I am missing some probably trivial understanding regarding when jquery code can be called, and would like some pointers please.

the particular example happens to be for a slideshow, but could be any other jquery functionality.

So I have this situation where the normal call is on ready like this

1. <script type="text/javascript">
   
   function onBefore() {
       $('#output').html("Scrolling image:<br>" + this.src);
   }
   function onAfter() {
       $('#output').html("Scroll complete for:<br>" + this.src)
           .append('<h3>' + this.alt + '</h3>');
   }
   $(document).ready(function() {
       $('.slideshow').cycle({
         fx: 'scrollLeft',
         timeout: 5000,
         before : onBefore,
         after : onAfter
      });
   });
   
   </script>
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

I have included the 2 callback functions there but they are not relevant to my question particularly

Ok that works perfectly and all occurs as it should

What I actually want is the on ready function to call a getContent() function that loads content to the page and then calls the jquery

all works in terms of the content load, but the jquery call produces an error so I am obviously calling it incorrectly

my ready function just does this and works correctly

1. <script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
   http = getHTTPObject();
   http2 = getHTTPObject();
   loadContent();
});
</script>







the loadContent calls my serverside code by ajax correctly ( no particular reason not to use jquery ajax), but after the call I wish to initiate the slideshow so it looks like this



1. function initSS()
{
alert('starting');
alert('here');
        alert($('.slideshow').length);
    $('.slideshow').cycle({
                fx: 'scrollLeft',
                timeout: 5000,
                before : onBefore,
                after : onAfter
        });
alert('done');
}
function showContent()
{
        if(http.readyState == 4)
        {
alert(http.responseText);
                eval(http.responseText);
                initSS();
        }
}
function loadContent()
{
        var url='loadindexcontent.php';
//alert(url);
        http.open("GET",url, true);
        http.onreadystatechange=showContent;
        http.send(null);
}






























the content loads perfectly, just the jquery fails

any help would be greatly appreciated
John