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inserting jquery into js file

I have a js file that in which i want to include jquery. in order to include the jquery script i am using this clode:
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.src = 'https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js';
script.type = 'text/javascript';
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);
this works, I can see that incuded the script correctly. My inspector shows that it loaded the script but jquery wont work.
any ideas?

You need to make sure the script you are dynamically loading is actually loaded before attempting to use it.
To do so, use script.onload to fire a callback once the load is completed.
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.src = 'https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js';
script.type = 'text/javascript';
document.getElementsByTagName('head') [0].appendChild(script);
script.onload = function () {
/* jquery dependent code here */
console.log($);
};
MDN has an example that's more adaptable to a callback you specify -
// from https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLScriptElement#Dynamically_importing_scripts
function loadError (oError) {
throw new URIError("The script " + oError.target.src + " is not accessible.");
}
function importScript (sSrc, fOnload) {
var oScript = document.createElement("script");
oScript.type = "text\/javascript";
oScript.onerror = loadError;
if (fOnload) { oScript.onload = fOnload; }
document.currentScript.parentNode.insertBefore(oScript, document.currentScript);
oScript.src = sSrc;
}

Your jQuery code is not working may be caused by jQuery is not loaded yet while browser executing your jQuery code. Use function below to dynamically load jQuery with callback. Put your jQuery code inside a callback function.
function loadScript(url, callback) {
var s = document.createElement('script');
s.type = 'text/javascript';
s.src = url;
if (typeof(callback) === 'function') {
s.onload = s.onreadystatechange = function(event) {
event = event || window.event;
if (event.type === "load" || (/loaded|complete/.test(s.readyState))) {
s.onload = s.onreadystatechange = null;
callback();
}
};
}
document.body.appendChild(s);
}
/* Load up jQuery */
loadScript('https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js', function() {
// Put your jQuery code here.
});

You need to include jQuery inside the HTML code. jQuery won't work for you because your script is loaded before jQuery is loaded.

load scripts asynchronously

I am using several plugins, custom widgets and some other libraries from JQuery. as a result I have several .js and .css files. I need to create a loader for my site because it takes some time to load. it will be nice if I can display the loader before importing all the:
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-1.6.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/myFunctions.js"></script>
<link type="text/css" href="css/main.css" rel="stylesheet" />
...
....
etc
I have found several tutorials that enable me to import a JavaScript library asynchronously. for example I can do something like:
(function () {
var s = document.createElement('script');
s.type = 'text/javascript';
s.async = true;
s.src = 'js/jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js';
var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
})();
for some reason when I do the same thing for all my files the pages does not work. I have been trying for so long to try to find where the problem is but I just cannot find it. First I thought that it was probably because some javascript functions depended on the others. but I loaded them in the right order using the time out function when one completed I proceeded with the next and the page still behaves weird. for example I am not able to click on links etc... animations still work though..
Anyways
Here is what I have been thinking... I believe browsers have a cache that's why it takes a long time to load the page for the first time and the next time it is quick. so what I am thinking of doing is replacing my index.html page with a page that loads all this files asynchronously. when ajax is done loading all those files redirect to the page that I plan on using. when using that page it should not take long to load since the files should alredy be included on the cache of the browser. on my index page (page where .js and .css file get loaded asynchronously) I don't care of getting errors. I will just be displaying a loader and redirecting the page when done...
Is this idea a good alternative? or should I keep trying on implementing the asynchronously methods?
EDIT
the way I load everything async is like:
importScripts();
function importScripts()
{
//import: jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js
getContent("js/jquery-1.6.2.min.js",function (code) {
var s = document.createElement('script');
s.type = 'text/javascript';
//s.async = true;
s.innerHTML=code;
var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
setTimeout(insertNext1,1);
});
//import: jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js
function insertNext1()
{
getContent("js/jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js",function (code) {
var s = document.createElement('script');
s.type = 'text/javascript';
s.innerHTML=code;
var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
setTimeout(insertNext2,1);
});
}
//import: jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.css
function insertNext2()
{
getContent("css/custom-theme/jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.css",function (code) {
var s = document.createElement('link');
s.type = 'text/css';
s.rel ="stylesheet";
s.innerHTML=code;
var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
setTimeout(insertNext3,1);
});
}
//import: main.css
function insertNext3()
{
getContent("css/main.css",function (code) {
var s = document.createElement('link');
s.type = 'text/css';
s.rel ="stylesheet";
s.innerHTML=code;
var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
setTimeout(insertNext4,1);
});
}
//import: jquery.imgpreload.min.js
function insertNext4()
{
getContent("js/farinspace/jquery.imgpreload.min.js",function (code) {
var s = document.createElement('script');
s.type = 'text/javascript';
s.innerHTML=code;
var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
setTimeout(insertNext5,1);
});
}
//import: marquee.js
function insertNext5()
{
getContent("js/marquee.js",function (code) {
var s = document.createElement('script');
s.type = 'text/javascript';
s.innerHTML=code;
var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
setTimeout(insertNext6,1);
});
}
//import: marquee.css
function insertNext6()
{
getContent("css/marquee.css",function (code) {
var s = document.createElement('link');
s.type = 'text/css';
s.rel ="stylesheet";
s.innerHTML=code;
var x = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
setTimeout(insertNext,1);
});
}
function insertNext()
{
setTimeout(pageReadyMan,10);
}
}
// get the content of url and pass that content to specified function
function getContent( url, callBackFunction )
{
// attempt to create the XMLHttpRequest and make the request
try
{
var asyncRequest; // variable to hold XMLHttpRequest object
asyncRequest = new XMLHttpRequest(); // create request object
// register event handler
asyncRequest.onreadystatechange = function(){
stateChange(asyncRequest, callBackFunction);
}
asyncRequest.open( 'GET', url, true ); // prepare the request
asyncRequest.send( null ); // send the request
} // end try
catch ( exception )
{
alert( 'Request failed.' );
} // end catch
} // end function getContent
// call function whith content when ready
function stateChange(asyncRequest, callBackFunction)
{
if ( asyncRequest.readyState == 4 && asyncRequest.status == 200 )
{
callBackFunction(asyncRequest.responseText);
} // end if
} // end function stateChange
and the weird part is that all the style's work plus all the javascript functions. the page is frozen for some reason though...

