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Function return from XMLHttpRequest [duplicate]

I'm trying to load JS scripts dynamically, but using jQuery is not an option.
I checked jQuery source to see how getScript was implemented so that I could use that approach to load scripts using native JS. However, getScript only calls jQuery.get()
and I haven't been able to find where the get method is implemented.
So my question is,
What's a reliable way to implement my own getScript method using native JavaScript?
Thanks!

Here's a jQuery getScript alternative with callback functionality:
function getScript(source, callback) {
var script = document.createElement('script');
var prior = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
script.async = 1;
script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = function( _, isAbort ) {
if(isAbort || !script.readyState || /loaded|complete/.test(script.readyState) ) {
script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = null;
script = undefined;
if(!isAbort && callback) setTimeout(callback, 0);
}
};
script.src = source;
prior.parentNode.insertBefore(script, prior);
}

You can fetch scripts like this:
(function(document, tag) {
var scriptTag = document.createElement(tag), // create a script tag
firstScriptTag = document.getElementsByTagName(tag)[0]; // find the first script tag in the document
scriptTag.src = 'your-script.js'; // set the source of the script to your script
firstScriptTag.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptTag, firstScriptTag); // append the script to the DOM
}(document, 'script'));

use this
var js_script = document.createElement('script');
js_script.type = "text/javascript";
js_script.src = "http://www.example.com/script.js";
js_script.async = true;
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(js_script);

Firstly, Thanks for #Mahn's answer. I rewrote his solution in ES6 and promise, in case someone need it, I will just paste my code here:
const loadScript = (source, beforeEl, async = true, defer = true) => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
let script = document.createElement('script');
const prior = beforeEl || document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
script.async = async;
script.defer = defer;
function onloadHander(_, isAbort) {
if (isAbort || !script.readyState || /loaded|complete/.test(script.readyState)) {
script.onload = null;
script.onreadystatechange = null;
script = undefined;
if (isAbort) { reject(); } else { resolve(); }
}
}
script.onload = onloadHander;
script.onreadystatechange = onloadHander;
script.src = source;
prior.parentNode.insertBefore(script, prior);
});
}
Usage:
const scriptUrl = 'https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js?onload=onRecaptchaLoad&render=explicit';
loadScript(scriptUrl).then(() => {
console.log('script loaded');
}, () => {
console.log('fail to load script');
});
and code is eslinted.

This polishes up previous ES6 solutions and will work in all modern browsers
Load and Get Script as a Promise
const getScript = url => new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
const script = document.createElement('script')
script.src = url
script.async = true
script.onerror = reject
script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = function() {
const loadState = this.readyState
if (loadState && loadState !== 'loaded' && loadState !== 'complete') return
script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = null
resolve()
}
document.head.appendChild(script)
})
Usage
getScript('https://dummyjs.com/js')
.then(() => {
console.log('Loaded', dummy.text())
})
.catch(() => {
console.error('Could not load script')
})
Also works for JSONP endpoints
const callbackName = `_${Date.now()}`
getScript('http://example.com/jsonp?callback=' + callbackName)
.then(() => {
const data = window[callbackName];
console.log('Loaded', data)
})
Also, please be careful with some of the AJAX solutions listed as they are bound to the CORS policy in modern browsers https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CORS

