How to tell the server this is the first request on this div?

[mattwalshdev]

I have long running backend tasks that I poll a db with hx-trigger for updated info, percentage complete etc. Subsequent requests replace the outerhtml with a htmx hx-trigger="every 2000ms" attribute so it keeps checking.

It doesn't have hx-trigger="every 2000ms" poll on page load, it runs it after a form is processed, so I've had to add a hx-vals flag to tell the server this div isn't polling yet, run setup then replace with poll query.

Is hx-vals needed here, or is there a way for the server to know this is the initial state of this div? hx-vals feels like a bit of an escape hatch, so don't want to rely on it if can avoid. Does the server have access to what is listed in hx-trigger? I could see if it contains "every 2000ms" and if not, start polling.

[Telroshan]

Hey, if you're replacing the whole div anyway with an element having that new hx-trigger attribute to make it poll, is adding a URL parameter to your initial element's URL worth considering in your situation ?
Suppose having this initial element

<div hx-get="/url?initialRequest=true" hx-target="this" hx-swap="outerHTML" hx-trigger="load"></div>

Then swapping it with

<div hx-get="/url" hx-target="this" hx-swap="outerHTML" hx-trigger="every 2000ms"></div>

Then you could retrieve that parameter on your backend to find out whether it's the initial request or a polled one.

Hope this helps!