HTML not getting changed after jQuery call is made successfully - php

Question

I have a voting mechanism on the site. When people vote up or down, this code is called:
// Called right away after someone clicks on the vote up link
$('.vote_up').click(function()
{
var problem_id = $(this).attr("data-problem_id");
queue.voteUp = $(this).attr('problem_id');
var span = $(this).closest('span').find('span.votes');
queue.span = span;
vote(problem_id , 1);
//Return false to prevent page navigation
return false;
});
and the vote function that it calls looks like this:
var vote = function(problem_id , vote)
{
if ( vote == 1 )
{
queue.voteUp = problem_id;
}
else
if ( vote == -1 )
{
queue.voteDown = problem_id;
}
var dataString = 'problem_id=' + problem_id + '&vote=' + vote;
// The person is actually logged in so lets have him vote
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/problems/vote.php",
dataType: "json",
data: dataString,
success: function(data)
{
text = queue.span.text ();
if ( vote == -1 )
{
if ( data == "update_success" )
{
incrementedText = parseInt(text ,10) - 2;
}
else
{
incrementedText = parseInt(text ,10) - 1;
}
}
else
if ( vote == 1 )
{
if ( data == "update_success" )
{
incrementedText = parseInt(text ,10) + 2;
}
else
{
incrementedText = parseInt(text ,10) + 1;
}
}
queue.span.text(incrementedText + " ");
},
error : function(data)
{
errorMessage = data.responseText;
if ( errorMessage == "not_logged_in" )
{
queue.login = false;
//set the current problem id to the one within the dialog
$problemId.val(problem_id);
// Try to create the popup that asks user to log in.
// $dialog.dialog('open');
$("#loginpopup").dialog();
errorMessage = "";
// prevent the default action, e.g., following a link
return false;
}
else
if ( errorMessage == "already_voted" )
{
// Display a dialog box saying that the user already voted
$('<div />').html('You already voted this way on this problem.').dialog();
}
else
if ( errorMessage == "error_getting_vote" )
{
$('<div />').html('Error getting existing votes.').dialog();
}
else
{
// ? :)
}
} // End of error case
}); // Closing AJAX call.
};
and here is the PHP that made the HTML for the vote button. The link is called "important" or "not important" :
echo '<span class="half_text" style="color: #B77F37;">'.$problem_date.'</span>
<span id="votes" class="half_text" style="padding-left: 10px;">'.$vote.'</span>
<strong> <a class="vote_up" style="font-size: 80.0%; color: #295B7B; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none;" href="#" data-problem_id="'.$problem_id.'">Important</a></strong>
|
<strong><a class="vote_down" style="font-size: 80.0%; color: #295B7B; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none;" href="#" data-problem_id="'.$problem_id.'">Not Important</a></strong>';
When a user votes, the AJAX gets called, and everything works ok. The only problem is that the HTML does not get updated with the new vote count. Any idea how I can accomplish that?

Answer 1

In your JavaScript you attempt to select the <span id="votes"> using the votes class ($(this).closest('span').find('span.votes');). So I recommend changing:
<span id="votes" class="half_text" style="padding-left: 10px;">
To:
<span class="votes half_text" style="padding-left: 10px;">
I recommend using a parent element to make your selector work properly:
$('.vote_up').click(function() {
console.log($(this).parents('div:first').children('.votes'));
});
//this requires there to be a div element that is the ancestor of the code you posted
Here is a jsfiddle of the above solution: http://jsfiddle.net/jasper/DzZCY/1/