There are some good solutions here but many are outdated. There is a good one by #Mahn but as stated in a comment it is not exactly a replacement for $.getScript() as the callback does not receive data. I had already written my own function for a replacement for $.get() and landed here when I need it to work for a script. I was able to use #Mahn's solution and modify it a bit along with my current $.get() replacement and come up with something that works well and is simple to implement.
function pullScript(url, callback){
pull(url, function loadReturn(data, status, xhr){
//If call returned with a good status
if(status == 200){
var script = document.createElement('script');
//Instead of setting .src set .innerHTML
script.innerHTML = data;
document.querySelector('head').appendChild(script);
}
if(typeof callback != 'undefined'){
//If callback was given skip an execution frame and run callback passing relevant arguments
setTimeout(function runCallback(){callback(data, status, xhr)}, 0);
}
});
}
function pull(url, callback, method = 'GET', async = true) {
//Make sure we have a good method to run
method = method.toUpperCase();
if(!(method === 'GET' || method === 'POST' || method === 'HEAD')){
throw new Error('method must either be GET, POST, or HEAD');
}
//Setup our request
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (xhr.readyState == XMLHttpRequest.DONE) { // XMLHttpRequest.DONE == 4
//Once the request has completed fire the callback with relevant arguments
//you should handle in your callback if it was successful or not
callback(xhr.responseText, xhr.status, xhr);
}
};
//Open and send request
xhr.open(method, url, async);
xhr.send();
}
Now we have a replacement for $.get() and $.getScript() that work just as simply:
pullScript(file1, function(data, status, xhr){
console.log(data);
console.log(status);
console.log(xhr);
});
pullScript(file2);
pull(file3, function loadReturn(data, status){
if(status == 200){
document.querySelector('#content').innerHTML = data;
}
}

Mozilla Developer Network provides an example that works asynchronously and does not use 'onreadystatechange' (from #ShaneX's answer) that is not really present in a HTMLScriptTag:
function loadError(oError) {
throw new URIError("The script " + oError.target.src + " didn't load correctly.");
}
function prefixScript(url, onloadFunction) {
var newScript = document.createElement("script");
newScript.onerror = loadError;
if (onloadFunction) { newScript.onload = onloadFunction; }
document.currentScript.parentNode.insertBefore(newScript, document.currentScript);
newScript.src = url;
}
Sample usage:
prefixScript("myScript1.js");
prefixScript("myScript2.js", function () { alert("The script \"myScript2.js\" has been correctly loaded."); });
But #Agamemnus' comment should be considered: The script might not be fully loaded when onloadFunction is called. A timer could be used setTimeout(func, 0) to let the event loop finalize the added script to the document. The event loop finally calls the function behind the timer and the script should be ready to use at this point.
However, maybe one should consider returning a Promise instead of providing two functions for exception & success handling, that would be the ES6 way. This would also render the need for a timer unnecessary, because Promises are handled by the event loop - becuase by the time the Promise is handled, the script was already finalized by the event loop.
Implementing Mozilla's method including Promises, the final code looks like this:
function loadScript(url)
{
return new Promise(function(resolve, reject)
{
let newScript = document.createElement("script");
newScript.onerror = reject;
newScript.onload = resolve;
document.currentScript.parentNode.insertBefore(newScript, document.currentScript);
newScript.src = url;
});
}
loadScript("test.js").then(() => { FunctionFromExportedScript(); }).catch(() => { console.log("rejected!"); });

window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded',
function() {
var head = document.getElementsByTagName('HEAD')[0];
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.src = "/Content/index.js";
head.appendChild(script);
});

Here's a version that preserves the accept and x-requested-with headers, like jquery getScript:
function pullScript(url, callback){
pull(url, function loadReturn(data, status, xhr){
if(status === 200){
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.innerHTML = data; // Instead of setting .src set .innerHTML
document.querySelector('head').appendChild(script);
}
if (typeof callback != 'undefined'){
// If callback was given skip an execution frame and run callback passing relevant arguments
setTimeout(function runCallback(){callback(data, status, xhr)}, 0);
}
});
}
function pull(url, callback) {
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (xhr.readyState === XMLHttpRequest.DONE) {
callback(xhr.responseText, xhr.status, xhr);
}
};
xhr.open('GET', url, true);
xhr.setRequestHeader('accept', '*/*;q=0.5, text/javascript, application/javascript, application/ecmascript, application/x-ecmascript');
xhr.setRequestHeader('x-requested-with', 'XMLHttpRequest');
xhr.send();
}
pullScript(URL);

