JQuery - Storing ajax response into global variable

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Im still somewhat of a newbie on jQuery and the ajax scene, but I have an $.ajax request performing a GET to retrieve some XML files (~6KB or less), however for the duration the user spends on that page that XML content should not / will not change (this design I cannot change, I also don't have access to change the XML file as I am reading it from somewhere else). Therefore I have a global variable that I store the response data into, and any subsequent look ups on the data are done on this variable so multiple requests don't need to be made.

Given the fact that the XML file can increase, Im not sure this is the best practice, and also coming from a java background my thoughts on global public variables are generally a no-no.

So the question I have is whether there might be a better way to do this, and a question on whether this causes any memory issues if the file expands out to some ridiculous file size?

I figure the data could be passed into a some getter/setter type functions inside the xml object, which would solve my global public variable problems, but still raises the question on whether I should store the response inside the object itself.

For example, what I currently do is:

// top of code
var xml;
// get the file
$.ajax({
  type: "GET",
  url: "test.xml",
  dataType: "xml",
  success : function(data) {
    xml = data;
  }
});
// at a later stage do something with the 'xml' object
var foo = $(xml).find('something').attr('somethingElse');
response xml jquery ajax
16 Answers

There's no way around it except to store it. Memory paging should reduce potential issues there.

I would suggest instead of using a global variable called 'xml', do something more like this:

var dataStore = (function(){
    var xml;

    $.ajax({
      type: "GET",
      url: "test.xml",
      dataType: "xml",
      success : function(data) {
                    xml = data;
                }
    });

    return {getXml : function()
    {
        if (xml) return xml;
        // else show some error that it isn't loaded yet;
    }};
})();

then access it with:

$(dataStore.getXml()).find('something').attr('somethingElse');
user_1085780

You don't have to do any of this. I ran into the same problem with my project. what you do is make a function call inside the on success callback to reset the global variable. As long as you got asynchronous javascript set to false it will work correctly. Here is my code. Hope it helps.

var exists;

//function to call inside ajax callback 
function set_exists(x){
    exists = x;
}

$.ajax({
    url: "check_entity_name.php",
    type: "POST",
    async: false, // set to false so order of operations is correct
    data: {entity_name : entity},
    success: function(data){
        if(data == true){
            set_exists(true);
        }
        else{
            set_exists(false);
        }
    }
});
if(exists == true){
    return true;
}
else{
    return false;
}

Hope this helps you .

user_4351760

IMO you can store this data in global variable. But it will be better to use some more unique name or use namespace:

MyCompany = {};

...
MyCompany.cachedData = data;

And also it's better to use json for these purposes, data in json format is usually much smaller than the same data in xml format.

zihotki_665910

I'd suggest that fetching large XML files from the server should be avoided: the variable "xml" should used like a cache, and not as the data store itself.

In most scenarios, it is possible to examine the cache and see if you need to make a request to the server to get the data that you want. This will make your app lighter and faster.

cheers, jrh.

user_21190530

.get responses are cached by default. Therefore you really need to do nothing to get the desired results.

user_64400

Similar to previous answer:

<script type="text/javascript">

    var wait = false;

    $(function(){
        console.log('Loaded...');
        loadPost(5);
    });

    $(window).scroll(function(){
      if($(window).scrollTop() >= $(document).height() - $(window).height()-100){
        // Get last item
        var last = $('.post_id:last-of-type').val();
        loadPost(1,last);
      }
    });

    function loadPost(qty,offset){
      if(wait !== true){

        wait = true;

        var data = {
          items:qty,
          oset:offset
        }

        $.ajax({
            url:"api.php",
            type:"POST",
            dataType:"json",
            data:data,
            success:function(data){
              //var d = JSON.parse(data);
              console.log(data);
              $.each(data.content, function(index, value){
                $('#content').append('<input class="post_id" type="hidden" value="'+value.id+'">')
                $('#content').append('<h2>'+value.id+'</h2>');
                $('#content').append(value.content+'<hr>');
                $('#content').append('<h3>'+value.date+'</h3>');
              });
              wait = false;
            }
        });
      }
    }
</script>
user_15918190

Just use this. simple and effective:

var y;

function something(x){
return x;
}

$.get(bunch of codes, function (data){

y=something(data);
)}

//anywhere else
console.log(y);
user_131425730
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