'onload' handler for 'script' tag in internet explorer

Nikita Rybak picture Nikita Rybak · Jan 30, 2011 · Viewed 60.5k times · Source

I've been using this function to attach onload handler to a script tag, it seems to be the recommended way over the internet.
Yet, it doesn't work in internet explorer, if page is loaded already (tested in ie 8). You can see that it works in normal browsers (fires alert when script is loaded).

Am I missing something?
Thank you

Answer

SLaks picture SLaks · Jan 30, 2011

You should call jQuery.getScript, which does exactly what you're looking for.

EDIT: Here is the relevant source code from jQuery:

var head = document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0] || document.documentElement;
var script = document.createElement("script");
if ( s.scriptCharset ) {
    script.charset = s.scriptCharset;
}
script.src = s.url;

// Handle Script loading
    var done = false;

// Attach handlers for all browsers
script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = function() {
    if ( !done && (!this.readyState ||
            this.readyState === "loaded" || this.readyState === "complete") ) {
        done = true;
        jQuery.handleSuccess( s, xhr, status, data );
        jQuery.handleComplete( s, xhr, status, data );

        // Handle memory leak in IE
        script.onload = script.onreadystatechange = null;
        if ( head && script.parentNode ) {
            head.removeChild( script );
        }
    }
};

// Use insertBefore instead of appendChild  to circumvent an IE6 bug.
// This arises when a base node is used (#2709 and #4378).
head.insertBefore( script, head.firstChild );