Question

How would I go about updating a div with a id every x seconds? I want it to update the users statuses which are contained inside this, that includes the time the amount of comments made on that individual post.

I’ve tried setInterval but it takes 10 seconds for the status to be added and then duplicates the status every x amounts of seconds after that. All I need is for the response data to be updated not the insertion of the comment to be re-added every 10 seconds.

HTML:

<div id='divider-"+response['streamitem_id']+'></div>

JavaScript:

$(document).ready(function(){
    $("form#myform").submit(function(event) {
        event.preventDefault();
        var content = $("#toid").val();
        var newmsg = $("#newmsg").val();

        $.ajax({
            type: "POST",
            url: "insert.php",
            cache: false,
            dataType: "json",
            data: { toid: content, newmsg: newmsg },
            success: function(response){ 
                $("#homestatusid").html("<div id='divider-"+response['streamitem_id']+"'><div class='userinfo'><a href='/profile.php?username="+response['username']+"'><img class='stream_profileimage' style='border:none;padding:0px;display:inline;' border=\"0\" src=\"imgs/cropped"+response['id']+".jpg\" onerror='this.src=\"img/no_profile_img.jpeg\"' width=\"40\" height=\"40\" ></a><div style='cursor:pointer;position:relative;top:0px;float:right;padding-right:5px;' onclick=\"delete_('"+response['streamitem_id']+"');\">X</div><a href='/profile.php?username="+response['username']+"'>"+response['first']+" "+ response['middle']+" "+response['last']+"</a><span class='subtleLink'> said</span><br/><a class='subtleLink' style='font-weight:normal;'>"+response['streamitem_timestamp']+"</a><hr>"+newmsg+"<div style='height:20px;' class='post_contextoptions'><div id='streamcomment'><a style='cursor:pointer;' id='commenttoggle_"+response['streamitem_id']+"' onclick=\"toggle_comments('comment_holder_"+response['streamitem_id']+"');clearTimeout(streamloop);swapcommentlabel(this.id);\">Write a comment...</a></div><div id='streamlike'><a id='likecontext_"+response['streamitem_id']+"' style='cursor:pointer;' onClick=\"likestatus("+response['streamitem_id']+",this.id);\"><div style='width:50px;' id='likesprint"+response['streamitem_id']+"'>Like</div></a><div style='width:50px;' id='likesprint"+response['streamitem_id']+"'></div></div><div id='streamdislike'><a id='dislikecontext_"+response['streamitem_id']+"' style='cursor:pointer;' onClick=\"dislikestatus("+response['streamitem_id']+",this.id);\"><div style='width:70px;' id='dislikesprint"+response['streamitem_id']+"'>Dislike</div></a><div style='width:70px;' id='dislikesprint"+response['streamitem_id']+"'></div></div></div><div class='stream_comment_holder' style='display:none;' id='comment_holder_"+response['streamitem_id']+"'><div id='comment_list_"+response['streamitem_id']+"'><table width=100%><tr><td valign=top width=30px><img class='stream_profileimage' style='border:none;padding:0px;display:inline;' border=\"0\" src=\"imgs/cropped"+response['id']+".jpg\" onerror='this.src=\"img/no_profile_img.jpeg\"' width=\"40\" height=\"40\" ></a><td valign=top align=left><div class='stream_comment_inputarea'><input id='addcomment' type='text' name='content' style='width:100%;' class='input_comment' placeholder='Write a comment...'  onkeyup='growcommentinput(this);' autocomplete='off' onkeypress=\"if(event.keyCode==13){addcomment("+response['streamitem_id']+",this.value,'comment_list_"+response['streamitem_id']+"',"+response['id']+",'"+response['first']+" "+ response['middle']+" "+response['last']+"');this.value='';}\"><br/></div></div>");
            }
        });
        return false
    });
});

INSERT.PHP

$json = array();
$check = "SELECT streamitem_id FROM streamdata WHERE streamitem_creator='$user1_id' ORDER BY streamitem_id DESC";
$check1 = mysql_query($check);
$resultArr = mysql_fetch_array($check1);
$json['streamitem_id'] = $resultArr['streamitem_id'];


mysql_free_result($check1);

$check = "SELECT streamitem_timestamp FROM streamdata WHERE streamitem_creator='$user1_id' ORDER BY streamitem_timestamp DESC";
$check1 = mysql_query($check);
$resultArr = mysql_fetch_array($check1);
$json['streamitem_timestamp'] = Agotime($resultArr['streamitem_timestamp']);
mysql_free_result($check1);



$check = "SELECT username, id, first, middle, last FROM users";
$check1 = mysql_query($check);
$resultArr = mysql_fetch_array($check1);
$json['username'] = $resultArr['username'];
$json['id'] = $resultArr['id'];
$json['first'] = $resultArr['first'];
$json['middle'] = $resultArr['middle'];
$json['last'] = $resultArr['last'];

mysql_free_result($check1);

echo json_encode($json);

Answer 1

First wrap up the Ajax call in a single-execution function, with the callback function referring to the same:

$(function() {
    (function ajaxcall() {
       $.ajax({
        url: 'foo.php',
        data: {boo:'moo',goo:'loo'},
        timeout: function() { ajaxcall(); },
        success: function(data) {
            //do somethng with the data
            //done, now call the function again:
            ajaxcall();
            }
        });
    }());
});

Then in the PHP write something like:

$timeout = 30;
$pollinterval = .5;
$counter = 30;
while ($counter >= 0) {
//function which fetches fresh data and sets $test to true if data is returned
  list($test,$dataarray) = fetchdata();
  if ($test) { //JSON_encode the data array and send it
     echo JSON_ENCODE($dataarray);
     }
  else { //no fresh data, query the db again after wating for some time)
    usleep($pollinterval*1000);
    $counter -= $pollinterval;
  }
//timeout, return whetever you have!
echo JSON_ENCODE($dataarray);