Compare current HTML with data returned from PHP AJAX call

Question

I'm having issues comparing current list items on a page with ones that are retrieved through a PHP AJAX refresh. I only want the box to refresh if there are new items.

The PHP returns a bunch of formatted, HTML list items.

<ul class="socialFeed twitterFeed">
    <script type="text/javascript">
        $(function() {
            refreshTweets();
        });
        function refreshTweets() {
            $.get("php/tweets.php", function(data){
                var current = $(".socialFeed.twitterFeed").html();
                if(current != data) {
                    $(".socialFeed.twitterFeed").hide().html(data).fadeIn();
                }
            });
        }
        setInterval("refreshTweets()", 2000);
    </script>
</ul>

I can't figure out why the string comparison isn't working. I'm missing something, but I'm not sure what.

What do console_log's of data and current give you? You'd better save an old version of data to compare against. Apart from that I would try to modify the php to save a timestamp (in for example a session) so that you can use that to get only the tweets since that time. — jeroen
– jeroen, Commented Jan 8, 2013 at 20:54
There is no guarantee that the html generated from the dom will be the same as the html the dom was built from. — Musa
– Musa, Commented Jan 8, 2013 at 20:54
You will need to change the way you comparing your data. Ins't these tweets have any identifier? — davidbuzatto
– davidbuzatto, Commented Jan 8, 2013 at 20:55

A. Wolff · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-08 20:57:20Z

2

Try this:

<ul class="socialFeed twitterFeed">
    <script type="text/javascript">
        var current;
        $(function() {
            refreshTweets();
        });
        function refreshTweets() {
            $.get("php/tweets.php", function(data){
                if(current != data) {
                    current = data;
                    $(".socialFeed.twitterFeed").hide().html(data).fadeIn();
                }
            });
        }
        setInterval(refreshTweets, 2000);
    </script>
</ul>

answered Jan 8, 2013 at 20:57

A. Wolff

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