A couple solutions for async loading:
//this function will work cross-browser for loading scripts asynchronously
function loadScript(src, callback)
{
var s,
r,
t;
r = false;
s = document.createElement('script');
s.type = 'text/javascript';
s.src = src;
s.onload = s.onreadystatechange = function() {
//console.log( this.readyState ); //uncomment this line to see which ready states are called.
if ( !r && (!this.readyState || this.readyState == 'complete') )
{
r = true;
callback();
}
};
t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t);
}
If you've already got jQuery on the page, just use:
$.getScript(url, successCallback)*
Additionally, it's possible that your scripts are being loaded/executed before the document is done loading, meaning that you'd need to wait for document.ready before events can be bound to the elements.
It's not possible to tell specifically what your issue is without seeing the code.
The simplest solution is to keep all of your scripts inline at the bottom of the page, that way they don't block the loading of HTML content while they execute. It also avoids the issue of having to asynchronously load each required script.
If you have a particularly fancy interaction that isn't always used that requires a larger script of some sort, it could be useful to avoid loading that particular script until it's needed (lazy loading).
* scripts loaded with $.getScript will likely not be cached
For anyone who can use modern features such as the Promise object, the loadScript function has become significantly simpler:
function loadScript(src) {
return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
var s;
s = document.createElement('script');
s.src = src;
s.onload = resolve;
s.onerror = reject;
document.head.appendChild(s);
});
}
Be aware that this version no longer accepts a callback argument as the returned promise will handle callback. What previously would have been loadScript(src, callback) would now be loadScript(src).then(callback).
This has the added bonus of being able to detect and handle failures, for example one could call...
loadScript(cdnSource)
.catch(loadScript.bind(null, localSource))
.then(successCallback, failureCallback);
...and it would handle CDN outages gracefully.

