Parallel asynchronous Ajax requests using jQuery

Run multiple AJAX requests in parallel

When working with APIs, you sometimes need to issue multiple AJAX requests to different endpoints. Instead of waiting for one request to complete before issuing the next, you can speed things up with jQuery by requesting the data in parallel, by using jQuery's $.when() function:

JS

$.when($.get('1.json'), $.get('2.json')).then(function(r1, r2){
   console.log(r1[0].message + " " + r2[0].message);
});

The callback function is executed when both of these GET requests finish successfully. $.when() takes the promises returned by two $.get() calls, and constructs a new promise object. The r1 and r2 arguments of the callback are arrays, whose first elements contain the server responses.

Try this solution, which can support any specific number of parallel queries:

var done = 4; // number of total requests
var sum = 0;

/* Normal loops don't create a new scope */
$([1,2,3,4,5]).each(function() {
  var number = this;
  $.getJSON("/values/" + number, function(data) {
    sum += data.value;
    done -= 1;
    if(done == 0) $("#mynode").html(sum);
  });
});

Here's my attempt at directly addressing your question

Basically, you just build up and AJAX call stack, execute them all, and a provided function is called upon completion of all the events - the provided argument being an array of the results from all the supplied ajax requests.

Clearly this is early code - you could get more elaborate with this in terms of the flexibility.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryjs.googlecode.com/files/jquery-1.3.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">

var ParallelAjaxExecuter = function( onComplete )
{
  this.requests = [];
  this.results = [];
  this.onComplete = onComplete; 
}

ParallelAjaxExecuter.prototype.addRequest = function( method, url, data, format )
{
  this.requests.push( {
      "method"    : method
    , "url"       : url
    , "data"      : data
    , "format"    : format
    , "completed" : false
  } )
}

ParallelAjaxExecuter.prototype.dispatchAll = function()
{
  var self = this;
  $.each( self.requests, function( i, request )
    {
    request.method( request.url, request.data, function( r )
    {
      return function( data )
      {
        console.log
        r.completed = true;
        self.results.push( data );
        self.checkAndComplete();
      }
    }( request ) )
  } )
}

ParallelAjaxExecuter.prototype.allRequestsCompleted = function()
{
  var i = 0;
  while ( request = this.requests[i++] )
  {
    if ( request.completed === false )
    {
      return false;
    }
  }
  return true;
},

ParallelAjaxExecuter.prototype.checkAndComplete = function()
{
  if ( this.allRequestsCompleted() )
  {
    this.onComplete( this.results );
  }
}

var pe = new ParallelAjaxExecuter( function( results )
{
  alert( eval( results.join( '+' ) ) );
} );

pe.addRequest( $.get, 'test.php', {n:1}, 'text' );
pe.addRequest( $.get, 'test.php', {n:2}, 'text' );
pe.addRequest( $.get, 'test.php', {n:3}, 'text' );
pe.addRequest( $.get, 'test.php', {n:4}, 'text' );

pe.dispatchAll();

</script>

here's test.php

<?php

echo pow( $_GET['n'], 2 );

?>

jQuery $.when() and $.done() are exactly what you need:

$.when($.ajax("/page1.php"), $.ajax("/page2.php"))
  .then(myFunc, myFailure);