Question

I have a strange (probably not for some I would wager) problem, I have a JavaScript method to call all of my ajax calls, please see below.

function ajaxCall(url, params) {
if (params === null) {
    $.ajax({
        type: 'POST',
        url: url,
        contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
        dataType: 'json'
    }).success(function(response) {
        return response;
    }).error(function(response) {
        return response;
    });
} else {
    var data = JSON.stringify(params);
    $.ajax({
        type: 'POST',
        url: url,
        data: data,
        contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
        dataType: 'json'
    }).success(function(response) {
        return response;
    }).error(function(response) {
        return response;
    });
  }
}

when I call this method I get the appropriate response from the AJAX call and all looks rosy, until I return the response the call is returned undefined?

for completeness I will include my call code.

var call = ajaxCall(someUrl, someParams);

just to clarify and make sure my ramblings are understood call would be undefined in the above example?

Answer 1

you can’t do that because the ajax call is async,
$.ajax returns a Deferred Object and you can work with it to get what you need
read on it here