HTML5's new 'async' attribute is supposed to do the trick. 'defer' is also supported in most browsers if you care about IE.
async - The HTML
<script async src="siteScript.js" onload="myInit()"></script>
defer - The HTML
<script defer src="siteScript.js" onload="myInit()"></script>
While analyzing the new adsense ad unit code I noticed the attribute and a search lead me here: http://davidwalsh.name/html5-async

I loaded the scripts asynchronously (html 5 has that feature) when all the scripts where done loading I redirected the page to index2.html where index2.html uses the same libraries. Because browsers have a cache once the page redirects to index2.html, index2.html loads in less than a second because it has all it needs to load the page. In my index.html page I also load the images that I plan on using so that the browser place those images on the cache. so my index.html looks like:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Project Management</title>
<!-- the purpose of this page is to load all the scripts on the browsers cache so that pages can load fast from now on -->
<script type="text/javascript">
function stylesheet(url) {
var s = document.createElement('link');
s.type = 'text/css';
s.async = true;
s.src = url;
var x = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
x.appendChild(s);
}
function script(url) {
var s = document.createElement('script');
s.type = 'text/javascript';
s.async = true;
s.src = url;
var x = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
x.appendChild(s);
}
//load scritps to the catche of browser
(function () {
stylesheet('css/custom-theme/jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.css');
stylesheet('css/main.css');
stylesheet('css/marquee.css');
stylesheet('css/mainTable.css');
script('js/jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js');
script('js/jquery-1.6.2.min.js');
script('js/myFunctions.js');
script('js/farinspace/jquery.imgpreload.min.js');
script('js/marquee.js');
})();
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// once the page is loaded go to index2.html
window.onload = function () {
document.location = "index2.html";
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="cover" style="position:fixed; left:0px; top:0px; width:100%; height:100%; background-color:Black; z-index:100;">Loading</div>
<img src="images/home/background.png" />
<img src="images/home/3.png"/>
<img src="images/home/6.jpg"/>
<img src="images/home/4.png"/>
<img src="images/home/5.png"/>
<img src="images/home/8.jpg"/>
<img src="images/home/9.jpg"/>
<img src="images/logo.png"/>
<img src="images/logo.png"/>
<img src="images/theme/contentBorder.png"/>
</body>
</html>
another nice thing about this is that I may place a loader in the page and when the page is done loading the loader will go away and in a matte of milliseconds the new page will be running.

Example from google
<script type="text/javascript">
(function() {
var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true;
po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js?onload=onLoadCallback';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s);
})();
</script>

Several notes:
s.async = true is not very correct for HTML5 doctype, correct is s.async = 'async' (actually using true is correct, thanks to amn who pointed it out in the comment just below)
Using timeouts to control the order is not very good and safe, and you also make the loading time much larger, to equal the sum of all timeouts!
Since there is a recent reason to load files asynchronously, but in order, I'd recommend a bit more functional-driven way over your example (remove console.log for production use :) ):
(function() {
var prot = ("https:"===document.location.protocol?"https://":"http://");
var scripts = [
"path/to/first.js",
"path/to/second.js",
"path/to/third.js"
];
function completed() { console.log('completed'); } // FIXME: remove logs
function checkStateAndCall(path, callback) {
var _success = false;
return function() {
if (!_success && (!this.readyState || (this.readyState == 'complete'))) {
_success = true;
console.log(path, 'is ready'); // FIXME: remove logs
callback();
}
};
}
function asyncLoadScripts(files) {
function loadNext() { // chain element
if (!files.length) completed();
var path = files.shift();
var scriptElm = document.createElement('script');
scriptElm.type = 'text/javascript';
scriptElm.async = true;
scriptElm.src = prot+path;
scriptElm.onload = scriptElm.onreadystatechange = \
checkStateAndCall(path, loadNext); // load next file in chain when
// this one will be ready
var headElm = document.head || document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
headElm.appendChild(scriptElm);
}
loadNext(); // start a chain
}
asyncLoadScripts(scripts);
})();

Thanks to HTML5, you can now declare the scripts that you want to load asynchronously by adding "async" in the tag:
<script async>...</script>
Note: The async attribute is only for external scripts (and should only be used if the src attribute is present).
Note: There are several ways an external script can be executed:
If async is present: The script is executed asynchronously with the rest of the page (the script will be executed while the page continues the parsing)
If async is not present and defer is present: The script is executed when the page has finished parsing
If neither async or defer is present: The script is fetched and executed immediately, before the browser continues parsing the page
See this: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_script_async.asp

