how to make a jquery "$.post" request synchronous

I’ve been googling this and avoiding this error in my bug fix list for a long time now, but I’ve finally reached the end of the list, the last of which I have to make a function return true/false to state whether the validation has succeeded or not.

I'm using ajax to compare certain fields with those that are already in the db and by default the $.post() method does it's operations asynchronously.

I’m setting a variable inside the call onSuccess and the calling method doesn't get a response because of this, so all my js/jquery fails on pageLoad... I would prefer if I could still keep using the $.post method.

jQuery < 1.8

May I suggest that you use $.ajax() instead of $.post() as it's much more customizable.

If you are calling $.post(), e.g., like this:

$.post( url, data, success, dataType );

You could turn it into its $.ajax() equivalent:

$.ajax({
  type: 'POST',
  url: url,
  data: data,
  success: success,
  dataType: dataType,
  async:false
});

Please note the async:false at the end of the $.ajax() parameter object.

Here you have a full detail of the $.ajax() parameters: jQuery.ajax() – jQuery API Documentation.

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jQuery >=1.8 "async:false" deprecation notice

jQuery >=1.8 won't block the UI during the http request, so we have to use a workaround to stop user interaction as long as the request is processed. For example:

• use a plugin e.g. BlockUI;
• manually add an overlay before calling $.ajax(), and then remove it when the AJAX .done() callback is called.

Please have a look at this answer for an example.

If you want an synchronous request set the async property to false for the request. Check out the jQuery AJAX Doc

From the Jquery docs: you specify the async option to be false to get a synchronous Ajax request. Then your callback can set some data before your mother function proceeds.

Here's what your code would look like if changed as suggested:

beforecreate: function(node,targetNode,type,to) {
    jQuery.ajax({
         url:    url,
         success: function(result) {
                      if(result.isOk == false)
                          alert(result.message);
                  },
         async:   false
    });          
}

this is because $.ajax is the only request type that you can set the asynchronousity for