Question

O, so i have a ‘live search’ ajax search, which currently runs an sql search (via ajax) on each key up.

What i would prefer is to:

run an sql search after a key has not been pressed for say 800 milliseconds

.

So i want to have a timer that is started on key up,
if the timer reaches 800ms then the ajax is called,
if a new keyup event occurs the timer is restarted

how would i do this?

Answer 1

There’s an excellent plugin TypeWatch you may take a look at (IIRC StackOverflow uses this for the Users page). Here’s a sample usage:

$("#textId").typeWatch({ 
    highlight: true,
    wait: 800,
    captureLength: -1,
    callback: function() {
        // changed text
    }
});