$.ajax( { async : false } ) request is still firing asynchronously? - asp.net-mvc

Question

I got a little problem here guys. I'm trying to implement the following scenario:
A user opens the home page and sees a list of other users and clicks
to add one to his friend list.
I issue an Ajax request to a server resource to validate if the user
is logged in, if so, I issue another ajax request to another server
resource to actually add it to the user's friend list.
Sounds simple? Here's what I've done: I created a function isLoggedIn that will issue the first request to the server in order to determine if the user is logged in. I issue this request using jQuery.ajax method. Here's my function looks like:
function isLoggedIn() {
$.ajax({
async: "false",
type: "GET",
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
dataType: "json",
url: "/isloggedin",
success: function(jsonData) {
alert("jsonData =" + jsonData.LoggedIn);
return jsonData.LoggedIn;
}
});
}
The returned JSON is very simple, it looks like the following:
{ LoggedIn: true } or { LoggedIn : false }
Now this method, actually works and displays the alert correctly: JsonData = true if logged in, and JsonData = false if not logged in.
Up to this point there's no problem, the problem occurs when I try to call this method: I call it like so:
$(".friend_set .img").click(function() {
debugger;
if (isLoggedIn()) {
alert("alredy logged in");
trackAsync();
popupNum = 6;
}
else {
alert("not logged in"); //always displays this message.
popupNum = 1;
}
//centering with css
centerPopup(popupNum);
//load popup
loadPopup(popupNum);
return false;
});
Calling isLoggedIn always returns false, and it returns false before the ajax request finishes (because the messagejsonData = trueis displayed after the message "not logged in". I made sure that the request is **NOT** Asynchronous by statingasync: false`!
Apparently it's still working asynchronously, though. What am I missing here guys?

Answer 1

You need async:false, not async:"false". (i.e. pass boolean false, not string "false").
Edit:
also with async requests you need to return a value after the call to ajax, not inside your success handler:
function isLoggedIn() {
var isLoggedIn;
$.ajax({
async: false,
// ...
success: function(jsonData) {
isLoggedIn = jsonData.LoggedIn
}
});
return isLoggedIn
}