Question

I have a page that could contain a different inner page at any specific time.

Each inner page needs a specific js file, that is being loaded dynamically using the Headjs.

To avoid collisions (of methods and object names), I would like to unload the old js file before loading a new one.

Does anyone know how to do it, or if it is even possible? Thanks!

Answer 1

No. Theoretically there’s nothing like “unload” javascript file. Once its loaded its there all the time.

But there might be other tricks to avoid “collision”, mainly clean code. some examples for your case would be
1- Usage of namespaces
2- avoid global variables
3- define everything within a scope and understand scopes
4- Use understandable descriptive variable names, avoid variables named s,i,j, etc.. unless you are used to that and know what’re doing. Also be aware since javascript files are loaded when a page is requested, so it causes extra traffic to use huge large names for variables and classes.

Lets say you have functions with same name but live in different scopes/namespace
Example:

var myclass;
if (something) myclass = Obj1;
else if (somethingelse) myclass = Obj2;
myclass.func();

so here you go, two functions with the same name, but live in different classes.and so you can switch between different implementations

Hope this helps