I wrote a little post to help out with this, you can read more here https://timber.io/snippets/asynchronously-load-a-script-in-the-browser-with-javascript/, but I've attached the helper class below. It will automatically wait for a script to load and return a specified window attribute once it does.
export default class ScriptLoader {
constructor (options) {
const { src, global, protocol = document.location.protocol } = options
this.src = src
this.global = global
this.protocol = protocol
this.isLoaded = false
}
loadScript () {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
// Create script element and set attributes
const script = document.createElement('script')
script.type = 'text/javascript'
script.async = true
script.src = `${this.protocol}//${this.src}`
// Append the script to the DOM
const el = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]
el.parentNode.insertBefore(script, el)
// Resolve the promise once the script is loaded
script.addEventListener('load', () => {
this.isLoaded = true
resolve(script)
})
// Catch any errors while loading the script
script.addEventListener('error', () => {
reject(new Error(`${this.src} failed to load.`))
})
})
}
load () {
return new Promise(async (resolve, reject) => {
if (!this.isLoaded) {
try {
await this.loadScript()
resolve(window[this.global])
} catch (e) {
reject(e)
}
} else {
resolve(window[this.global])
}
})
}
}
Usage is like this:
const loader = new Loader({
src: 'cdn.segment.com/analytics.js',
global: 'Segment',
})
// scriptToLoad will now be a reference to `window.Segment`
const scriptToLoad = await loader.load()

I would complete zzzzBov's answer with a check for the presence of callback and allow passing of arguments:
function loadScript(src, callback, args) {
var s, r, t;
r = false;
s = document.createElement('script');
s.type = 'text/javascript';
s.src = src;
if (typeof(callback) === 'function') {
s.onload = s.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (!r && (!this.readyState || this.readyState === 'complete')) {
r = true;
callback.apply(args);
}
};
};
t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
t.parent.insertBefore(s, t);
}

Here is a great contemporary solution to the asynchronous script loading though it only address the js script with async false.
There is a great article written in www.html5rocks.com - Deep dive into the murky waters of script loading .
After considering many possible solutions, the author concluded that adding js scripts to the end of body element is the best possible way to avoid blocking page rendering by js scripts.
In the mean time, the author added another good alternate solution for those people who are desperate to load and execute scripts asynchronously.
Considering you've four scripts named script1.js, script2.js, script3.js, script4.js then you can do it with applying async = false:
[
'script1.js',
'script2.js',
'script3.js',
'script4.js'
].forEach(function(src) {
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.src = src;
script.async = false;
document.head.appendChild(script);
});
Now, Spec says: Download together, execute in order as soon as all download.
Firefox < 3.6, Opera says: I have no idea what this “async” thing is, but it just so happens I execute scripts added via JS in the order they’re added.
Safari 5.0 says: I understand “async”, but don’t understand setting it to “false” with JS. I’ll execute your scripts as soon as they land, in whatever order.
IE < 10 says: No idea about “async”, but there is a workaround using “onreadystatechange”.
Everything else says: I’m your friend, we’re going to do this by the book.
Now, the full code with IE < 10 workaround:
var scripts = [
'script1.js',
'script2.js',
'script3.js',
'script4.js'
];
var src;
var script;
var pendingScripts = [];
var firstScript = document.scripts[0];
// Watch scripts load in IE
function stateChange() {
// Execute as many scripts in order as we can
var pendingScript;
while (pendingScripts[0] && ( pendingScripts[0].readyState == 'loaded' || pendingScripts[0].readyState == 'complete' ) ) {
pendingScript = pendingScripts.shift();
// avoid future loading events from this script (eg, if src changes)
pendingScript.onreadystatechange = null;
// can't just appendChild, old IE bug if element isn't closed
firstScript.parentNode.insertBefore(pendingScript, firstScript);
}
}
// loop through our script urls
while (src = scripts.shift()) {
if ('async' in firstScript) { // modern browsers
script = document.createElement('script');
script.async = false;
script.src = src;
document.head.appendChild(script);
}
else if (firstScript.readyState) { // IE<10
// create a script and add it to our todo pile
script = document.createElement('script');
pendingScripts.push(script);
// listen for state changes
script.onreadystatechange = stateChange;
// must set src AFTER adding onreadystatechange listener
// else we’ll miss the loaded event for cached scripts
script.src = src;
}
else { // fall back to defer
document.write('<script src="' + src + '" defer></'+'script>');
}
}

for HTML5, you can use the 'prefetch'
<link rel="prefetch" href="/style.css" as="style" />
have a look at 'preload' for js.
<link rel="preload" href="used-later.js" as="script">

One reason why your scripts could be loading so slowly is if you were running all of your scripts while loading the page, like this:
callMyFunctions();
instead of:
$(window).load(function() {
callMyFunctions();
});
This second bit of script waits until the browser has completely loaded all of your Javascript code before it starts executing any of your scripts, making it appear to the user that the page has loaded faster.
If you're looking to enhance the user's experience by decreasing the loading time, I wouldn't go for the "loading screen" option. In my opinion that would be much more annoying than just having the page load more slowly.