How to check if a dynamically created file exists on AWS S3 using JS

I have a server side script that dynamically creates a js file in an s3 bucket after a given url has 1 page view. The server side script runs every 1 minute.
On any given URL on the site, I have a script which tries to call this dynamically created file.
Such as:
var host = window.location.host;
var pathName = window.location.pathname;
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.async = true;
script.type = 'text/javascript';
script.src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/some_bucket/"+host+pathName+".js;
var node = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
node.parentNode.insertBefore(script, node);
})();
The problem is that if a new URL is created on the site and the first visitor goes to that page then the cron job has had a chance to run, and therefore the js file does not exist in the bucket yet. This causes a 404 error but also causes an error in the on-page javascript above crashing the js library that contains it.
Is there a way to check the existence of the file on the fly and default to a different file if the dynamically created one has not been built yet?
For example (pseudo code):
try{
script.src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/some_bucket/"+host+pathName+".js;
}
catch(e){
404error = true;
}
finally{
if(404error == true){
script.src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/some_bucket/DEFAULT.js";
}
}
Updated code with calling a different file on error. This successfully calls the other file, however it also still causes a 404 error in Chrome.
var host = window.location.host;
var pathName = window.location.pathname;
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.async = true;
script.type = 'text/javascript';
script.onerror = function(){
var host = window.location.host;
var pathName = window.location.pathname;
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.async = true;
script.type = 'text/javascript';
script.src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/some_bucket/some_default_file.js";
var node = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
node.parentNode.insertBefore(script, node);
}
script.src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/some_bucket/"+host+pathName+".js;
var node = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
node.parentNode.insertBefore(script, node);
})();

Use script.onerror:
var pathName = window.location.pathname;
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.async = true;
script.type = 'text/javascript';
script.onerror = function() {
console.log('script failed to load');
};
script.src = "https://s3.amazonaws.com/some_bucket/" + host + pathName + ".js";
var node = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
node.parentNode.insertBefore(script, node);

Asynchronous Script Loading Callback

http://jsfiddle.net/JamesKyle/HQDu6/
I've created a short function based on Mathias Bynens Optimization of the Google Analytics asynchronous script that goes as following:
function async(src) {
var d = document, t = 'script',
o = d.createElement(t),
s = d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0];
o.src = '//' + src;
s.parentNode.insertBefore(o, s);
}
This works great and I've already started using it for several different scripts
// Crazy Egg
async('dnn506yrbagrg.cloudfront.net/pages/scripts/XXXXX/XXXXX.js?' + Math.floor(new Date().getTime() / 3600000));
// User Voice
var uvOptions = {};
async('widget.uservoice.com/XXXXX.js');
// Google Analytics
var _gaq = [['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-XX'], ['_setDomainName', 'coachup.com'], ['_trackPageview']];
async('google-analytics.com/ga.js');
// Stripe
async('js.stripe.com/v1');​
The problem comes when I encounter a script that needs to be called after it's loaded:
// Snap Engage
async('snapabug.appspot.com/snapabug.js');
SnapABug.init('XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX');
So I figured I'd turn this into a callback function that would be used as so:
async('snapabug.appspot.com/snapabug.js', function() {
SnapABug.init('XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX');
});
I did not expect that this would be difficult for me to do but it has turned out that way.
My question is what is the most efficient way to add a callback without overcomplicating the code.
See the jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/JamesKyle/HQDu6/

Thanks RASG for https://stackoverflow.com/a/3211647/982924
Async function with callback:
function async(u, c) {
var d = document, t = 'script',
o = d.createElement(t),
s = d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0];
o.src = '//' + u;
if (c) { o.addEventListener('load', function (e) { c(null, e); }, false); }
s.parentNode.insertBefore(o, s);
}
Usage:
async('snapabug.appspot.com/snapabug.js', function() {
SnapABug.init('XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX');
});
jsFiddle

