Question

I want to load a Javascript file and execute it, using AJAX. I’m aware of solutions like jQuery’s .getScript(), but I do not want to use any library! I’m also aware of writing <script> elements to the DOM, but as I said, I’m trying to achieve this with AJAX.

Here’s a slimmed down version of my tries:

var http;
if(window.XMLHttpRequest){
    http=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
http.open('get','libs/teh-lib.js',false);
http.onreadystatechange=function(){
    if(http.readyState==4 && http.status==200){
        alert(http.responseText);
    }
}

Firebug shows the requests succeed, the right file is accessed, and a HTTP status 200 is shown. But the response seems to be empty. http.responseType and http.response seem to be empty, too. I also tried eval(http.responseText).

Answer 1

but as I said, I’m trying to achieve this with AJAX.

Ajax is simply not the method for this – all it can do for you is fetch data, which you would then have to run through eval() to get them executed.

Creating a new script element in the DOM is really the natural way to go here.