I would suggest you take a look at Modernizr. Its a small light weight library that you can asynchronously load your javascript with features that allow you to check if the file is loaded and execute the script in the other you specify.
Here is an example of loading jquery:
Modernizr.load([
{
load: '//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.1/jquery.js',
complete: function () {
if ( !window.jQuery ) {
Modernizr.load('js/libs/jquery-1.6.1.min.js');
}
}
},
{
// This will wait for the fallback to load and
// execute if it needs to.
load: 'needs-jQuery.js'
}
]);

You might find this wiki article interesting : http://ajaxpatterns.org/On-Demand_Javascript
It explains how and when to use such technique.

Well, x.parentNode returns the HEAD element, so you are inserting the script just before the head tag. Maybe that's the problem.
Try x.parentNode.appendChild() instead.

Check out this https://github.com/stephen-lazarionok/async-resource-loader. It has an example that shows how to load JS, CSS and multiple files with one shot.

Have you considered using Fetch Injection? I rolled an open source library called fetch-inject to handle cases like these. Here's what your loader might look like using the lib:
fetcInject([
'js/jquery-1.6.2.min.js',
'js/marquee.js',
'css/marquee.css',
'css/custom-theme/jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.css',
'css/main.css'
]).then(() => {
'js/jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js',
'js/farinspace/jquery.imgpreload.min.js'
})
For backwards compatibility leverage feature detection and fall-back to XHR Injection or Script DOM Elements, or simply inline the tags into the page using document.write.

Here is my custom solution to eliminate render-blocking JavaScript:
// put all your JS files here, in correct order
const libs = {
"jquery": "https://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.4.min.js",
"bxSlider": "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/bxslider/4.2.5/jquery.bxslider.min.js",
"angular": "https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.5.0-beta.2/angular.min.js",
"ngAnimate": "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/angular.js/1.5.0-beta.2/angular-animate.min.js"
}
const loadedLibs = {}
let counter = 0
const loadAsync = function(lib) {
var http = new XMLHttpRequest()
http.open("GET", libs[lib], true)
http.onload = () => {
loadedLibs[lib] = http.responseText
if (++counter == Object.keys(libs).length) startScripts()
}
http.send()
}
const startScripts = function() {
for (var lib in libs) eval(loadedLibs[lib])
console.log("allLoaded")
}
for (var lib in libs) loadAsync(lib)
In short, it loads all your scripts asynchronously, and then executes them consequently.
Github repo: https://github.com/mudroljub/js-async-loader

Here a little ES6 function if somebody wants to use it in React for example
import {uniqueId} from 'lodash' // optional
/**
* #param {String} file The path of the file you want to load.
* #param {Function} callback (optional) The function to call when the script loads.
* #param {String} id (optional) The unique id of the file you want to load.
*/
export const loadAsyncScript = (file, callback, id) => {
const d = document
if (!id) { id = uniqueId('async_script') } // optional
if (!d.getElementById(id)) {
const tag = 'script'
let newScript = d.createElement(tag)
let firstScript = d.getElementsByTagName(tag)[0]
newScript.id = id
newScript.async = true
newScript.src = file
if (callback) {
// IE support
newScript.onreadystatechange = () => {
if (newScript.readyState === 'loaded' || newScript.readyState === 'complete') {
newScript.onreadystatechange = null
callback(file)
}
}
// Other (non-IE) browsers support
newScript.onload = () => {
callback(file)
}
}
firstScript.parentNode.insertBefore(newScript, firstScript)
} else {
console.error(`The script with id ${id} is already loaded`)
}
}

