loading js files dynamically via another js file?

Question

is there anyway to load other JS files from within a single JS file. I would like to point my individual pages "ITS" js file and that js file would load jquery, other js files.

I know i can just pop all these into the html i.e.

I was thinking of separations of concerns so i was wondering if anything exists already without me reinventing the wheel....

That i would just need to edit home.js to change what other js (jquery etc) are loaded for home.htm ... home.htm would just point to home.js

Thanks

Answer 1

You can take a look at dynamic script loading. Here's an excerpt from the article:

var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.type = 'text/javascript';
script.src = 'helper.js';
head.appendChild(script);

Answer 2

For external domain JS link

var loadJs = function(jsPath) { 
 var s = document.createElement('script');
 s.setAttribute('type', 'text/javascript');
 s.setAttribute('src', jsPath);
 document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(s);
};
loadJs('http://other.com/other.js'); 

For same domain JS link (Using jQuery)

var getScript = function(jsPath, callback) {
 $.ajax({
 dataType:'script',
 async:false,
 cache:true,
 url:jsPath,
 success:function(response) {
 if (callback && typeof callback == 'function') callback();
 }
 });
};
getScript('js/other.js', function() { functionFromOther(); }); 

Answer 3

This is similar to Darin's solution, except it doesn't make any variables.

document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(document.createElement("script")).src = "helper.js";

• eyelidlessness: Or you could just wrap the more readable solution in (function() {...})();

Answer 4

Google offers centrally hosted versions of the major javascript libraries like jQuery. They can be dynamically loaded using the google loader.

http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxlibs/documentation/

Answer 5

I'd suggest you take a look at labJS. It's a library made specifically to load Javascript. As they say..."The core purpose of LABjs is to be an all-purpose, on-demand JavaScript loader, capable of loading any JavaScript resource, from any location, into any page, at any time."

See the labJS home page for more information.