How do you work with an array of jQuery Deferreds?

Question

I have an application that requires data be loaded in a certain order: the root URL, then the schemas, then finally initialize the application with the schemas and urls for the various data objects. As the user navigates the application, data objects are loaded, validated against the schema, and displayed. As the user CRUDs the data, the schemas provide first-pass validation.

I'm having a problem with initialization. I use an Ajax call to fetch the root object, $.when(), and then create an array of promises, one for each schema object. That works. I see the fetch in the console.

I then see the fetch for all the schemas, so each $.ajax() call works. fetchschemas() does indeed return an array of promises.

However, that final when() clause never fires and the word "DONE" never appears on the console. The source code to jquery-1.5 seems to imply that "null" is acceptable as an object to pass to $.when.apply(), as when() will build an internal Deferred() object to manage the list if no object is passed in.

This worked using Futures.js. How should an array of jQuery Deferreds be managed, if not like this?

    var fetch_schemas, fetch_root;

    fetch_schemas = function(schema_urls) {
        var fetch_one = function(url) {
            return $.ajax({
                url: url,
                data: {},
                contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
                dataType: "json"
            });
        };

        return $.map(schema_urls, fetch_one);
    };

    fetch_root = function() {
        return $.ajax({
            url: BASE_URL,
            data: {},
            contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
            dataType: "json"
        });
    };

    $.when(fetch_root()).then(function(data) {
        var promises = fetch_schemas(data.schema_urls);
        $.when.apply(null, promises).then(function(schemas) {
            console.log("DONE", this, schemas);
        });
    });

Answer 1

You're looking for

$.when.apply($, promises).then(function(schemas) {
     console.log("DONE", this, schemas);
}, function(e) {
     console.log("My ajax failed");
});

This will also work (for some value of work, it won't fix broken ajax):

$.when.apply($, promises).done(function() { ... }).fail(function() { ... });` 

You'll want to pass $ instead of null so that this inside $.when refers to jQuery. It shouldn't matter to the source but it's better then passing null.

Mocked out all your $.ajax by replacing them with $.when and the sample works

So it's either a problem in your ajax request or the array your passing to fetch_schemas.

Answer 2

The workaround above (thanks!) doesn't properly address the problem of getting back the objects provided to the deferred's resolve() method because jQuery calls the done() and fail() callbacks with individual parameters, not an array. That means we have to use the arguments pseudo-array to get all the resolved/rejected objects returned by the array of deferreds, which is ugly:

$.when.apply($, promises).then(function() {
     var schemas=arguments; // The array of resolved objects as a pseudo-array
     ...
};

Since we passed in an array of deferreds, it would be nice to get back an array of results. It would also be nice to get back an actual array instead of a pseudo-array so we can use methods like Array.sort().

Here is a solution inspired by when.js's when.all() method that addresses these problems:

// Put somewhere in your scripting environment
if (jQuery.when.all===undefined) {
    jQuery.when.all = function(deferreds) {
        var deferred = new jQuery.Deferred();
        $.when.apply(jQuery, deferreds).then(
            function() {
                deferred.resolve(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments));
            },
            function() {
                deferred.fail(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments));
            });

        return deferred;
    }
}

Now you can simply pass in an array of deferreds/promises and get back an array of resolved/rejected objects in your callback, like so:

$.when.all(promises).then(function(schemas) {
     console.log("DONE", this, schemas); // 'schemas' is now an array
}, function(e) {
     console.log("My ajax failed");
});

Answer 3

If you are using ES6 version of javascript There is a spread operator(...) which converts array of objects to comma separated arguments.

$.when(...promises).then(function() {
 var schemas=arguments; 
};

More about ES6 spread operator https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Spread_operator find here

Answer 4

extends when with this code:

var rawWhen = $.when
$.when = function(promise) {
    if ($.isArray(promise)) {
        var dfd = new jQuery.Deferred()
        rawWhen.apply($, promise).done(function() {
            dfd.resolve(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments))
        }).fail(function() {
            dfd.reject(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments))
        })
        return dfd.promise()
    } else {
        return rawWhen.apply($, arguments)
    }
}