Can't access ajax variable outside a request to a confluence page

[Daniel Baron]

The code below doesn't change mytoggle from 0 to 1 which is what should happen according to this SO link. Is this somehow Confluence related?  

    var mytoggle = 0;
    $.ajax({
      type: "PUT",
      url: "/rest/api/content/" + page_id,
      data: JSON.stringify(pageData),
      contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
	success: function (data) {
        mytoggle = 1;
      },
    });
    alert(mytoggle);
  

[Steven F Behnke · Accepted solution]

Do NOT use async:false. So many of the comments on that stack overflow post explain why that's a terrible idea. And it's deprecated. That is the WRONG way to handle Ajax.

Just use the .success() callback method and pass 'data' to a function and call alert there.

[Daniel Baron]

Thanks, I think it's working. Fyi that SO link presents async: false as the correct way to go, I just joined SO and don't have enough fake internet points to comment. Thanks again.

[Steven F Behnke]

Agreed, that post is not terribly clear, especially the first answer and it's comments. I have no stack overflow points either, so I also can't comment  :/

Good luck! 

[Steven F Behnke]

The stackoverflow post is pretty clear. This is the script, not Confluence.

1. You set mytoggle = 0
2. You start an ajax request
3. You use an 'alert' to display 'mytoggle'
4. The ajax request completes and sets mytoggle to 1

Ajax is asynchronous. You're calling 'alert()' before the ajax completes. Checkout the stackoverflow post again.

[Daniel Baron]

Okay I've tried including async:false like below, which successfully changes mytoggle to 1 but I still can't get my_toggle to only cause a single alert. The code below will give an alert for every successful ajax request instead of just one. Trying to put the if (my_toggle == 1) statement later in the code gives a "my_toggle is not defined" error. 

function thisFunction() {
 for (i = 0; i < inputs.length; i++) {
  ...
  ...
   $.get('/rest/api/content?spaceKey=EXPERTISE&title=' + skillName + '&expand=space,body.storage,version,container', function (data, status) {
 var pageData = data.results[0];
 var existing_body = pageData.body.storage.value; 
 pageData.version.number += 1;
        var page_id = pageData.id;
        pageData.body.storage.value = pageData.body.storage.value + "hello world";
 
        var my_toggle = 0;
 $.ajax({
          type: "PUT",
   async: false,
          url: "/rest/api/content/" + page_id,
          data: JSON.stringify(pageData),
          contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",        
   success: function() {
              my_toggle = 1;
          }
        });
        if (my_toggle == 1){
          alert('Success!!');
      });
    } 
  }
}