How to make a timeout between function calls?

Question

My code works fine, except it opens all links at the same time. I would like to use a delay.

This opens all (more than one function "Open") at the same time:

waitForKeyElements ("input.submit[onclick*='Open']", clickOpenBtn);

but I want a delay between each function call (clickOpenBtn).

My complete code snippet:

setTimeout(CheckForZero, 30000); // OR just call CheckForZero() if you don't need to defer until processing is complete
function CheckForZero() {
    waitForKeyElements ("input.submit[onclick*='Open']", clickOpenBtn);
    setTimeout(CheckForZero, 30000);
}

function clickOpenBtn (jNode) {
    triggerMouseEvent (jNode[0], "click");
}

function triggerMouseEvent (node, eventType) {
    var clickEvent = document.createEvent ('MouseEvents');
    clickEvent.initEvent (eventType, true, true);
    node.dispatchEvent (clickEvent);
}

What can I do?

w35l3y · Answer 1 · 2013-09-26T01:25:01.820

1

You should be more specific about the selector used at waitForKeyElements, something like the parent node of all links. So that the actionFunction would execute once and then you could do:

waitForKeyElements ("...", function (p) {
    $("input.submit[onclick*='Open']", p).each(clickOpenBtn);
});

function clickOpenBtn (index, jNode) {
    setTimeout(function () {
        triggerMouseEvent (jNode[0], "click");
    }, 1000 * index);
}

edited Sep 26 '13 at 01:25

answered Sep 25 '13 at 01:06

w35l3y

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This has 3 problems: (1) The parent node may be found before it is populated. (2) Subsequent inputs will not be found after the first batch. (3) Wrong type argument sent to `triggerMouseEvent`. – Brock Adams Sep 25 '13 at 03:47
Thanks @BrockAdams. Fixed the type argument. The other "problems" might be desired. – w35l3y Sep 26 '13 at 01:30
Thanks. Doubtful, but +1 in case. – Brock Adams Sep 26 '13 at 01:31

Brock Adams · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-25T03:52:58.110

In this case, push the nodes into a FIFO queue and use setInterval, not setTimeout to work the queue. The code becomes:

var nodesToClick = []; //-- This array will hold the FIFO queue.

waitForKeyElements ("input.submit[onclick*='Open']", loadNodeQueue);

function loadNodeQueue (jNode) {
    nodesToClick.push (jNode[0]);   //-- Add to end
}

var nodeClkInterval = setInterval (workNodeQueue, 30000);

function workNodeQueue () {
    if (nodesToClick.length) {
        var node = nodesToClick.shift (); //-- Remove from beginning
        triggerMouseEvent (node, "click");
    }
}

function triggerMouseEvent (node, eventType) {
    var clickEvent = document.createEvent ('MouseEvents');
    clickEvent.initEvent (eventType, true, true);
    node.dispatchEvent (clickEvent);
}

How to make a timeout between function calls?

2 Answers2