    });
  };

})(jQuery);

Example Usage

So, we have a <ul id="items"> which has some <li> that we want to copy (using ajax!) to the <ul id="output">

// get each item we want to copy
$("#items li").each(function(idx) {

    // queue up an ajax request
    $.ajaxQueue({
        url: '/echo/html/',
        data: {html : "["+idx+"] "+$(this).html()},
        type: 'POST',
        success: function(data) {
            // Write to #output
            $("#output").append($("<li>", { html: data }));
        }
    });
});

jsfiddle demonstration - 1.4 version

A quick and small solution using deferred promises. Although this uses jQuery's $.Deferred, any other should do.

var Queue = function () {
    var previous = new $.Deferred().resolve();

    return function (fn, fail) {
        return previous = previous.then(fn, fail || fn);
    };
};

Usage, call to create new queues:

var queue = Queue();

// Queue empty, will start immediately
queue(function () {
    return $.get('/first');
});

// Will begin when the first has finished
queue(function() {
    return $.get('/second');
});

See the example with a side-by-side comparison of asynchronous requests.

You can wrap all that complexity into a function to make a simple call that looks like this:

loadSequantially(['/a', '/a/b', 'a/b/c'], function() {alert('all loaded')});

Below is a rough sketch (working example, except the ajax call). This can be modified to use a queue-like structure instead of an array

  // load sequentially the given array of URLs and call 'funCallback' when all's done
  function loadSequantially(arrUrls, funCallback) {
     var idx = 0;

     // callback function that is called when individual ajax call is done
     // internally calls next ajax URL in the sequence, or if there aren't any left,
     // calls the final user specified callback function
     var individualLoadCallback = function()   {
        if(++idx >= arrUrls.length) {
           doCallback(arrUrls, funCallback);
        }else {
           loadInternal();
        }
     };

     // makes the ajax call
     var loadInternal = function() {
        if(arrUrls.length > 0)  {
           ajaxCall(arrUrls[idx], individualLoadCallback);
        }else {
           doCallback(arrUrls, funCallback);
        }
     };

     loadInternal();
  };

  // dummy function replace with actual ajax call
  function ajaxCall(url, funCallBack) {
     alert(url)
     funCallBack();
  };

  // final callback when everything's loaded
  function doCallback(arrUrls, func)   {
     try   {
        func();
     }catch(err) {
        // handle errors
     }
  };