Question

Below is some code I’m having trouble with. Basically, I’m defining an empty array as a global variable (var playlist = []) and then trying to add elements to it within a jQuery $.get call. From what I’ve read on the internet, I should be able to do this! The following code gives the error: “Cannot call method ‘play’ of undefined”. playlist[0] does get set within the function, alerting playlist[0] within the $.get call gives the expected result, but it doesn’t persist outside the function.

var playlist = [];
function playArtist(artist){
  $.get('media/songs/' + artist,
    function(data){
      for (var i in data){
        playlist[i] = setSong(data[i].Resource.name,'track' + data[i].Media.id,i + 1);
      }
    $('#track-total').text(parseInt(playlist.length));
    },'json'
  );
  playlist[0].play();
}

Can anyone help?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Chances are, playlist is getting used before $.get returns – as ajax calls are asynchronous. It works within the success callback because that gets fired once the request has completed, so it will contain the data you expect.