How to catch error in jQuery's load() method

Question

I'm using jQuery's .load() method to retrieve some data when a user clicks on a button.

After the load successfully finishes, I show the result in a <div>.

The problem is, sometimes an error occurs in load() while retrieving the data.

How can I catch an error in load()?

Solution 1

load() documentation.

Just a little background on how a load error happens...

$("body").load("/someotherpath/feedsx.pxhp", {limit: 25}, 
    function (responseText, textStatus, req) {
        if (textStatus == "error") {
          return "oh noes!!!!";
        }
});

Edit: Added a path other than the root path as requested by comments.

Solution 2

Besides passing a callback to the load() function as Ólafur Waage suggests, you can also register "global" error handlers (global as in global for all ajax calls on the page).

There are at least two ways to register global Ajax error handlers :

Register just the error handler with ajaxError():

$.ajaxError(function(event, request, settings) {
      alert("Oops!!");
});

Or, use ajaxSetup() to set up an error handler and other properties at the same time:

$.ajaxSetup({
    timeout: 5000,
    error: function(event, request, settings){
        alert("Oops!");
    }
});

Solution 3

load() offers a callback.

Callback.
The function called when the ajax request is complete (not necessarily success).

This is how its done IIRC. (haven't tested it)

$("#feeds").load("feeds.php", {limit: 25}, 
    function (responseText, textStatus, XMLHttpRequest) {
        // XMLHttpRequest.responseText has the error info you want.
        alert(XMLHttpRequest.responseText);
});

Comments

[colm.anseo]

This question is from 2009, so please note from $.load: Prior to jQuery 3.0, the event handling suite also had a method named .load(). Older versions of jQuery determined which method to fire based on the set of arguments passed to it.

[David Dombrowsky]

thanks for the link to the jquery docs. I didn't know they even existed!

[Enrico Detoma]

The first argument of the function IS responseText. No need to use XMLHttpRequest.responseText...

[Resh32]

Thanks - load failures are mostly due to a problem when loading the target page.

[Dee]

i'm using jquery 3.5, and it has no $.ajaxError function, although it's still in documentation: api.jquery.com/ajaxError

[Dee]

As of jQuery 1.9, it's $(document).ajaxError instead of just $.ajaxError