Knowing when all other ready callbacks are done

Question

I want my handler of the ready event will fire after all other handlers are done.
It's extremely handy for manipulating plugins' undesired actions.

If I write my handler after all others, it only guarantees it will fire after all others fired, not finished:

$(function() {
    setTimeout(function() { alert('other handler'); }, 500);
});


$(function() { alert('my handler'); });​

Fiddle

In that code, my handler alerted first.

I read that before jQuery version 1.4 the readyList was public. so in version 1.7 I have no idea how I can tell that my handler is the last handler or not.

Answer 1

If the idea is that you don't control the other ready handlers, then given your example where another handler used a setTimeout, you can never actually know (without inspecting the other code) if your code will run after all other code.

The readyList wouldn't help even if it was public, because in your example, the handler with the setTimeout will be removed from the readyList long before the setTimeout handler runs. The readyList Array doesn't have any control over that sort of asynchronous code either.

So if you don't control (can't modify) the other code, then I really don't have a solution. But if the other code is just long running, but not asynchronous, then there wouldn't be any issue, because if your code is the last .ready() handler assigned, it shouldn't matter how long the other handlers take to execute. If their code is synchronous, it will force yours to wait until they're complete. It's just that if they're using asynchronous code, like your setTimeout example, then there's nothing you can do short of examining the other code, and modifying yours to make sure it fires last.