A more recent snippet:
async function loadAsync(src) {
const script = document.createElement('script');
script.src = src;
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
script.onreadystatechange = function () {
if (script.readyState === 'loaded' || script.readyState === 'complete') {
script.onreadystatechange = null;
resolve(true);
}
};
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);
});
}
utilisation
loadAsync(`https://....js`).then(_ => {
// ... script loaded here
})
James Kyle's answer doesn't take IE9 into account. Here is a modified version of the code I found in the link proposed in the comments. Modify the var baseUrl so it can find the script accordingly.
//for requiring a script loaded asynchronously.
function loadAsync(src, callback, relative){
var baseUrl = "/resources/script/";
var script = document.createElement('script');
if(relative === true){
script.src = baseUrl + src;
}else{
script.src = src;
}
if(callback !== null){
if (script.readyState) { // IE, incl. IE9
script.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (script.readyState === "loaded" || script.readyState === "complete") {
script.onreadystatechange = null;
callback();
}
};
} else {
script.onload = function() { // Other browsers
callback();
};
}
}
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);
}
utilisation:
loadAsync('https://www.gstatic.com/charts/loader.js' , function(){
chart.loadCharts();
});
// OR relative path
loadAsync('fastclick.js', null, true);

The other answers works well, but aren't super readable or require Promises. Here is my two cents:
function loadScript(src, callback) {
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.setAttribute('src', src);
script.addEventListener('load', callback);
document.head.appendChild(script);
},

Load External JavaScript File

I am trying to load an external javascript file from within javascript but I cannot seem to get it to work. Am I doing something wrong?
sample file of my work
function loadJs() {
var fileref=document.createElement('script')
fileref.setAttribute("type","text/javascript")
fileref.setAttribute("src", "https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js")
document.body.appendChild(fileref); }

Perhaps you are trying to access the jQuery API before it is fully loaded. You can add a callback parameter to the loadJs function like this:
function loadJs(src, callback) {
var s = document.createElement('script');
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(s);
s.onload = function() {
//callback if existent.
if (typeof callback == "function") callback();
callback = null;
}
s.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (s.readyState == 4 || s.readyState == "complete") {
if (typeof callback == "function") callback();
callback = null; // Wipe callback, to prevent multiple calls.
}
}
s.src = src;
}
loadJs('https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js', function() {
$('body').append('<p>It works!</p>');
});
Tested in chrome, FF, ie8. Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/Umwbx/2/

Use code similar to this:
function loadJs() {
var s = document.createElement('script');
var c = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
s.type = 'text/javascript';
s.src = 'https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js';
c.parentNode.insertBefore(s, c);
}

Dynamically load additional Javascript source files with createElement();

I have to load some script source dynamically. Since I can not use jQuery and did not know about the XmlHttpRequest+eval method, I tried to do it this way:
API.prototype.initCallback = null;
API.prototype.sourceLoadCnt = 0;
API.prototype.sourceReady = function () {
this.sourceLoadCnt--;
if(this.sourceLoadCnt===0){
this.initCallback(); //if all sources loaded
}
}
API.prototype.init = function (callback) {
this.initCallback = callback;
var _this = this;
var js = "../../js/";
var script1 = document.createElement('script');
script1.type = 'text/javascript';
script1.src = js+'script1.js';
this.sourceLoadCnt++;
script1.onload = function(){ _this.sourceReady() };
var script2 = document.createElement('script');
script2.type = 'text/javascript';
script2.src = js+'script2.js';
this.sourceLoadCnt++;
script2.onload = function(){ _this.sourceReady() };
var css1 = document.createElement('link');
css1.type = 'text/css';
css1.rel = 'stylesheet';
css1.href = 'style.css';
css1.media = 'screen';
this.sourceLoadCnt++;
css1.onload = function(){ _this.sourceReady() };
head.appendChild(script1);
head.appendChild(script2);
head.appendChild(css1);
};
My problem is, that the sourceReady-function is called only once.
I still could change everything to load it via XmlHttpRequest but I am curious why my way isn't working. Does anyone have an idea?

It might be because API.prototype.sourceLoadCnt should not exist, it should be an instance variable that lives on this.
The way you have coded it now will only work if you only have a single instance, and if you only have a single instance, going the oob/prototype way seems like a design failure.