Ajax update on div with a id - php

Question

How would I go about updating a div with a id every x seconds? I want it to update the users statuses which are contained inside this, that includes the time the amount of comments made on that individual post.
I've tried setInterval but it takes 10 seconds for the status to be added and then duplicates the status every x amounts of seconds after that. All I need is for the response data to be updated not the insertion of the comment to be re-added every 10 seconds.
HTML:
<div id='divider-"+response['streamitem_id']+'></div>
JavaScript:
$(document).ready(function(){
$("form#myform").submit(function(event) {
event.preventDefault();
var content = $("#toid").val();
var newmsg = $("#newmsg").val();
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "insert.php",
cache: false,
dataType: "json",
data: { toid: content, newmsg: newmsg },
success: function(response){
$("#homestatusid").html("<div id='divider-"+response['streamitem_id']+"'><div class='userinfo'>X</div><a href='/profile.php?username="+response['username']+"'>"+response['first']+" "+ response['middle']+" "+response['last']+"<span class='subtleLink'> said</span><br/><a class='subtleLink' style='font-weight:normal;'>"+response['streamitem_timestamp']+"</a><hr>"+newmsg+"<div style='height:20px;' class='post_contextoptions'><div id='streamcomment'><a style='cursor:pointer;' id='commenttoggle_"+response['streamitem_id']+"' onclick=\"toggle_comments('comment_holder_"+response['streamitem_id']+"');clearTimeout(streamloop);swapcommentlabel(this.id);\">Write a comment...</a></div><div id='streamlike'><a id='likecontext_"+response['streamitem_id']+"' style='cursor:pointer;' onClick=\"likestatus("+response['streamitem_id']+",this.id);\"><div style='width:50px;' id='likesprint"+response['streamitem_id']+"'>Like</div></a><div style='width:50px;' id='likesprint"+response['streamitem_id']+"'></div></div><div id='streamdislike'><a id='dislikecontext_"+response['streamitem_id']+"' style='cursor:pointer;' onClick=\"dislikestatus("+response['streamitem_id']+",this.id);\"><div style='width:70px;' id='dislikesprint"+response['streamitem_id']+"'>Dislike</div></a><div style='width:70px;' id='dislikesprint"+response['streamitem_id']+"'></div></div></div><div class='stream_comment_holder' style='display:none;' id='comment_holder_"+response['streamitem_id']+"'><div id='comment_list_"+response['streamitem_id']+"'><table width=100%><tr><td valign=top width=30px><img class='stream_profileimage' style='border:none;padding:0px;display:inline;' border=\"0\" src=\"imgs/cropped"+response['id']+".jpg\" onerror='this.src=\"img/no_profile_img.jpeg\"' width=\"40\" height=\"40\" ></a><td valign=top align=left><div class='stream_comment_inputarea'><input id='addcomment' type='text' name='content' style='width:100%;' class='input_comment' placeholder='Write a comment...' onkeyup='growcommentinput(this);' autocomplete='off' onkeypress=\"if(event.keyCode==13){addcomment("+response['streamitem_id']+",this.value,'comment_list_"+response['streamitem_id']+"',"+response['id']+",'"+response['first']+" "+ response['middle']+" "+response['last']+"');this.value='';}\"><br/></div></div>");
}
});
return false
});
});
INSERT.PHP
$json = array();
$check = "SELECT streamitem_id FROM streamdata WHERE streamitem_creator='$user1_id' ORDER BY streamitem_id DESC";
$check1 = mysql_query($check);
$resultArr = mysql_fetch_array($check1);
$json['streamitem_id'] = $resultArr['streamitem_id'];
mysql_free_result($check1);
$check = "SELECT streamitem_timestamp FROM streamdata WHERE streamitem_creator='$user1_id' ORDER BY streamitem_timestamp DESC";
$check1 = mysql_query($check);
$resultArr = mysql_fetch_array($check1);
$json['streamitem_timestamp'] = Agotime($resultArr['streamitem_timestamp']);
mysql_free_result($check1);
$check = "SELECT username, id, first, middle, last FROM users";
$check1 = mysql_query($check);
$resultArr = mysql_fetch_array($check1);
$json['username'] = $resultArr['username'];
$json['id'] = $resultArr['id'];
$json['first'] = $resultArr['first'];
$json['middle'] = $resultArr['middle'];
$json['last'] = $resultArr['last'];
mysql_free_result($check1);
echo json_encode($json);

Answer 1

First wrap up the Ajax call in a single-execution function, with the callback function referring to the same:
$(function() {
(function ajaxcall() {
$.ajax({
url: 'foo.php',
data: {boo:'moo',goo:'loo'},
timeout: function() { ajaxcall(); },
success: function(data) {
//do somethng with the data
//done, now call the function again:
ajaxcall();
}
});
}());
});
Then in the PHP write something like:
$timeout = 30;
$pollinterval = .5;
$counter = 30;
while ($counter >= 0) {
//function which fetches fresh data and sets $test to true if data is returned
list($test,$dataarray) = fetchdata();
if ($test) { //JSON_encode the data array and send it
echo JSON_ENCODE($dataarray);
}
else { //no fresh data, query the db again after wating for some time)
usleep($pollinterval*1000);
$counter -= $pollinterval;
}
//timeout, return whetever you have!
echo JSON_ENCODE($dataarray);

Answer 2

You can use setInterval (see Documentation) or setTimeout (see Documentation).

Answer 3

Sounds like polling. You can include an AJAX call, that will send a request to a backend PHP script that will search the database for further update. if found, it will immediately return the new result. The client side JS on receiving the new data, will wait for say 30 seconds before making another request. If the PHP doesn't find any new data, then it will query the DB again, say after 5 seconds, and continue to do so until a script-defined timeout, say 25 seconds, occur. Then it will return an empty result, on receiving which the client side JS will immediately make another request.

Answer 4

I think this is what you're wanting, using Jquery:
HTML:
<div id="divider-whatever"></div>
Jquery:
$(document).ready(function() {
setInterval(function() {
div = $("#divider-whatever");
$.get(data.php, function(responseData) {
div.html(responseData);
}, 1000);
// change 1000 to whatever time you need
// change data.php to the file where your data is coming from
});
});
*not tested
Hope this helps!