Tabs: Programmatically loading a tab shouldn't cancel active ajax requests

[Azhrei]

I tried to implement an ajax-heavy page using Tabs and found multiple issues where some added details in the documentation would've been very helpful:

• tabs("add", ...) will automatically load the page referenced by the URL parameter if it is the first tab being added.

• tabs("load", ...) will cancel any pending ajax requests by Tabs before queuing up the new one.

I believe the second one might be a bug. I would like to load my page, dynamically determine which tabs I need and call add (which will auto-load the first one), and then queue up load requests for the others tabs. Ideally, I'd like the other tabs to load only upon completion of the first one.

Currently, in order to accomplish this here's what I do: call add and create all tabs with a URL of # (so nothing auto-loads), call url and change the URL for the first tab, call load and start it loading. In the tabsload event I set a timer to go off that does the same thing again for the next tab. I have to use a timer since the tabsload event is fired while handling the current ajax request and a direct attempt to call load for the next tab seems to cancel the current one!

This is the case with 1.8.10 and I've looked at the code for 1.8.11 and still see calls to .abort() inside load -- and a call to .load() inside add -- so I don't think anything has changed in this regard in the latest version.

[Corey Frang]

You want something along the lines of: "The page referenced by the URL will not be loaded until the tab is selected (which may be immediately if no other tabs exist)" on the docs for the add method?

I think that the "load" method calling .abort() could actually be considered a bug...

The behavior probably exists for the case when someone clicks quickly between two tabs to cancel the 'useless' request before sending a new one, but I think that manual calls to "load" should just start a request for that content, and perhaps even in the double navigation cancel it may be worth it to just load the content anyway - you already made the request...

[Azhrei]

Replying to gnarf:

You want something along the lines of: "The page referenced by the URL will not be loaded until the tab is selected (which may be immediately if no other tabs exist)" on the docs for the add method?

Yes, that would work. Note that add() actually calls load(). I can't see how an ajax request could already be active when add() is called, but I just wanted to point that out.

I think that the "load" method calling .abort() could actually be considered a bug...

The behavior probably exists for the case when someone clicks quickly between two tabs to cancel the 'useless' request before sending a new one, but I think that manual calls to "load" should just start a request for that content, and perhaps even in the double navigation cancel it may be worth it to just load the content anyway - you already made the request...

But again, it would be the select() method that cancels existing requests, not load(). I can completely understand the thinking behind having an existing request canceled, I just think it belongs in select() instead of in load(). Note that moving the call to abort() from load() to select() means your existing scenario stays the same, but programmatic uses of load() allow for multiple simultaneous requests...

[Scott González]

I'm changing this ticket to be a bug about the load behavior.

[Scott González]

Tabs: Don't cancel existing ajax requests when programmatically loading a tab. Fixes #7204 - Tabs: Programmatically loading a tab shouldn't cancel active ajax requests.

Changeset: 03939fc8c14cd93f081c3195cdcdef6c56a6fccf