A concise answer, the explanations in the code
function loadScript(src) {
let script = document.createElement('script');
script.type = 'text/javascript';
script.src = src;
//
// script.async = false; // uncomment this line and scripts will be executed in the document order, like 'defer' option
//
// script.defer = true; // uncomment this line when scripts need whole DOM and/or relative order execution is important
//
// the script starts loading as it's append to the document and dynamic script behave as “async” by default
// other scripts don’t wait for 'async' scripts, and 'async' scripts don’t wait for them
// scripts that loads first – runs first (“load-first” order)
document.body.append(script);
}
loadScript('js/example01.js');
loadScript('js/example02.js');
/*
the 'defer' attribute tells the browser not to wait for the script
the 'async' attribute make script to load in the background and run when ready
the 'async' and 'defer' attribute are only for external scripts
'defer' is used for scripts that need the whole DOM and/or their relative execution order is important
'async' is used for independent scripts, like counters or ads, when their relative execution order does not matter
More: https://javascript.info/script-async-defer
*/

You can use LABJS or RequreJS
Script loaders like LABJS, RequireJS will improve the speed and quality of your code.

const dynamicScriptLoading = async (src) =>
{
const response = await fetch(src);
const dataResponse = await response.text();
eval.apply(null, [dataResponse]);
}

I would suggest looking into minifying the files first and see if that gives you a big enough speed boost. If your host is slow, could try putting that static content on a CDN.

How can I load jQuery if it is not already loaded?

I have a initializor.js that contains the following:
if(typeof jQuery=='undefined')
{
var headTag = document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0];
var jqTag = document.createElement('script');
jqTag.type = 'text/javascript';
jqTag.src = 'jquery.js';
headTag.appendChild(jqTag);
}
I am then including that file somewhere on another page. The code checks if jQuery is loaded, and if it isn't, adds it to the Head tag.
However, jQuery is not initializing, because in my main document, I have a few events declared just to test this. I also tried writing some jQuery code below the check, and Firebug said:
"jQuery is undefined".
Is there a way to do this? Firebug shows the jquery inclusion tag within the head tag!
Also, can I dynamically add code into the $(document).ready() event? Or wouldn't it be necessary just to add some Click events to a few elements?

jQuery is not available immediately as you are loading it asynchronously (by appending it to the <head>). You would have to add an onload listener to the script (jqTag) to detect when it loads and then run your code.
e.g.
function myJQueryCode() {
//Do stuff with jQuery
}
if(typeof jQuery=='undefined') {
var headTag = document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0];
var jqTag = document.createElement('script');
jqTag.type = 'text/javascript';
jqTag.src = 'jquery.js';
jqTag.onload = myJQueryCode;
headTag.appendChild(jqTag);
} else {
myJQueryCode();
}

To include jQuery you should use this:
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.2.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>window.jQuery || document.write('<script src="jquery.js">\x3C/script>')</script>
it uses the Google CDN but provides a fallback an has a protocol relative URL.
Note: Be sure to change the version number to the latest version
if window.jQuery is defined, it will not continue to read the line since it is an or that already contains a true value, if not it wil (document.)write the value
see: theHTML5Boilerplate
also: you forgot the quotes, if jQuery is not defined:
typeof window.jQuery === "undefined" //true
typeof window.jQuery == undefined //false ,this is wrong
you could also:
window.jQuery === undefined //true

If you're in an async function, you could use await like this:
if(!window.jQuery){
let script = document.createElement('script');
document.head.appendChild(script);
script.type = 'text/javascript';
script.src = "//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.1.0/jquery.min.js";
await script.onload
}
/* Your jQuery code here */
If you're not, you can use (async function(){/*all the code*/})() to wrap and run all the code inside one
.
Alternatively, refactoring Adam Heath's answer (this is more readable IMO). Bottom line, you need to run the jQuery code AFTER jQuery finished loading.
jQueryCode = function(){
// your jQuery code
}
if(window.jQuery) jQueryCode();
else{
var script = document.createElement('script');
document.head.appendChild(script);
script.type = 'text/javascript';
script.src = "//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.1.0/jquery.min.js";
script.onload = jQueryCode;
}
Or you could also wrap it in a function to change the order of the code
function runWithJQuery(jQueryCode){
if(window.jQuery) jQueryCode();
else{
var script = document.createElement('script');
document.head.appendChild(script);
script.type = 'text/javascript';
script.src = "//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.1.0/jquery.min.js";
script.onload = jQueryCode;
}
}
runWithJQuery(function jQueryCode(){
// your jQuery code
})

