Question

Is it possible to have the return of a JS function depend on user action?

So let’s say I have function a and function b.

Function b brings up a dialog with two buttons, one which returns true and one which returns false. Can I call b from a and force a to wait for the return from b before continuing it’s operation?

Example code:

function a(){
    if(b()){
        do x
    }else{
        do y
    }
}

function b(){
$("#anElement").dialog({
    title: "This is a Dialog",
    buttons:{
        "Yes": function(){
            //do some stuff
            $(this).dialog("close");
            return true;
        },
        Cancel: function(){
            //do some stuff
            $(this).dialog("close");
            return false;
        }
    }
});
}

I guess this is a lot like a confirm, but I want to build more than just yes / no on top of it. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

No, you can’t halt a function’s execution (well, you could with an infinite while loop with a break condition, but that’s terrible practice). However, you could split A into two functions and call the other half of function A from function B. You could even pass in a return function to function B and call that, passing in the value of the user action.

Example:

function A() {
    // do stuff
    B(finishA);
}

function B(callback) {
    if(someCondition) {
        callback(true);
    } else {
        callback(false);
    }
}

function finishA(userInput) {
    if(userInput) {
        // do something if the user clicked okay
    } else {
        // do something if the user clicked cancel
    }
}