polling with jQuery deferred

Question

I am trying to poll a database for the values of a few columns the polling function works. However I would like to be able to use a deferred to let the function that calls the polling function to know when it is complete. Using what I have below I am getting either a has no method 'resolve' or a has no method 'promise' error

//how I call the poll function
poll(Guids.Creation,$.Deferred);

var poll = function (guid,defer) {
    var timeOut = 3000,
    url = 'handler.ashx',
    data = {
        cmd : 4 ,guid : guid
    };    
    App.Generic.ajax(url,"GET", this, data).done(function (data) {
        var orderStatusJSON = $.parseJSON(data);
        if (orderStatusJSON.hasOwnProperty('dateFinished') && orderStatusJSON.dateFinished === '') {
            setTimeout(function(){poll(guid,defer)}, 3000);
        } else {
            if (orderStatusJSON.hasOwnProperty('output')) {
                var successRegEx = /\bsuccess\b/i, 
                errorRegEx = /\berror\\b/i;    
                if(successRegEx.test(orderStatusJSON.output)) {
                    defer.resolve(orderStatusJSON);
                } else if (errorRegEx.test(orderStatusJSON.output)) {
                    defer.resolve(orderStatusJSON);
                } else {
                    defer.resolve(orderStatusJSON); //execute statement
                }
            }
        }
    });
    return defer.promise();
};

Answer 1

$.Deferred is just a method of the jQuery object. You need to construct a Deferred object to use it:

var deferred = new $.Deferred();