The YepNope loader can be used to conditionally load scripts, has quite a nice, easy to read syntax, they have an example of just this on their website.
You can get it from their website.
Example taken from their website:
yepnope([{
load: 'http:/­/ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js',
complete: function () {
if (!window.jQuery) {
yepnope('local/jquery.min.js');
}
}
}

This site code is solved my problem.
function loadjQuery(url, success){
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.src = url;
var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0],
done = false;
head.appendChild(script);
// Attach handlers for all browsers
script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (!done && (!this.readyState || this.readyState == 'loaded' || this.readyState == 'complete')) {
done = true;
success();
script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = null;
head.removeChild(script);
}
};
}
if (typeof jQuery == 'undefined'){
loadjQuery('http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.min.js', function() {
// Write your jQuery Code
});
} else {
// jQuery was already loaded
// Write your jQuery Code
}
http://99webtools.com/blog/load-jquery-if-not-already-loaded/

This is old post but I create one workable solution tested on various places.
Here is the code.
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(url, position, callback){
// default values
url = url || 'https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js';
position = position || 0;
// Check is jQuery exists
if (!window.jQuery) {
// Initialize <head>
var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
// Create <script> element
var script = document.createElement("script");
// Append URL
script.src = url;
// Append type
script.type = 'text/javascript';
// Append script to <head>
head.appendChild(script);
// Move script on proper position
head.insertBefore(script,head.childNodes[position]);
script.onload = function(){
if(typeof callback == 'function') {
callback(jQuery);
}
};
} else {
if(typeof callback == 'function') {
callback(jQuery);
}
}
}('https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.12.4/jquery.min.js', 5, function($){
console.log($);
}));
</script>
Explanation you can find HERE.

accessing a variable from dynamically loaded external javascript file

I have an external js file being loaded (which I cannot modify) with document.createElement() and I need to access a variable from it. The problem is, I don't know when does it finish loading. I tried jQuery's document ready function but it seems to deploy sooner than the javascript file. I am able to access the variable like this though:
setTimeout("console.log(swifttagdiv.firstChild.firstChild.src)", 5000);
but this is just a test to see if the variable is global. Any ideas?

You can inject the script by using Javascript instead of putting it in your page. This way you can control when it is loaded.
Here's a function I use to inject code in pages dynamically:
function inject(src, cb, target){
target = target || document.body;
var s = document.createElement('SCRIPT');
s.charset = 'UTF-8';
if(typeof cb === 'function'){
s.onload = function(){
cb(s);
};
s.onreadystatechange = function () {
(/loaded|complete/).test(s.readyState) && cb(s);
};
}
s.src = src;
target.appendChild(s);
return s;
}
to use it:
inject('/path/to/file.js', function(script){
//your code here
})

var checkvarint = setInterval(function(){
if(swifttagdiv.firstChild.firstChild.src){
varLoaded(); clearInterval(checkvarint);
}
},10);
function varLoaded(){
alert("LOADED!");
alert(swifttagdiv.firstChild.firstChild.src);
}

Mic's answer is great.
Here is the same thing only less abstracted, perhaps it will be instructive
var scriptElement = document.createElement( 'script' );
scriptElement.type = "text/javascript";
scriptElement.src = "https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/ext-core/3.1.0/ext-core-debug.js";
function loadHandler() {
alert( 'loaded' );
}
// for ie
scriptElement.onreadystatechange = function () {
if( this.readyState == 'complete' ){
loadHandler();
}
}
// for others
scriptElement.onload= loadHandler;
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild( scriptElement );

