3.18. Checking a coffee maker's status

Now that you can use the utility functions in text-utils.js, you can easily check the status of a coffee maker using the getText() function, like this:

function orderCoffee() {
    var name = document.getElementById("name").value;
    var beverage = getBeverage();
    var size = getSize();

    var coffeemakerStatusDiv1 =
    document.getElementById("coffeemaker1-status");
This gets the <div> that holds
the status for the first coffee maker.
    var status = getText(coffeemakerStatusDiv1);getText()
will return the text in the coffeemaker1-status <div>.
    if (status == "Idle") {
    // Update the coffee maker's statusWe still need to
figure out how to update the coffee
maker's status, too.

    var url = "coffeemaker.php?name=" + escape(name) +If the first coffee
maker is idle, we want to send the coffee order to it, and let
it brew the order.
                            "&size=" + escape(size) +
                            "&beverage=" + escape(beverage) +
                            "&coffeemaker=1";

        sendRequest(url);
    }
}

getText()getText() will return the text
within a <div>, or any other
element that you give it.
text-utils.js has several
JavaScript functions for working
with the DOM. We'll cover the
DOM in detail in Chapter 4.
text-utils.jsAll the code in text-utils.js is in Appendix 2. You
can check it out now, or wait until we've talked
more about the DOM in Chapter 4.