Question

I need to set an event handler whose job is to return the function in which the handler is being set, and not the anonymous triggerhandler itself. How can this be achieved? See the code below:

if(subFormToServer())
    doSuccessDance();
else
    doErrorStuff();

function subFormToServer(thaGoods) {
  $('<iframe name="subform-target" style="display: none;"></iframe>')
    .bind('load',  function(){ return 0; }) // how to I "pass" these return statements "up" to my function or "escape" them, so to speak, so that what they're returning isn't the load/error handler functions, but actually the subFormToServer function?
    .bind('error', function(){ return 1; })
    .appendTo('body');

 $('<form method="POST" '+
          'action="http://server/formHandler.php" '+
          'target="subform-target"> '+

        '<input name=inputName              value="'+encodeURIComponent(thaGoods)+'">'+

    '</form>')[0]
    .submit();
}

Answer 1

That isn’t possible. Consider this situation, if it were:

// Assume form takes 10 seconds to respond
var x = subFormToServer(...)

// form has neither loaded nor errored yet - what does x contain?
alert(x)

---

Your best bet is:

subFormToServer(thaGoods, doSuccessDance, doErrorStuff);

function subFormToServer(thaGoods, worked, didnt) {
    $('<iframe name="subform-target" style="display: none;"></iframe>')
        .on('load',  worked)
        .on('error', didnt)
        .appendTo('body');

    $('<form />', {
        method: "POST",
        action: "http://server/formHandler.php",
        target: "subform-target"
    }).append(
        $('<input />', {
            name: "inputName",
            value: encodeURIComponent(thaGoods)
        })
    ).submit()
}