The onreadystatechange Property #
The
readyStateproperty holds the status of the XMLHttpRequest.The
onreadystatechangeproperty defines a function to be executed when the readyState changes.The
statusproperty and thestatusTextproperty holds the status of the XMLHttpRequest object.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| onreadystatechange | Defines a function to be called when the readyState property changes |
| readyState | Holds the status of the XMLHttpRequest. 0: request not initialized 1: server connection established 2: request received 3: processing request 4: request finished and response is ready |
| status | 200: “OK” 403: “Forbidden” 404: “Page not found” For a complete list go to the Http Messages Reference |
| statusText | Returns the status-text (e.g. “OK” or “Not Found”) |
The onreadystatechange function is called every time the readyState changes.
When readyState is 4 and status is 200, the response is ready:
Example #
function loadDoc() {
var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (this.readyState == 4 && this.status == 200) {
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML =
this.responseText;
}
};
xhttp.open("GET", "ajax_info.txt", true);
xhttp.send();
} The onreadystatechange event is triggered four times (1-4), one time for each change in the readyState.
Using a Callback Function #
A callback function is a function passed as a parameter to another function.
If you have more than one AJAX task in a website, you should create one function for executing the XMLHttpRequest object, and one callback function for each AJAX task.
The function call should contain the URL and what function to call when the response is ready.
Example #
loadDoc("url-1", myFunction1);
loadDoc("url-2", myFunction2);
function loadDoc(url, cFunction) {
var xhttp;
xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (this.readyState == 4 && this.status == 200) {
cFunction(this);
}
};
xhttp.open("GET", url, true);
xhttp.send();
}
function myFunction1(xhttp) {
// action goes here
}
function myFunction2(xhttp) {
// action goes here
} erver Response Properties #
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| responseText | get the response data as a string |
| responseXML | get the response data as XML data |
Server Response Methods #
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| getResponseHeader() | Returns specific header information from the server resource |
| getAllResponseHeaders() | Returns all the header information from the server resource |
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = xhttp.responseText;
xmlDoc = xhttp.responseXML;
txt = "";
x = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("ARTIST");
for (i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
txt += x[i].childNodes[0].nodeValue + "<br>";
}
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = txt;
xhttp.open("GET", "cd_catalog.xml", true);
xhttp.send(); You will learn a lot more about XML DOM in the DOM chapters of this tutorial.
var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (this.readyState == 4 && this.status == 200) {
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML =
this.getAllResponseHeaders();
}
}; var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (this.readyState == 4 && this.status == 200) {
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML =
this.getResponseHeader("Last-Modified");
}
};
xhttp.open("GET", "ajax_info.txt", true);
xhttp.send(); 