Load javascript async, then check DOM loaded before executing callback

Problem:
Load js files asynchronously, then check to see if the dom is loaded before the callback from loading the files is executed.
edit: We do not use jQuery; we use Prototype.
edit: added more comments to the code example.
I am trying to load all of my js files asynchronously so as to keep them from blocking the rest of the page. But when the scripts load and the callback is called, I need to know if the DOM has been loaded or not, so I know how to structure the callback. See below:
//load asynchronously
(function(){
var e = document.createElement('script');
e.type = "text/javascript";
e.async = true;
e.src = srcstr;
// a little magic to make the callback happen
if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Opera")){
e.text = "initPage();";
}else if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("MSIE")){
e.onreadystatechange = initPage;
}else{
e.innerHTML = "initPage();";
}
// attach the file to the document
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(e);
})();
initPageHelper = function(){
//requires DOM be loaded
}
initPage = function(){
if(domLoaded){ // if dom is already loaded, just call the function
initPageHelper();
}else{ //if dom is not loaded, attach the function to be run when it does load
document.observe("dom:loaded", initPageHelper);
}
}
The callback gets called properly due to some magic behind the scenes that you can learn about from this Google talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52gL93S3usU&feature=related
What's the easiest, cross-browser method for asking if the DOM has loaded already?
EDIT
Here's the full solution I went with.
I included prototype and the asynchronous script loader using the normal method. Life is just so much easier with prototype, so I'm willing to block for that script.
<script type="text/javascript" src="prototype/prototype.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="asyncLoader.js"></script>
And actually, in my code I minified the two files above and put them together into one file to minimize transfer time and http requests.
Then I define what I want to run when the DOM loads, and then call the function to load the other scripts.
<script type="text/javascript">
initPage = function(){
...
}
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
loadScriptAsync("scriptaculous/scriptaculous.js", initPage);
loadScriptAsync("scriptaculous/effects.js", initPage);
loadScriptAsync("scriptaculous/controls.js", initPage);
...
loadScriptAsync("mypage.js", initPage);
</script>
Likewise, the requests above are actually compressed into one httpRequest using a minifier. They are left separate here for readability. There is a snippet at the bottom of this post showing what the code looks like with the minifier.
The code for asyncLoader.js is the following:
/**
* Allows you to load js files asynchronously, with a callback that can be
* called immediately after the script loads, OR after the script loads and
* after the DOM is loaded.
*
* Prototype.js must be loaded first.
*
* For best results, create a regular script tag that calls a minified, combined
* file that contains Prototype.js, and this file. Then all subsequent scripts
* should be loaded using this function.
*
*/
var onload_queue = [];
var dom_loaded = false;
function loadScriptAsync(src, callback, run_immediately) {
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.type = "text/javascript";
script.async = true;
script.src = src;
if("undefined" != typeof callback){
script.onload = function() {
if (dom_loaded || run_immediately)
callback();
else
onload_queue.push(callback);
// clean up for IE and Opera
script.onload = null;
script.onreadystatechange = null;
};
script.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (script.readyState == 'complete'){
if (dom_loaded || run_immediately)
callback();
else
onload_queue.push(callback);
// clean up for IE and Opera
script.onload = null;
script.onreadystatechange = null;
}else if(script.readyState == 'loaded'){
eval(script);
if (dom_loaded || run_immediately)
callback();
else
onload_queue.push(callback);
// clean up for IE and Opera
script.onload = null;
script.onreadystatechange = null;
}
};
}
var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
head.appendChild(script);
}
document.observe("dom:loaded", function(){
dom_loaded = true;
var len = onload_queue.length;
for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
onload_queue[i]();
}
onload_queue = null;
});
I added the option to run a script immediately, if you have scripts that don't rely on the page DOM being fully loaded.
The minified requests actually look like:
<script type="text/javascript" src="/min/?b=javascript/lib&f=prototype/prototype.js,asyncLoader.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript"> initPage = function(e){...}</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
srcstr = "/min/?f=<?=implode(',', $js_files)?>";
loadScriptAsync(srcstr, initPage);
</script>
They are using the plugin from: [http://code.google.com/p/minify/][1]

What you need is a simple queue of onload functions. Also please avoid browser sniffing as it is unstable and not future proof. For full source code see the [Demo]
var onload_queue = [];
var dom_loaded = false;
function loadScriptAsync(src, callback) {
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.type = "text/javascript";
script.async = true;
script.src = src;
script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (dom_loaded)
callback();
else
onload_queue.push(callback);
// clean up for IE and Opera
script.onload = null;
script.onreadystatechange = null;
};
var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
head.appendChild(script);
}
function domLoaded() {
dom_loaded = true;
var len = onload_queue.length;
for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
onload_queue[i]();
}
onload_queue = null;
};
// Dean's dom:loaded code goes here
// do stuff
domLoaded();
Test usage
loadScriptAsync(
"http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.4.4.js",
function() {
alert("script has been loaded");
}
);

You can always put your initial loader script at the bottom, right before the closing body tag.