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JavaScript AJAX Basics AJAX Concepts A Simple AJAX Example

Posted by David Ryan
David Ryan
Courses Plus Student 14,981 Points

Does readyState always have to be set to 4?

var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
    xhr.onreadystatechange = function () {
      if (xhr.readyState === 4) {
        document.getElementById('ajax').innerHTML = xhr.responseText; 
      }
    };
    xhr.open('GET', 'sidebar.html');
    function sendAJAX() {
    xhr.send();
    document.getElementById('load').style.display = "none";
    };

2 Answers

cazepeda
cazepeda
6,099 Points
cazepeda
cazepeda
6,099 Points

No it doesn't have to depending on what you WANT to be the readyState from the available values: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Value State Description
0 UNSENT Client has been created. open() not called yet.
1 OPENED open() has been called.
2 HEADERS_RECEIVED send() has been called, and headers and status are available.
3 LOADING Downloading; responseText holds partial data.
4 DONE The operation is complete.
Begana Choi
Begana Choi
Courses Plus Student 13,126 Points
Begana Choi
Begana Choi
Courses Plus Student 13,126 Points

wow! the table is very helpful. thank you so much!!

Torben Korb
seal-mask
PLUS
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Torben Korb
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 91,433 Points
Torben Korb
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Torben Korb
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 91,433 Points

Hi David, the readystate property returns the state the XHR client is in. This property will be updated, when any state changes in your request. The function you've assigned to the onreadystatechange will be called if any of this state-changing events happens.

See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/XMLHttpRequest/readyState

The === operator is a comparison operator and not to "set" something (this would be a single = operator). So actually you are asking if the readystate of the request is the number 4, which means state is "DONE" and the operation is completed. Any state below the number 4 would not make sense, because the request is still pending and not ready for you to work with the data you requested. Any number above 4 would never be in the state and your code would not be triggered.

You'll find more examples for XHR browser API here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/XMLHttpRequest/Using_XMLHttpRequest

Also more general information about the whole concept and for working with AJAX can you find here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/AJAX/Getting_Started

Working with asynchronous APIs can be tricky sometimes. Happy coding!