Question

Can someone show me a practical example on setting a timeout to my $.ajax request and redo the entire request if the first request is timed out, I’ve read the docs and didn’t get it. I will appreciate any help.

Here is my $.ajax request.

    $.ajax({
        url: '<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/ajax/product.php',
        type: 'get',
        data: {product_id : product_id},
        beforeSend: function(){
            $('#details').html('<div class="loading"></div>');
        },
        success: function(data){
            $('.iosSlider').fadeOut('fast');
            thisprod.addClass('current');
            $('#details').css({opacity: 0}).html(data).stop().animate({left: 0, opacity: 1}, 800);
        }
    });
    return false;

Answer 1

The ajax function takes a timeout parameter and you can check the status in case of error.

var call =function(){
    $.ajax({
        url: '<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/ajax/product.php',
        type: 'get',
        timeout: 400,
        ...
        error: function(x, textStatus, m) {
            if (textStatus=="timeout") {
                 call();
            }
        }
    });
};

You might want to make something a little smarter to avoid permanent calls…

From the documentation :

Set a timeout (in milliseconds) for the request. This will override
any global timeout set with $.ajaxSetup(). The timeout period starts
at the point the $.ajax call is made; if several other requests are in
progress and the browser has no connections available, it is possible
for a request to time out before it can be sent. In jQuery 1.4.x and
below, the XMLHttpRequest object will be in an invalid state if the
request times out; accessing any object members may throw an
exception. In Firefox 3.0+ only, script and JSONP requests cannot be
cancelled by a timeout; the script will run even if it arrives after
the timeout period.