Using jQuery to find the current logged in user SharePoint 2010

JavaScript / jQuery on the page at either:

• $(document).ready
• _spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames

will not return the required result, since the menu elements we need to interrogate have not been rendered yet.

Solution:

• Set a timer to keep running a particular function to wait until the menu is rendered
• Stop the timer
• Interrogate the DOM as required using jQuery

Code Example:

 1 <script type='text/javascript'>
 2 
 3  var timerHandle = "";
 4  var currentWindowsAccount = "";
 5  _spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("runCustom");
 6 
 7  function runCustom() {
 8   timerHandle = setTimeout(getCurrentLoggedInUser, 10);
 9  }
10 
11  function getCurrentLoggedInUser() {
12   //Function requires jQuery
13 
14   /* Retrieve the current logged in user from the My Profile option in      **
15   ** the Welcome Menu (id=ID_MySiteLinksMenu)                                 **
16   ** This needs a timeout to wait for the menu to be rendered via AJAX */
17 
18   //Timers are expensive on client resources, clear at all opportunities
19   clearTimeout(timerHandle);
20 
21   var welcomeMenuItems = $('#ID_MySiteLinksMenu'); //ie:menu with id='ID_MySiteLinksMenu'
22 
23   if (welcomeMenuItems.length > 0) {
24    var onmenuclickValue = welcomeMenuItems.attr("onmenuclick");
25    var onmenuclicksplit = onmenuclickValue.split("=");
26    var loggedInUserString = onmenuclicksplit[1];
27    var loggedInUserStringSplit = loggedInUserString.split("'");
28 
29    currentWindowsAccount = loggedInUserStringSplit[0];
30    alert(currentWindowsAccount);
31   }
32   else {
33    //My Profile link has not been rendered yet, try again.
34    timerHandle = setTimeout(getCurrentLoggedInUser, 10);
35   }
36  }
37 
38 </script>